LET THE POT PEOPLE BE, BUT BUST THE CIGARETTE SMOKERS

Re: 'Up in Smoke Cafe helps keep crime at bay' (letter, March 16)

I couldn't care less about whether people want to smoke pot -- it is
a fairly benign pursuit compared to booze, narcotics or cigarettes.
The Up in Smoke cafe provides a space for people to socialize while
enjoying their marijuana in a friendly setting.

I own a shop a couple of doors down from the cafe and do not have a
problem with pot smokers. I do believe they aren't doing their public
image any favours by hanging out all day idly smoking pot.

Most are young and unemployed and have no ambition other than
standing up for their right to smoke pot in public. Most non-pot
smokers and pot smokers who work for a living have no sympathy for
their plight.

The thing I find highly irritating with the cafe is that when
individuals want to smoke a tobacco cigarette, they do so out in
front of the cafe, blocking the sidewalk and creating a smog of
cigarette smoke that wafts into other businesses. When one asks these
loitering smokers to move away from the business entrance, they are
rude and surly.

So leave the pot smokers in the cafe alone -- bust the loitering,
rude tobacco smokers, or get them to smoke out back. It would be a
definite improvement for King Street.

Tammy Ziegler, Hamilton