Pubdate: Fri, 23 May 2008 Source: Morning Star, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2008 The Morning Star Contact: http://www.vernonmorningstar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1352 Author: W. Travis MIXED MESSAGES In the not so real world we live in, the government allows and gives out medical marijuana. This was the start. Next, let's give drug addicts free needles and a safe place to shoot up their drug of choice, and now let's hand out crack pipe kits so the drug abusers will always have a clean pipe to smoke their crack with so they can get high. In the real world where I live, cigarettes are hidden behind blackened cases so teens can't see them, clean ventilated smoking rooms are shut down and smokers are banished to the far edges of town. Smokers pay taxes, have jobs and are part of this thing we call society, and because they smoke, they pay more taxes than a non-smoker. The government gets their fair share of the cigarette tax. The average smoker cannot go to the local pub order up a soft drink and sit down with friends in a clean, well-ventilated smoking room and discuss the day at work or life in general. But a drug addict can go to a nice, clean room with clean needles, clean pipes and shoot up heroin or smoke crack. What do they discuss over the crack pipe? What is wrong with this picture? Second-hand smoke is a byproduct of smoking, and yes this is bad for everyone. That is why smoking rooms are well-ventilated. It is a person's choice to enter or not. Car thefts, assaults, break-and-enters, robberies, homelessness and death are the byproducts of crack and heroin, and in this we have no choice. Where are we going with all this? You can shoot drugs, smoke crack, but not smoke a cigarette. W. Travis - --- MAP posted-by: Derek