Rant #2,170: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

I'm back!

June has been such a busy month for myself and my family that I can't wait for it to end already.

And tonight after a long, hard day at work, my wife and I have to go to the doctor for our regular checkups.

No, it doesn't end, does it?

But one good thing is that when they go over our medical history tonight, we can both say that we don't smoke.

To me at least, smoking is one of the most disgusting habits that human beings can have.

I cannot understand how people get addicted to leaves rolled up n a paper, but they do, and have been addicted to this "thing" for eons.

But today, we have another potential problem, and that is the prospect that each state is now contemplating or has contemplated: the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes.

Pot is already legal in several states, and while it has brought added tax revenue to these states, and certainly cut down on drug related arrests, the book is still out on the numerous problems it might have also brought to these areas, including possible increases in impaired driving and possible increases in the occurrences of diseases stemming from its more widespread use.

Closer to my home, New Jersey is in the process of legalizing its use, and New York appears the next in line to do so.

New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo are all for it, as is Sen. Charles Schumer, so with the three most powerful politicians in the state able to agree on this one subject--heaven knows that deBlasio and Cuomo, in particular, don't see eye to eye on too many issues--it is almost a given that within time, recreational use of pot will be legal in the Empire State.

I am firmly against this on several levels.

(And let me get this out of the way right away--this has nothing to do with the legalization of medical marijuana, which dispensed under a doctor's supervision, I am all for if it helps people deal with different maladies.)

Legalization would open a Pandora's Box of problems in the state, and what I want to focus on here is how it goes against the credo that the state has adopted over the past 30 or so years, that all smoking is bad.

I can't speak about any other state, but New York State has been running public service commercials for decades about the dangers of smoking.

Some are lighthearted ads aimed at handling the problem in a somewhat less than heavy way.

But others, and many of the most recent anti-smoking ads, are as graphic as perhaps allowed on local television.

Some show the innards of people who smoke; others show the loss of limbs and voice boxes due to smoking; and others talk about the imminent death of the subject of a respective commercial.

These commercials are run during the morning, during the afternoon and during the evening, and they also not only offer graphic reasons not to smoke, but also give various phone numbers to call to get help for a smoking addiction.

(If you live out of state and want to see some of these commercials, they can be found on YouTube at https://youtu.be/qzpPN67V-Ag and https://youtu.be/mhN4CxTHKQo among other places.)

Yes, these commercials are directed at nicotine addiction, but nevertheless, they show pretty graphically that smoking is a dangerous habit, and the the city and state want to help you stop if you have started, and stop before you try.

But now, we have legislators all of a sudden become proponents of recreational pot use.

It simply goes against the grain, and goes against the grain of what New York State has been saying for the past generation, that smoking is a terrible habit that can wreck your life and your family's life.

So it is obvious why New York State is currently in a frenzy to make recreational pot use legal.

It is called $, and we all know that that subject often is more important than any other subject--including health concerns--when it comes to just about anything that we are talking about.

Sure, the findings are inconclusive about the impact of legal pot use on the populace, but for a state that was the leader in the nation against smoking to all of a sudden take a pro-smoking stance is not only hypocritical, it is ludicrous.

Those commercials and print ads warning against the habit will become moot the moment pot becomes legal, because even politicians can't talk out of two sides of their mouths and convince the populace that both sides are being genuine.

You can't advocate smoking--any type of smoking--yet in the same breath, speak about its evils.

It is wrong on all counts, and beyond the other reasons why I personally don't believe pot legalization is the panacea some think it is, it is disingenuous for New York politicians to be promoting a habit that they once dumped on, because smoking is smoking, and whether you are smoking regular cigarettes, a joint or vaping, this habit can't possibly be good for you.

And the possible side effects of such legalization, health and otherwise ... is it really worth it all?

I don't think so, but again, I am against the smoking of anything and everything, have been since childhood, and I am highly allergic to smoke derived from cigarettes of all kinds.

So perhaps I am prejudiced against this practice to begin with, and should not be even bringing it up to talk about in this blog.

But I simply feel and believe that on several levels, this "dumbing down" our politicians are giving us about the evils of smoking in general--and of pot specifically--is just plain wrong, and undoes one of the good things New York State has done for decades, and that is warn the populace on the dangers of smoking.

Are we that stupid now that we will be led by the nose by politicians who see nothing but dollar signs related to pot legalization, and nothing else?

I would hope not, but it is an admittedly slippery slope that I am trying to climb here, and I think that the tide goes against everything I have said here.

And that really is sad.