Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago School economists and fellow travelers.
From the newsletter of a condominium association in Washington, DC:
No-Smoking Policy
Please remember – no smoking in common areas (hallways, stairways, parking areas, walkways, and recreational areas). Smoking is permitted only on sidewalks bordering city streets.
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Welcome to the police state. Brought to you, ironically, by the Hippie Generation.
This has been going on for a while. When I worked in Boston, (1990’s) smokers had to restrict themselves to a specific section of the sidewalk. Those who wandered to close to the door were reminded that the smoking area (actual painted lines) would cease to exist if not adhered to. But this is for tobacco. Smoking dope is acceptable, and even permissible in many cities where tobacco is verboten. “Sometimes a cigar is not a cigar”
I am always amused at the left which bans tobacco and endorses marijuana, which is far more toxic.
Mike K,
I don’t see anything in the linked study that supported your claim that marijuana is far worse than tobacco. It only says that it’s at least as bad in some respects and uncertain in other respects due to lack of clinical data.
“I don’t see anything in the linked study that supported your claim that marijuana is far worse than tobacco.”
Do you really expect that any researcher in this era would say such a thing ? The fact that it suggests equivalence should be enough to recognize what cannot be said.
Burning dried vegetation and inhaling the smoke is unlikely to be good for you whatever the vegetation in question.
DearieMe, I have no doubt that. But there’s a big dangerous leap to therefore it should be prohibited. Bike riding and skateboards and motorcycles and swimming pools and roller skates are all dangerous. Should they be banned? Should bacon cheeseburgers and pastries be banned? A belief in liberty presupposes that people are allowed to make their own decisions about these things. A boot pressing down on your neck forever is no less tyrannical because someone has decided it’s for own good.
“But there’s a big dangerous leap to therefore it should be prohibited. ”
My argument is not that it should be prohibited, although I enjoy the left’s hypocrisy here, but that tobacco is no more harmful and the monster lawsuits created a lot of big time Democrat donors.
I am pretty libertarian on drug legalization. For example, in the years before epidural anesthesia was developed, heroin was the best rug for pain relief in labor. After the Harrison Act banned heroin, those with existing legal stocks were allowed use them. Johns Hopkins had enough heroin to use it for labor for 20 years.
Now, we have these weird “designer drugs” like “Purple Drank” that led “Obama;s son” to attack George Zimmerman and get killed for his trouble. Skittles and Arizona Watermelon Fruit Cocktail Juice are two components. That’s what he bought at the 7-11 and the center clerk had the cough syrup behind the counter and Trayvon was under age,
“counter clerk” and drug not rug.
Include environmental devastation and huge water consumption of marijuana cultivation to the list. It seems California pot growers are getting a free pass.
http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2015/04/is-marijuana-sucking-california-dry.html?m=1
Surely the best argument against th use of tobacco in any form, for whatever reason, was best demonstrated by Bob Newhart. The clip was only supposed to be funny, but was actually the best possible demonstration of the true lunacies of the Tobacco Lobby in action.
Wrong clip the true lunacies of the Tobacco Lobby
The came for the smokers, and I said nothing because I do not smoke, etc.
Exactly Jon. It’s a question of whether you respect personal liberty as a foundational principle, not whether you agree with any particular lifestyle decision people make. Personally, I think people who do free climbing on cliffs are insane. One slip and it’s death or paralysis or merely broken bones if they’re lucky. However, I don’t want to make their choice to do it illegal or ban videos of them climbing from TV. Oddly, free climbers are celebrated by the same people who will chastise others for eating the wrong kind of fried chicken. Explain that!
“I am always amused at the left which bans tobacco and endorses marijuana, which is far more toxic.”
Well, no one smokes burnt vegetable matter anymore, well no one with a brain. It’s very bad for you to burn stuff and inhale the fumes. Tobacco is a specially nasty form of burnt vegetable matter . Addictive and ugly in it’s effects, both short and long term.
These days we press the terpenes from the vegetable matter with a hair straightener, vaporizing this very pure material is fun and not at all dangerous. One does need to watch temperatures as some of the parchment paper we use incorporates silicon and temperatures above 305F can lead to carcinogenic products. As we keep everything in the 230F to 240F range this is not a problem.