Pubdate: Tue, 09 Aug 2005
Source: Peace Arch News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 Peace Arch News
Contact:  http://www.peacearchnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1333
Author: Rob DeMone

SMOKED OUT

It must be the heat.

Or in these shallow days of summer, when city councils and councillors have 
so little on the agenda they barely meet monthly, have we resorted to 
conjuring dragons to slay?

White Rock is sniffing about with the anti-smoking crusaders again, 
following the scent laid by the City of Vancouver.

There, councillors are huffing and puffing in response to the haughty 
harumphs of do-gooders who can't abide the whiff of second-hand smoke on 
patios, and - egad - doorways.

In Vancouver - and soon White Rock, if Mayor Judy Forster has her way - so 
odious is the smoker, they must be purged not only from within, but from 
without. Out of restaurants and bars, off the patios and clear of doorways.

We are not speaking in defence of smoking nor the smoker. Rather, we wonder 
at the hypocrisy of morals when a city policy so strenuously chases that 
which is legal, while making it easy to consume - dare we say encourage? - 
that which is not.

Here's the problem - Canadians don't know right from wrong. And we keep 
sending mixed messages not only to our children and youth, but to the rest 
of the world.

Vancouver's sedulously social council has made a name for itself - and a 
dubious reputation it is - by providing heroin addicts a safe place to get 
high.The city sells business licences to people who peddle pot 
paraphernalia, and even pot itself. It's OK to sell drugs. It's OK to do 
drugs, heck the city will even provide clean gear and cozy confines.

Yet heroin and pot are still illegal substances in Canada. Tobacco, no 
matter how disgusting and life-threatening, is still legal in Canada. Yet 
cities like Vancouver - and soon White Rock - make it increasingly unlawful 
to pursue that which is lawful; even while making it increasingly easy to 
pursue that which is unlawful. Little wonder Americans find it necessary to 
come hither to flex real anti-drug laws that have teeth.

Smokers have been pushed and bullied by self-righteous do-gooders for 
years. Pushed out of restaurants and out of bars and, soon, out of the 
outdoors. We submit it is time for government at a higher level to take a 
stand on tobacco. Either it is legal or it is not. Surely this picking away 
at the rights of an indiscriminate group must end.
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MAP posted-by: Beth