FruityBud
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Yesterday, the Prince George's County Council of Maryland, in a desperate and reckless attempt to curb marijuana use among youths, banned the sale of single cigars to thwart the use of their exteriors in rolling marijuana cigars a.k.a blunts, spliffs, and Jamaican jam sessions.
Apparently the council, which voted eight to one for the ban, actually thinks limiting the resources for smoking marijuana will somehow miraculously prevent those wanting to imbibe from doing so. Two things come to mind while pondering this bizarre new law.
First, "advanced" pot smokers almost always become self-made carpenters, building and discovering new ways to puff the magic dragon. Anything from an Absolute vodka bottle to an apple core can be turned into an effective smoking chamber by these folks. Sure, cigar wrappers are popular and certainly more aesthetically pleasing than say, a hotel shampoo bottle, but the resourcefulness of the youthful pot smoker should not be underrated.
Second, banning a product because of its usefulness for something illegal sets a terrible and unconstitutional precedent i.e. slippery slope. Take, for example, Sudafed. Imagine walking into the pharmacy sounding like Fran Drescher and wanting some nasal relief only to find that Sudafed and about 10 other similar medicines were banned because their active incredient is used to make methamphetamine. Should your nose have to suffer because others are industrious?
An even more far-fetched example of where this style of irresponsible and thoughtless legislating leads can be gleaned from the sale of knives. Knives may and are used to kill people. Are we to ban the sale of knives to prevent this from happening?
Even more assinine is the fact the new law allows both the sale of cigars in packages of five or more and so long as each single cigar costs above five dollars. To reword, so long as you are smoking a ton of weed or wealthy enough to blow five bucks on a nice stogie, you can do what you want. But if you are too poor to buy the cigars or trying to take down a monster blunt by yourself, you may find an obstacle in your way and opt for those extra wide rolling papers instead.
Thankfully, we live in a society where most people identify the dangers in limiting choice, so the new law prompted a threat of legal action by the Maryland Association of Tobacco and Candy Distributors. The group said that the council had overstepped its authority in regulating a legal tobacco product, especially since - to Bill Clinton's approval - a proposed state law to ban the sale of single cigars died this year. This is one lawsuit we hope big tobacco wins.
hxxp://tinyurl.com/5skhdo
Apparently the council, which voted eight to one for the ban, actually thinks limiting the resources for smoking marijuana will somehow miraculously prevent those wanting to imbibe from doing so. Two things come to mind while pondering this bizarre new law.
First, "advanced" pot smokers almost always become self-made carpenters, building and discovering new ways to puff the magic dragon. Anything from an Absolute vodka bottle to an apple core can be turned into an effective smoking chamber by these folks. Sure, cigar wrappers are popular and certainly more aesthetically pleasing than say, a hotel shampoo bottle, but the resourcefulness of the youthful pot smoker should not be underrated.
Second, banning a product because of its usefulness for something illegal sets a terrible and unconstitutional precedent i.e. slippery slope. Take, for example, Sudafed. Imagine walking into the pharmacy sounding like Fran Drescher and wanting some nasal relief only to find that Sudafed and about 10 other similar medicines were banned because their active incredient is used to make methamphetamine. Should your nose have to suffer because others are industrious?
An even more far-fetched example of where this style of irresponsible and thoughtless legislating leads can be gleaned from the sale of knives. Knives may and are used to kill people. Are we to ban the sale of knives to prevent this from happening?
Even more assinine is the fact the new law allows both the sale of cigars in packages of five or more and so long as each single cigar costs above five dollars. To reword, so long as you are smoking a ton of weed or wealthy enough to blow five bucks on a nice stogie, you can do what you want. But if you are too poor to buy the cigars or trying to take down a monster blunt by yourself, you may find an obstacle in your way and opt for those extra wide rolling papers instead.
Thankfully, we live in a society where most people identify the dangers in limiting choice, so the new law prompted a threat of legal action by the Maryland Association of Tobacco and Candy Distributors. The group said that the council had overstepped its authority in regulating a legal tobacco product, especially since - to Bill Clinton's approval - a proposed state law to ban the sale of single cigars died this year. This is one lawsuit we hope big tobacco wins.
hxxp://tinyurl.com/5skhdo