An Upsidedown World

[texmexpipe]

Listening to a local radio station today on my way to the office I heard that a local mall has passed a policy that forbids tobacco anywhere on the property. Directly across the street from this mall a medical marijuana dispensary just opened. Upsidedown!

 

[papipeguy]

I've stopped trying to make sense out of most things (shrug).

 

[stvalentine]

I never could understand the exeggerated notion that some people have about tobacco. As if the stuff would kill you instantly... :roll:

 

[ltstone]

Its like carbon monoxide, if doesn't kill you right away its harmless yet they say smoke gives off carbon monoxide, who cares..

 

[huntertrw]

But it's for the children! :roll:

 

[lohengrin]

Maybe we should even smoke upsidedown: people criticize the smoke coming from our mouths, up, but don't care of the one coming from the mufflers, down.

 

[jkrug]

Lights pipe and shakes head in disbelief?? :?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I'm just amazed to death that they still let us operate vehicles. ::

 

[stickframer]

If we couldn't operate vehicles, car and oil companies wouldn't be happy. :rofl:
I'd light up on the property and make the security guards wobble out after me.
Edit: I wonder what the ddispensary smoking policy is.

 

[georged]

Evolutionary biology is responsible for tribal behavior---until only a couple dozen lifetimes ago, a solitary human was a soon-to-be-dead human---and rationality is NOT one of tribal behavior's essential components. All that matters is sufficient stimulus exists to trigger the, "I must react in a way that keeps me in a group" dynamic in a sufficiently large population to become self-sustaining. Once that happens, reality counts for little.
Either by accident or design, the anti-tobacco people managed to present the smoking issue in a way that crossed that threshold.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Ser Jacopo is way ahead of the curve.

http://www.alpascia.com/pipes/d/Ser-Jacopo-622-i34660.html

 

[stickframer]

georged nailed it.

 

[brian64]

Well said georged. Unfortunately the same applies to a multitude of other issues as well...and it's definitely not an accident imo. It's called perception management...and when you've got a "mainstream" media that is literally controlled by a handful of people, it's child's play to manipulate the hive subconscious.

 

[sablebrush52]

Marijuana is not seen in the same terms as tobacco. It's no less harmful, maybe more. With familiarity will come contempt. The Boo honeymoon is temporary. San Francisco just passed an ordinance requiring a person to be 21 years of age to purchase cigarettes. But, that same person only needs to be 18 to purchase medical marijuana.

 

[shutterbugg]

Listening to a local radio station today on my way to the office I heard that a local mall has passed a policy that forbids tobacco anywhere on the property. Directly across the street from this mall a medical marijuana dispensary just opened. Upsidedown!

It's a liability issue. If tobacco is not allowed to be sold at the mall, the mall's owners are shielded from some risk exposure if some greedy widow hires a sleazy lawyer to get rich because her husband got cancer from smoking and they go looking for deep pockets to add to the list of defendants.

 

[sthbkr77]

Let's clarify that there is a difference in smoking pot recreationaly compared to a cancer patient who can actually feel somewhat decent using it medicinally. Yes, obviously there are plenty of people that want recreational but whether you condone medicinal weed or not, it does help some. Tobacco, other than a pipe helping us unwind, does not have the same level of medicinal effects. I don't light up a marlboro red when I don't feel well.
That aside, I think george and shutterbug both hit some very valid points.

 

[perdurabo]

The mall is private property, so their rules and their game. It's the public street ban that's ridiculous. Next thing you know there will be a ban on smoking in your own home. They are setting this trend through propaganda commercials on tv and radio. How long will "We the People" allow it to continue? This is when I sit back, relax, and watch the herd devour itself. Lunacy.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

How long will "We the People" allow it to continue?

You know, the other side is made up of private (left and right) citizens bitching about big corporate tobacco companies, and saying the same thing.
You don't win a propaganda war by being aggressive. You win it by being nice and kind and ignoring all of these rules. You will find me in the mornings at my local Starbucks with my pipe posting from my phone. I have permission to smoke because I am not an "inconsiderate cigarette smoker" as said by the manager.
This works for me, and you will find me in local restaurants and diners, smoking my pipe, because I asked for a distinction to be made. "excuse me, I know this is a cigarette free zone, but do you mind if I smoke my pipe?" I win this one every time. Pipes are not nearly as smokey or obnoxious. I am considerate and will set my pipe down until I get permission from whomever just walked into the room. And, I would never leave a pipe cleaner or ash in an establishment.
When I walk into a business, my pipe just goes into my shirt pocket, and I usually get a comment about how great I smell, ha ha.
Pipe smokers can easily win this war by throwing the lying sack of crap cigarette industry that deserves to go out of business under the bus. They've lied, cheated, and killed for long enough. They've even been the ones responsible for the FDA going after pipe tobacco and dip. Sure, support them if you want, but meanwhile I am over here in the cigarette free zone smoking my pipe. YMMV

 

[palictyton]

If health is really a concern, and over-population is really a concern, then just what are they really worried about?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

For the same reason that all of us came to smoking for different reasons, all of them anti-smokers came to their ideas for different reasons also. It would be nice and simple if we could just pigeonhole everyone and attack their one bad idea, but the world doesn't work that way. Not everyone thinks the same way, and this is why you cannot get everyone on the same boat among pipesmokers also. Many of us don't want someone smoking a cigarette around us. I've heard this one quite a bit in the pipe and cigar world. There is no clear cut right and wrong, and human nature will have some of us revolt against attempts to stencil one over us.