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Today marked the annual Great American Smoke-out, and once again, America’s hypocrisy knows no bounds. This ridiculous symbolic event is held annually to raise awareness that cigarette smoking, and the use of tobacco products is killing thousands of Americans every year, very true. But because the tobacco industry is so powerful, the government is not willing to step in and develop a more sensible stance on the use of tobacco.

Follow up:

American consumers want tobacco products, so to attempt to outlaw it completely would be foolishly reliving the mistakes of alcohol prohibition in the 1920’s, illegal prostitution throughout time, as well as the current Federal, and many state marijuana criminal laws which make up the costly and ineffective war against drugs. The hypocrisy lies in the fact that of all the “sins” listed above, cigarettes are the most deadly, claiming almost a half-million American lives per year. Add to that the tremendous burden and cost to the health care industry, and it’s obvious that steps need to be taken to discourage tobacco use. Yet we allow a serious national health problem which remains afloat because the tobacco industry lobbyists are so strong.

The most effective way to combat tobacco use is to raise the cost of cigarettes substantially. No mindless one-day "Smoke-out" campaign and no amount of television, radio or print ads will stop tobacco use. The only way is to hit smokers’ right where it hurts, in their wallets and pocket books.

Highly priced and taxed cigarettes would also make it much more difficult for young people to smoke. How many high school kids could afford to start a smoking habit if cigarettes sold for $7 or $8 per pack? If a kid wants to get drunk, he’s not drinking 12 year-old Scotch, he drinks the cheapest booze he can get his hands on. If the price of cigarettes were raised substantially in the form of a tax, the extra five or six dollars per pack could be used to offset the health care costs attributed to cigarette smoking.

On the other hand, marijuana has been proven by numerous studies, over decades of research, to have legitimate medical benefits, and while it still has certain respiratory consequences, it has never been shown to cause cancer which is the big tobacco killer. Yet because of politics, the Federal, State and Local government agencies this year have already spent a whopping $45 billion to combat drug use and importation, arresting almost 800,000 Americans for marijuana related “crimes”, with almost 10,000 of those people ending up serving time in jail. America needs to take the example of some of its own states and some European countries who have made the distinction between hard drugs like cocaine, heroin and meth, and soft drugs like marijuana. This frees up money and law enforcement to battle against the real dangers, and most of all relieves a large burden on our prison systems.

So on this symbolically bankrupt and inadequate day, put out your cigarettes in the name of death, light-up your favorite joint or bowl, and by all means, support candidates and legislation which decriminalizes the use of marijuana, recognizes its therapeutic values, and provides amnesty for the thousands of Americans currently clogging our jails due to the non-violent crime of smoking a joint.

William S. James, Totally straight talk