Article Contributed on: 7/14/2009 11:24:52 PM
He took a cigarette from a crumpled packet marked VICTORY CIGARETTES and incautiously held it upright, whereupon the tobacco fell out on to the floor. - George Orwell,
1984
When one blogs for the purpose of chronicling government stupidity, inefficiency, and inhumanity, one is never lacking for material. The recent rash of puritan salvationism at the federal level with regard to cigarettes is of course a fertile field for exploration.
That semi-reformed smoker, President Obama, signed into law a bill regulating cigarettes as a drug. It's pretty obvious where this is leading. The War on Drugs hasn't caused enough damage to American society, so the Powers That Be have decided to stimulate more chaos with a
new drug war guaranteed to rope in more victims.
A very occasional smoker myself, I tried one of the "new" cigarettes today with the new goes-out-by-itself chemical. Suprise: it tastes like, well, crap warmed over. The goes-out chemical is probably more toxic than the cigarette itself, whatcha wanna bet?
So here comes a new illegal drug market : real cigarettes that don't taste like crap. That ought to keep the doors of the prisons turning when all else fails!