Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Things OK as long as they are Addictive and Dangerous

NY Times: Bill to Regulate Tobacco Moves Forward

So I'm perusing this article just to see what sorts of regulations they are planning on when I hit this golden nugget of a quote from John Dingell, a representative from my state:

Representative John D. Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, acknowledged that the bill was not perfect. “In a perfect world, we’d ban all cigarettes,” he said. “But the hard fact of the matter is that there are a lot of jobs depending on this. And more importantly, there are a lot of people out there who are addicted to this and they've got to have their fix.”

Apparently this guy is a complete dipshit.

First, he basically said that he is OK with dangerous products being released to people if jobs are on the line (asbestos isn't so bad, right?). Secondly, isn't that second part just a good reason to make every drug legal? After all, there are plenty of people who "got to have their fix" of crack everyday. Why don't we apply the same logic to that?

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