How about this? The government hands Idaho millions of dollars from tobacco companies with very few restrictions. It's supposed to help our kids choose not to smoke. Less than 4% of the money allocated to Idaho actually got spent in some small way to help educate children and adolescents about how tobacco and nicotine can wreck their lives.
Marijuana, now that's something we can afford to eliminate. Earlier this month the state sent 22 law enforcement officers to Boise County, a tree-covered scenic bit of mountains to a place where they'd heard there was a marijuana crop about to go to market. They were sure that the 2,600 plants they captured from three surprised Hispanic men had a street value of about $6.6 million. Maybe. A friend of mine in California said the top value of any marijuana bust is about 10 percent of the value reported to the news media. If that's the case, maybe it was $600,000 or so.
I'm not advocating marijuana! I've never touched the stuff and plan to live the rest of my life without doing so. I've never smoked a cigarette, either.
But that doesn't keep me from being furious with our short-sighted legislators who didn't think tobacco was a big enough problem to worry about. "If it's bad for them, they can quit" is a common comment.
Keep up with me on this. I'll tell you where the money went. I'll tell you what our leading business executives think about the anti-smoking campaign. I'll share with you the glee that the tobacco companies feel when states like Idaho throw money out the window instead of helping kids learn why cigarettes are bad for them.
Jump in. We need you.
jg
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