You know the irony of the smokers paying increased premiums? Now, before I go further let me state that I am NOT out to politically antagonize anyone! So if you want to blast me in a reply, realize that I am not sticking my neck out looking for an axe, I'm just reporting. I am a smoker, but there's no point in handing me the lecture. There's not a thing you can say to me that I haven't heard a million times and even said to myself.
We checked out the health care site, looking to see what it could offer for our son and daughter-in-law, who are uninsured. There is a question about whether you smoke or not,(they don't) and if you check "yes" your premiums skyrocket. It doesn't ask what you smoke....just if you smoke. The Federal Government doesn't care what else you do - have Clem hold your beer while you try to jump your four-wheeler over a 50 foot cliff - but boy, you'd better not smoke cigarettes. It doesn't ask if you smoke meth, or crack, or pot - so smoking those things is apparently just fine. Only cigarettes. Now, I ain't always the brightest crayon in the box, but it seems to me that regardless of what the substance is, the delivery is the same. You light it, you inhale it, it goes into your lungs and replaces the oxygen that that breath would have provided and fills those lungs with chemicals. And it also seems to me that with all the warnings about the terrible effect of second hand smoke, especially to children, wouldn't you think someone would have looked into that too?
I'm not yaying or naying on the legalized pot issue. I just find it ironic that HR 499, which is a proposed resolution to decriminalize pot on the Federal level is followed by HR 501, which is the federal government's plan to impose taxes on said pot, and which gives the IRS the power to "make adjustments" to the tax as needed, while one segment of the population is denigrated, ostracized, and punished.
Okay, off my soapbox now.