Maybe someone out there can explain it to me…

Maybe someone out there can explain it to me…

I watch the TV and read the paper a lot these days, and for the life of me I can't find out why regular cigarettes are considered so that dangerous (and I know firsthand, because I smoked for 31 years but have been quit for about 30) but weed (or pot or grass or whatever they are calling it today) apparently has no ill effect on your health.

All this is according to those that either use it or just might try it, and also even to a lot of doctors it seems to be the greatest thing to come down the pike in years. But just for information purposes, there were a lot of people (and I mean a lot of people) in the 60s that said the same thing before you did and my feeling today as it was back then we sure don't need to go down that road.

Now I know by me asking this question that a lot of people are saying that I'm just not with it any more because I have reached my “Snap Dragon” years (which means what hasn't snapped has started dragging), and for the most part at my age I agree. But I watch people that use it and take a big draw on one of these “no harm” cigarettes and hold it in their lungs for as long as they can before they blow it out, and that's the part that I can't understand about it being so good for your health.

Now with all my frailties, I'm smart enough to know that some of you out there are saying about now, “Wait a minute this guy has started to meddle in to something that a lot of us are thinking that maybe one day it will come to the state of Arkansas by way of the ballot box!” But really I'm not saying that at all because I really want to know why it doesn't hurt your lungs like tobacco does?

I even see where these electronic cigarettes are really bad for your lungs also but not pot, because it's so good for your lungs and you're overall health, and I'm really trying hard to understand why. The state of Hawaii has even got to the point that now they have made it a law that you have to show ID to buy regular cigarettes if you are under the age of 40, but with pot it’s just a misdemeanor, like crossing the street when not in a crosswalk. I'm just wondering if it's because it's so good for you.

Now I'm also wondering if maybe a little later on down the road that through lab research that they might say that crack or snow or what ever they call it has been found to contain some agents in it that could be just wonderful for your overall health.

I’ve just got a feeling that there are some out there somewhere thinking, man, what a dream if that ever happens.

I'm just thinking out loud here so don't get mad at the questioner. If any of the states do put it on the ballot for a vote and it passes and it ends up like Colorado, the one thing that looks like might happen is the population of the state goes up but the downside to it would be that most of the growth would be from people that want to lay under a tree out here at the park by the lake or somewhere and take some of them freebies that most states give and smoke one of them pot cigarettes.

All I'm saying is that this is just another thing if it is ever put on the ballot in Arkansas that may not be such a great thing for the state but we all have the same opportunity as the next one, and that is to vote for what we believe would be or not be the next great thing.

As I write this I think how “great” it has been for this country since the passing Roe v Wade, and I could get some what gory here in detail, but I won’t.

[Editor’s Note: Roe v.

Wade was a Supreme Court decision, not a ballot measure. However, many states have passed their own abortion legislation] And we can only imagine what is going on in God’s mind with just that passage alone, but if I was a betting man and since we are dealing with total perfection here when we talk about God I would bet it is sure not a good thought for him.

But remember that just because we have as a people slipped down to a point that “We the People” will let people get by with almost anything, it's just not going to happen with him. Not going to be a fun time, I assure you. But God bless you and yours and may God bless America again, in spite of all of us.

Bill McFerrin is a West Memphis resident with some things to say and a certain way of saying them.

Bill McFerrin

By Bill McFerrin Local Commentary