I disagree with Tommy Maple's column that addresses how the increased tax on cigarettes is wrong.
According to the American Cancer Society, 440,000 people in the United States die every year from cigarette-related deaths and many more suffer from cardiovascular complications due to their habits. These health problems caused by cigarette smoking serve only to place a huge burden on the state's health care system. During times of economic recession, it makes sense to tax those who choose to buy cigarettes, as they are the ones who may need to utilize the state's health care system once their tobacco habit begins to cause serious health problems. Why should nonsmokers pay for the health problems of those who make the conscious decision to light up?
However, I do applaud Maple for raising awareness about the excessive taxes levied on cigars, wraps and rolling papers that aim to unfairly tax marijuana smokers.
Taxation without legalization is certainly wrong and the government could easily generate tax revenue if the state decriminalized marijuana and allowed the passage of medical marijuana laws. Unlike cigarettes, no one has been able to prove that marijuana use leads to death, cancer or any other malady associated with tobacco smoke. In fact, marijuana has been shown to kill cancer cells and prevent Alzheimer's disease.
Additionally, although Maple claims that "organizing smokers to do anything other than listen to music or play video games is a Herculean task," he should be informed that Gainesville's chapter of People United for Medical Marijuana was organized solely by UF student smokers and non-smokers who hold strong political beliefs about our state's current drug policies and wish to see them changed. Many of these students are currently volunteering to collect signatures on a petition in hopes that Florida will vote to allow medical marijuana in our state. Clearly, these hardworking students demonstrate that people who support marijuana reform are not lazy, apathetic stoners who care only about eating Funyuns.
But rather, they are responsible young adults who wish to change the oppressive and archaic laws that demonize nonviolent marijuana smokers.
Brittany Yurkovitch is a philosophy and political science senior.
