Save me, please, save me...

Here in Ohio, we have a decently important ballot initiative coming up in November. Actually, there are two initiatives on the ballot: one from Smoke Free Ohio and one from Smoke Less Ohio.

It's an incredibly confusing issue - or two issues, really - and that's clearly a tactic that the tobacco companies are using to their advantage. The two similar but different ballot initiatives are creating enough confusion that it's pretty unlikely that either will pass.

One side has posted an admittedly-biased summary of the differences , and I guess that's helpful, and luckily the other side has a similar comparison chart

Arrggh...

And then there's the entire issue of whether we should be legislating people from partaking in something or whether we should let free market forces take care of things for us. I look at prohibition as something that was foolish and rather blind to reality, but I'm also not entirely opposed to legalization.

Arrrggghhh...

Why can't the legislation just take all of the decisions to do anything that might be harmful and stupid to ourselves out of our hands like they do in New York City?

Don't let me do anything that could hurt me. Make everything illegal if I could possibly harm myself with it. Set it up so that the kids can't buy any toys that could even remotely harm them.