> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Snuff cigarettes and pass the pot - URL: https://www.smdp.com/snuff-cigarettes-and-pass-the-pot/ - Published: 2006-11-28T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-25T01:18:13.000Z - Author: David Pisarra - Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import *Cigarettes are legal to buy, to own and to smoke — just not in public anymore.* I’m a smoker. Well, I used to be. I grew up in a household where my father smoked three packs of Viceroy a day and my brother smoked three packs of Marlboro reds. I grew up hating the smell, the dirt from the ashes and the fact that my clothes smelled like I was a smoker. My godmother was a fierce smoker, and so were her sister, brother and daughter. This was the late ’60s and early ’70s, when seemingly everyone around me smoked but my mother. I swore as a young man that I wouldn’t smoke. That lasted right up until it was “Casablanca”night in college, freshman year. I can remember the night as clearly as if it happened yesterday. This was on the East Coast, so everybody had overcoats and hats. So of course, when you’re going to see the quintessential Humphrey Bogart movie, you have to don the entire look. And who could possibly look like Humphrey Bogart, wearing a fedora and overcoat without a cigarette — a Lucky Strike, specifically. There I was, in the hallway as we gathered, and my best friend took a pack of Luckys, shook it just so — in that way that a seasoned smoker can — to get just one or two cigarettes to pop out, and he said to me, “Come on, you gotta have one.” And that was all it took. I was off and running on a two-pack-aday habit for the next 10 years. I love smoking. I wish I could have just one, every now and then. But I can’t. I’m a smoker. If I have one, I’ll have a carton by the end of the week. My law partner can have just one. I hate him for that. It’s an addiction all right... a mighty hard one to quit. It took me many tries to finally quit. I like to say that I just woke up one morning and I was done. Which is true for the final time I quit. But there were many, many, many “This is my last cigarettes” and “I’m never smoking agains.” I think I lived with so much nicotine in my house as a kid that I was a smoker from the get go. If the studies are right, that second-hand smoke can harm you, then, certainly having two smoke-breathing nicotine fiends in my house helped me get the addiction in the first place. I’d like to blame them all for the years I spent smoking. But the honest to God truth is, I made the decision to smoke. Sure, the environment I grew up in was a contributing factor, but that was my parents’ choice. They chose to raise me in a tobacco-filled house. But I’m the one who chose to put a Lucky Strike in my mouth and suck deep. On Nov. 23, 2006 — Thanksgiving Day — the outdoor smoking ban went into effect in Santa Monica. How ironic that on the day that celebrates the friendship of the Indians and the pilgrims, Santa Monica turned its back on the gift the Indians gave us. I also find it very ironic that this is the same city that decided marijuana possession for personal use should be the lowest enforcement priority of the police department. As a city, we are more concerned with our ability to toke a joint than to smoke a butt. That’s irony, folks. For the record, marijuana is one arm of the War on Drugs that our country is fighting, tobacco is not. Tobacco farming is a multi-billion dollar, global enterprise. It provides incomes for thousands of people and has played a major role in our development as a nation. Globally, it contributes to the development of most Third World economies. Marijuana is also a multi-billion dollar, global enterprise. It provides incomes for thousands of people and contributes to the development of many Third World economies. Tobacco is virulently addictive. Marijuana doesn’t appear to have the same addictive properties. The intelligent voters recognize that pot is just like drinking. Some like it, some don’t. Some outgrow its use, some don’t. Most people who smoke pot will eat a bag of Doritos, two pints of ice cream and go to sleep. It seems to me that most of us who have tried pot outgrow it. The fact that it is illegal is irrelevant to its use by most people. Drinking is a legal drug. Most people don’t abuse alcohol. Some people drink every day, others once a year. Some pot smokers smoke every day, others once a year. Drunk driving causes far more accidents than people who are high on pot. Yet we spend millions of dollars each year to regulate alcohol use, and in trying to eradicate pot use. We have laws against drunk driving, and driving under the influence. Billions of dollars are spent by the liquor industry to get us to drink, and billions of dollars are spent annually to get us to limit our drinking. It seems like the voters see a reality that the politicians don’t. The voters see that pot use is a minor issue, and the politicians see that tobacco smoking is a major issue. At least it’s enough of an issue that they can get some “good press” off of it, by looking to be “tough on smoking.” Does any of this make sense? Not to me. I don’t understand why we are criminalizing a legal product and essentially legalizing an illegal product. David Pisarra is a partner in the Santa Monica law firm of Pisarra & Grist. He (310) 664-9969 or *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 28, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/112806.pdf?ref=smdp.com)