Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em at a Gas Station

Today, a small, single-serving dose of political idiocy. The info comes courtesy of former Reason intern Mike Riggs, who now blogs over at the Washington City Paper, where he has instituted a regular Freedom Friday feature (which is also often Frustration Friday, or depending on his mood, Fury Friday):

You know what's got my goat this morning? Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander's horrendous crusade against single cigar sales. The kids use them to smoke the marijuana, sure. But the kids will smoke out of anything! The cigarette foil, the hollowed-out apples, the dented cans, the Sobe bottles, the garden hoses, the seasonal squash, the hollowed-out hot dogs, the pens, and even the ground! And you know what? A 14-year-old who can score weed and a single cigar knows how to make things happen. Smoking out of the ground will be a cakewalk for these kids!

And the worst thing about Alexander's crusade–the worst!–isn't her nanny instincts, but this horrible, off-the-cuff lie:

"I believe the major source of income at a gas station should be gasoline and the major source of income at a corner store should be nonperishable food items, so I wonder what kind of business they're really in."

Newsflash, councilmember: Despite what you "believe," gas stations DO NOT MAKE MOST OF THEIR MONEY ON GAS. In fact, the sale of gasoline eats into their profit margins in much the same way that a stoner eats into that seasonal squash once it has done him/her right. But I gotta hand it to you; that closing insinuation is brilliant. My next story will be titled, "Gas station owners are using petrol as a front for a MASSIVE BLUNT RUNNING OPERATION."

Reason has been all over the loose blunts here, here, and here.