Smoking as a Marker of Political Difference

Liberals now think:

tobacco smoking is a dangerous and addictive habit foisted on unsuspecting consumers by the wiles of big corporate tobacco companies and their henchmen on Madison Avenue. Accordingly, the power of the state should be used to suppress smoking in all public areas.

pot smoking is helpful to the sick and an innocent recreation for those intelligent people who make rational decisions about how to run their own lives. Pot is grown in rural areas by people who believe in cooperating with nature and is dispensed by informal networks that are anti-capitalist. Accordingly, the power of the state should not suppress pot smoking.

Conservatives now think:

tobacco smoking is a recreation that people should be able to decide to indulge in, particularly in the case of Wall Streeters who enjoy cigars. Accordingly, the power of the state should not suppress tobacco smoking.

pot smoking is a dangerous and addictive habit that enslaves the young and damages their minds, a stepping-stone on the path to ever more dangerous addictions and more licentious behavior. Pot is grown and sold by evil people with beards, and often imported through violence-ridden conduits. Accordingly, the power of the state should suppress pot smoking.

Libertarians combine the liberals view on pot and the conservatives view on tobacco. Communitarians combine the liberals view on tobacco and the conservatives on pot.