Musings: Public spaces going to pot
Our public areas should be a refuge for families and children, not places where taxpayers are forced to breathe in someone else's choices, a reader writes. Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto/Tim Allen
With nice weather arriving, when do our rights come into play? I do not smoke pot, and I cannot go to a park or sit in my own yard without this odor filling my space. Our public areas should be a refuge for families and children, not places where taxpayers are forced to breathe in someone else's choices.
As a community, state and country, if we wouldn't tolerate open containers of alcohol on our neighborhood sidewalks and parks, we shouldn't be forced to tolerate a cloud of secondhand smoke there either.
Barbra Powers, Oceanside
NICE buses at $3 per fare are one of the best values around for Nassau County public transportation. But some of the buses reek of marijuana, and this is unacceptable.
We are suffering a societal malaise regarding lighting a joint wherever and whenever one wants to with no regard for the elderly, youth, Americans with disabilities — and anyone who finds the odor repulsive.
Kosmas Patikoglou, Malverne
WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO JOIN OUR DAILY CONVERSATION. Just go to newsday.com/submitaletter and follow the prompts. Or email your opinion to letters@newsday.com. Submissions should be no more than 200 words. Please provide your full name, hometown, phone number and any relevant expertise or affiliation. Include the headline and date of the article you are responding to. Letters become the property of Newsday and are edited for all media. Due to volume, readers are limited to one letter in print every 45 days. Published letters reflect the ratio received on each topic.
