Is The Maryland State Fair Teaching Our Kids It's OK to Smoke?
This is a bit of a departure for this blog. Normally, this space is dedicated to topics of interest to personal injury lawyers and victims. However, I saw something Sunday that I feel like I need to let out.
I went to the Maryland State Fair on Sunday at the Timonium Fairgrounds. I love the fair, because it reminds me of being a little kid. One of my favorite fair activities is the "penny candy" shop. This reminds me of being a little kid at St. Anthony's May Festival.
The candy shop at the fair is located at one end of the exhibit hall. Customers enter at one end, and file through the shop. The candy is displayed in waist-high bins, in a way that the line formed by customers snakes through the bins to the checkout, like a big maze.
As you would expect, a candy store at a fair attracts a lot of children, either alone or with parents.
I was shocked to find that one of the candy bins toward the middle of the shop was filled with extremely realistic looking packs of bubble-gum cigarettes. There were three different "brands", eachin cardboard "packs" that had realistic looking cigarette labels, down to the fake tax stamp affixed to the top. Inside, were cigarette shaped sticks of bubble gum. They were even covered in powdered sugar to make them white, and had a red dye on one end to make a faux "cherry" where the cigarette would be lit.
Now, I'm not a proponent of a nanny state. I am sure it is primarily a parent's responsibility to make sure their children are aware of the dangers of smoking. But it can't possibly be a good idea to throw smokes out there as an option for kids alongside the Tootsie Rolls, Blow Pops and Now-N-Laters.
I'm sure this is a private company doing the sales, but you would think that whoever in state government runs the fair would maybe have a word with them that selling items like this does not promote the family atmosphere we want for our state fair. Am I the only person who notices these things?
