Oregon Bill Could Ban Cigarettes

Dear America, Oregon has a story to tell you about what happens when some of your legislators quit smoking tobacco and start puffing slightly more psychedelic substances: they decide that effectively criminalizing cigarettes would be a swell idea.

Rep. Mitch Greenlick (D-Portlandia) has filed a bill that would make nicotine a Schedule III substance, placing it in the same category as ketamine, lysergic acid and anabolic steroids, and would make having it without a doctor's note a crime. Nicotine-containing products would only be available from pharmacies with a prescription.

While the proposal doesn't call for an outright ban on smoking, it's hard to see why doctors would write prescriptions for a carcinogenic substance, even if it is one that's enjoyed by such luminaries as the nation's best Joe Camel impersonator, House Speaker John Boehner.

Rep. Greenlick claims his nicotine prescription bill is intended to spark conversation, but this being Portland, the whole thing might be an elaborate exercise in irony.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Tags: Crime, Health, Oregon, Smoking