Just My Thoughts

In my line of work I deal with offenders, mainly juvenile, but adults too. To be in our programs they have to pay a fee. My program fee is minimal, home detention can be costly. I can't stand to hear people complain about paying their user fees. Come on now people. Had you not committed a crime, you wouldn't have to pay the fee of being on our program. If you don't want to pay the fee, fine, we can send you back to jail and you can serve the rest of your sentence there.

What really gets me is how I can watch people chain smoke outside of our office and then go in and complain that they don't have any money to pay their fees. I understand that the cost of everything these days is increasing, but in the five minutes you stood outside our office you burnt up $5.

Being a non-smoker (I'm proud to say I've never even had the urge nor have I ever given into peer pressure to "try one.") I have no clue how much a pack of cigarettes costs. But it seems funny that people that smoke three packs a day and then blow the rest of their money on alcohol (they can't drink on our programs so I'm just generalizing the public) have NO right to complain about lack of money. Get your priorities straight people.

I had a juvenile go to court yesterday because they were caught up town smoking. They were sure they were going to get sent away. I reassured them that they won't, but they will be given a hefty fee. She freaked out when I said she could get a $500 fine. My response, "You shouldn't have been smoking in the first place."

I know why I feel so strongly about smoking and I try not to push my feelings onto others. I watched my grandmother die of lung cancer because she smoked since who knows when. I've seen my dad pick back up the habit and how it has affected his health. When someone asks me my opinion on smoking I tell them one thing but I warn them before I say it. It's not a sugar coated opinion. I don't sugar coat.

I look them straight in the eye and say: If you are so intent on killing yourself, you can do it for a lot cheaper. All you need is a barn and some rope.

I don't intend to be mean, but in my eyes, if you choose to smoke you are slowly committing a very expensive suicide.

Ok, tangent done.