2010-11-19 / Letters
Cigarette smoke has been replaced
There was a time when it was common to smell cigarette smoke just about anyplace one went: restaurants, ball games, even public schools. Thank goodness we aren’t subject to that anymore.
But now we are forced to tolerate the stench of something I feel even more offensive: the smell of marijuana.
I’ve lived in Simi for over 36 years and in the same neighborhood for 25 years. I’ve always been able to retreat to my backyard to relax and wind down or open my windows at night to let in a breeze. That is, until the last year or so.
Now I am forced to breathe the smell of what is, to me, a skunklike odor, day and night.
To me it signals the decline of our community. When my wife asked a policeman what could be done about it, he said, “Nothing. You can go ask them if they will smoke inside. But that’s about all.”
I remember a famous line from the movie “Apocalypse Now.” I believe it was Robert Duvall’s line: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It smells like . . . like victory!”
I wonder if some of you who have lived in this town for as long as I have feel the same way I do: I hate the smell of marijuana. It smells like . . . like failure.