3. Watch Your Smoke

The stoner and a friend were walking down the street when the friend suggested they smoke. “Sure,” the stoner said, “but let’s go someplace private.”

His friend said, “Are you embarrassed to smoke? If you were honest, you would shout it from the rooftops. If you were open, you would smoke in plain view.”

But the stoner replied, “If you wanted to sow trees throughout town, would you plant them in people’s lawns and gardens?”

“No,” the friend replied. “There they would be cut down without thought.”

“Then where?”

“You would sow them in the woods and the meadows and on the sides of riverbanks, where they would grow wild and free.”

The stoner replied, “And so it is with smoke, for the 3rd Rule of Thumb says, Watch your smoke. Do not blow it onto others, for that is like littering. Instead, find a place where you may smoke without upsetting others, for this will give you peace of mind. By considering where you exhale, you will spread more than smoke.”

The stoner lead his friend to a great tree, surrounded by bushes. They could see for miles, while they were hidden. It was the perfect place to smoke, and so they did.

Read the fourth rule of thumb.