Editor,
Student and faculty glue-sniffers and paint-huffers have just as many rights as the smokers.
Now, personally, I’m neither sniffer nor huffer, but I support their God-given right to pursue their addiction, no matter what the consequences.
We here at UNM care a lot about the inalienable rights of the few to make as many people as sick as possible. I know, I know: What about the complainers with their little precancerous coughs and interminable headaches — those who have to pass by the huffers? All this moaning and whining about health has nothing to do with the constitutional right of the few to kill the many.
If smokers have their own places, huffers and sniffers should have a place as well, and there is nowhere more suitable for glue-sniffing and paint-huffing than the “Center of the Universe” sculpture over by Ortega Hall.
If you happen to run into a sniffer or huffer practicing his or her addiction on Smith Plaza, you can politely say, “Excuse me, good sir, but UNM is a non-huffing campus. If you want to sniff or huff, you will have to take your paint can to the ‘Center of the Universe,’ which is a designated huffing area. Thank you for your kind concern.”
I have approached several huffers and sniffers with my mild request, just as I have been urged to do by the Campus Huffing Committee, and I’ve had my teeth busted out of my head only a few times.
I’ve complained to campus police but they just say, “It’s not in our jurisdiction.”
I’ve complained to the information desk in the SUB, and they say, “Take it to the police.”
It’s enough to drive a poor fellow to sniff glue or stick one’s head in a can of paint out of desperation.
James Burbank
UNM faculty
