At first Congress had passed a bill to ban the manufacture of all cigarettes. But the black market flourished and the psychiatrists yelped. They yelped that the approach to the problem was all wrong, due to the fact that they hadn't been consulted. This was warping personalities and making martyrs out of cigarette users. The way to do it, they said, was to have tobacco products available, but to shame people into giving them up of their own free wills.
They theorized that a cigarette smoker is really a frustrated person unable to cope with the adult world. When he puts a cig between his lips he is really searching for his mother's nipple. Therefore, the thing to do is to force him to out-grow this, rather than take it forcibly away from him. Same way with a cigar smoker or pipe smoker.
The psychiatric lobby prevailed and the government repealed the tobacco bill. And replaced it with another. Now it was the law for all cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco to have an hallucination inducing drug, Xlene 91, in them. Also, as was compulsory, all cigars, pipes and cigarettes sported rubber filters shaped like nipples.
Then, Chuck Dane reminisced, with lung cancer dropping off steadily, they had started in to curb heart attacks. And taken away the only pleasure a guy had left!
He was in sight of his place of work now. A huge half-circle of plexiglass that was Airex Roller Skating Factory. Chuck thought as he entered the building, that four hours was a hell of a long working day, especially doing material control posting all that time. He hoped the bill to change working hours to three hours would pass soon....
At two o'clock in the afternoon, Chuck lined up with the rest of the office force to walk single file past the hidden electronic camera. Out of habit, he held his right hand in salute position, palm toward the camera. These deals had been interesting when they first replaced the old style time clocks, now they were routine.
As the queue neared the door where the company's three psychiatrists stood, Chuck got more and more nervous. Suppose they could read his mind, or something!
Sure enough, Doctor Benton wiggled a finger for him to step out of line. He took him to one side, and peered into his face. Chuck tried to look into the green eyes, so calm and assured, but he had to look away.
"You okay, Dane?"