Kudos to Ream's grocery store on University Parkway for throwing out the beer and cigarettes. The harm to society caused by these substances far outweighs any of their alleged benefits -- including retail profits.

Alcohol's purported quality as a social lubricant is easily eclipsed by its contribution to automobile fatalities, crime, broken families and other ills.

By the same token, the alleged benefits of cigarettes ... Oh, wait, we almost forgot: cigarettes have no alleged benefits. They're only a cost. They reduce productivity in the workplace, raise health care costs, lead to litter and suppress the real estate market because it's harder to sell a smoker's stinky house. Aside from all that, they're just plain obnoxious.

Given the billions of dollars these vices cost every year, we're surprised we're not seeing a return to prohibition. We see laws made all the time for causes that don't hit the public pocketbook anywhere near the level that alcohol and tobacco do (think helmets for longboarders and bicyclists, for example).

But as easily as prohibition of alcohol and tobacco could be logically justified on the basis of their high costs to society, for some reason they continue to enjoy immunity. Too many people want them, and so they are sanctioned.

While their use is condemned by many individuals, churches, doctors and others, the nation collectively turns its head and pretends that they're OK. Our laws reflect a logical disconnect in which, for example, tobacco is legal and marijuana is outlawed; where the distorting effects of alcohol are viewed as acceptable adult recreation but narcotics are a no-no.

It makes no sense, but that's the world we live in. And even a child can see it.

Ream's grocery owner Paul Ream has a 9-year-old daughter named Shyanne who has been getting all the usual instruction in her school's DARE program. The program teaches kids to stay away from all drugs, including alcohol and tobacco. (For those who don't know, DARE stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education.)

Darn kids. As youngsters often do, Shyanne asked an obvious, innocent question: Daddy, how come you're selling drugs when we're supposed to stay away from them?

It was an "emperor has no clothes" moment -- a question that any decent father would have a tough time answering.

We commend Paul Ream for refusing to resort to sophistry. He did the right thing in the eyes of his daughter and more broadly for the community. Beer and cigarettes are profitable -- $1,500 a month at the University Parkway store. But so what? They provide little or nothing positive to society. Maintaining a great produce section and low grocery prices, on the other hand, are tangible benefits.

We think Ream will more than make up the money in community goodwill and new customers who will want to support his stand.

Smokers and beer drinkers can still waste money on their vices. They'll just have to find somewhere else to do it.

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