Butt heads
 

I thought I was the only person that got pissed off at the irresponsible smokers. Smoking is bad enough but smokers should at least dispose of the butts properly. There's a way to get sweet revenge in Knoxville now. An anti-littering campaign has begun which allows people to report litter bugs(cig butts included). The guilty parties get a nice little letter threatening a summons to court if they should be caught again. Court costs would run about $1,000! How sweet.

Wow, i can see the abuse starting now. A few buddies all report another buddy. Pretty soon the practical joke costs some innocent person a lot of money.... This could easily get out of hand. Im curious what kind of proof of their littering they need or what else goes along with this law.

It does irritate me when the inconsiderites around campus toss their cigarette butts on the ground as their walking, or flick them out their window. Just walking around campus and seeing all of them is nasty imo.

That's what i'm thinking also, How the hell could you prove somebody threw a piece of garbage on the ground...It would be a good thing if it works out, no doubt.

I don't see it working very well though.

As a smoker, I have to say something in my defense.

Throwing cigarette butts on the ground pisses me off also. I will not do it if there is an ashtray in sight. However, anti-smokers are partly to blame for this. Maybe my campus is an isolated phenomenon, but people try to get smokers to quit by reducing the number of ashtrays on campus...working real well...

How bout putting one ashtray by the door instead of the two extra trash cans. Hell, I went to a theme park (Valley Fair if you're familiar with it) this summer and there was not a single ash tray in the whole place. No rules about not smoking, but no ash tray either. My question is whether we should throw burning material into a trash can. I ask you what other option do we have? (please don't say not smoking because I have made my choice and you will not change my mind)

[/rant]
end rant before I jack this thread into anti anti smoking thread

I used to be a smoker and I used to do that. Now I realise how nasty and ugly things get because of smokers. Not to make an excuse or anything, but I never though about this when I smoked and I only realised it when I quit.

Maybe people should talk to smokers first before they go on fining them 1000$, smokers are people also and they can be reasoned with.

I've developed a talent for rolling the lit end of a cigarette off onto the ground while keeping the filter for proper disposal. Often I can't find an ashtray, for reasons already mentioned here, and I end up pocketing the filter. This ultimately means my clothes need dry-cleaning regularly if I'm not to have to put up with people making rude comments; but I'd rather do this than leave non-biodegradable orange eyesores around in my wake.

Good idea Castex.

I have a little matchbox sized ashtray that I carry around with me.

Altoids tins would probably work well in this situation as well.

I do agree that if at all feasible smokers need to dispose of their trash properly...as do people drinking pop in a can, eating something in a disposable wrapper, or doing any other activity that could result in littering.

It's not just smokers that make messes.

True - but they're the only minority on whom discrimination is not only tolerated, but encouraged by society.

/non-smoker

yournamehere: I do agree with that point. I never liked that fact in January when I didn't smoke, and I don't care for it now.

There seem to be "blinders" on a lot of people that make them oblivious to the fact that cigarette smokers aren't the only, or even the worst evil out there, and sometimes it makes them think it's okay to respond violently or illegally to said smokers, when in fact they have no personal stake in that particular smoker's habit, other than the smoker may throw a butt that's less than an inch long onto the ground (which I think is dirty, and shouldn't be done). They would never consider doing something that could physically harm someone for throwing a McDonald's cup out the window however.

Just so that it's known, I'm not really talking about anyone on here, specifically, but more about the excessive "Don't smoke" ads on TV, and the opinions of people I meet daily in real life.