how the gov't can go about getting rid of those unsightly butts
Oh yes, the Albertan gov't came up with that great idea on how to cut down on the amount of cigarette butts that litter the streets now that smoking indoors has become illegal. They have given out these wonderful little plastic containers for smokers to put their used butts in so that these same smokers can then dispose of them in a tidy fashion at a later date. Thought being, if there isnt an ash tray made available to these people right now, then they can carry it in this container til they find one. There little containers are like the film cases we had back in days of yore. Remember those all you old timers out there? now a few of you young whipper snappers might not remember this strange thing called 'film' but before there was digital camera techonolgy, we used to have to buy 35mm rolls of film (usually 24 exposures, sometimes 36) and it came in a little black plastic case with a grey lid on top. That is what they were circulating to the smokers. Surprisingly enough, it isnt working.
Sitting at home this morning, I read this in the local 'Opinion' section of our Sun news paper:
***
Of course there's a litter problem with butts. Poorly thought out anti-smoking laws just might be to blame. With no ashtrays around, and no smoking anywhere but outside, what else would anybody do but butt out on the ground? Duh!
Gord Schneider
(No butts about it. Blame the smoke-ban bylaw.)
***
I am guessing it was a combination of this opinion and me having to walk a few blocks in the downtown city core that I saw mass amounts of smokers, out on their lunch breaks, huddled into nooks and crannies of the buildings to stay out the of wind, smoking away. No matter where I looked I couldnt see an ash tray for blocks, but the area around these smokers was littered with butts. So, I rationalized the problem.
PROBLEM: cigarette litter is not the cigarette but the butts..what are butts, but only the filter of said cigarette.
SOLUTION: get rid of the filter!
Here is where my thoughts went. Careful now, they wander like a little 4 year old in a mall filled with puppy dogs, kitty cats and gum drops being tossed around. Filters really dont DO anything in a cigarette. (http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/cigbuttfilters.htm) The main thing that a filter seems to do is keep the tobacco out of the smokers mouth, allow the cigarette have a mouth piece so it wont collapse and will filter out some of the vapours and smoke. So, what does a filter do? By the sounds of it, it makes a cigarette safer in that it filters out the unwanted qualities but lets in the wonder addictive portions of the cigarette to keep people smoking more. Cause, lets face it, who would continue to smoke a cigarette after the first time if it was like literally sticking your head over a camp fire and sucking in pure smoke? Cigarettes are supposed to be cool. Cool is supposed to be dangerous. I mean, when was the last time you saw a harely davidson motor cycle flying down the highway doing 140km/hour with a guy sitting on the bike straped in with so many safety devices that he looked like he was wrapped in pillows, with training wheels on his bike, and you said "now that is cool"? You would say "that is cool" when you see a guy with just leather pants and leather vest, no helmet, flying down the highway on a bike doing 140km/hour, sticking it to the man and laughing in the face of danger. Hey, never said 'cool' and 'smart' were linked either. So, dangerous is cool, taking pain is cool, taking discomfort and keep doing it is cool. So, lose the filters, make cigarettes incredibly painful to smoke and totally unenjoyable. Who wants to keep smoking a cigarette when you have to keep spitting out pieces of tobacco? just the incredibly addicted.
I can now hear you saying "but then the streets will still have trash on them cause the smokers will just smoke what they can and then throw the litle bit of paper at the end on the ground". True, there might be a few little bits of paper, but they would either blow away or be washed away in the rain. BUT, I hypothesis that there wont be any pieces of paper or tobacco thrown on the street. Why? simple. Have you ever seen a group of people smoke a marijuanna joint, get to the end (no filters) and then toss the butts on the ground and walk away? hell no! These people invented the idea of a roach clip (a sort of alligator clip device that they can use to hold the 'roach' up to their lips so not to burn their fat fingers as they get that last few puffs of marijuanna) so they wouldnt be throwing away a lot of butts. Also, even when they have smoked as much as they can and their lips burn cause the heat is getting too close, they will still lick their fingers and either grab the flame bit and put it out so that they can put the roaches into a container with their other roaches so that they can roll one more joint later; or they will just pop the roach in their mouth and eat it. So, if we lose the filter, put the tobacco of the cigarette right up to their mouths, these smokers will most likely smoke that cigarette right up to the last puff and then save the cigarette for later, or bring their own roach clip to get the last few puffs.
Why am I so sure about that? simple...price. Lets say you walk into a restaurant and you order a steak and it comes with all this paper garnish of an umbrella, green pieces of paper and stuff and it only cost $2 for the whole meal. Well, you would leave the garnish and probably leave whatever of the steak you couldnt eat because it was cheap and all. Now, order that same steak, no garnish but the steak cost you $35. You will not only try to eat every last bite of that steak but chances are if you ate it all but 2 bites, you would ask for the waiter to bring you those two bites to go because it was so expensive.
How does that fit with cigarettes with no filters? simple, all have to do is raise the cost of cigarettes (as they are sky rocketing now) to the point that the 'steak' stops costing $2 and now costs $35. Smokers will then smoke as much as they can, put out the fire, save their cigarette 'roaches' and take them home and roll their own cigarette in their house or workplace and can then dispose of their garbage as they see fit. Then, it doesnt matter if they just throw the papers on the ground like they do in public, because now they are rolling in their own private place and the only thing that they are messing up is their own dwellings.
So, in the end, if we get the gov't to stop trying to educate people on smoking but simply make laws making cigarettes less enjoyable to smoke (no filters), then they might have a chance at killing two birds with one stone. They would curb the butt litter problem AND more than likely stop kids from starting to smoke at a young age by making it a horribly experience to begin trying.
Sitting at home this morning, I read this in the local 'Opinion' section of our Sun news paper:
***
Of course there's a litter problem with butts. Poorly thought out anti-smoking laws just might be to blame. With no ashtrays around, and no smoking anywhere but outside, what else would anybody do but butt out on the ground? Duh!
Gord Schneider
(No butts about it. Blame the smoke-ban bylaw.)
***
I am guessing it was a combination of this opinion and me having to walk a few blocks in the downtown city core that I saw mass amounts of smokers, out on their lunch breaks, huddled into nooks and crannies of the buildings to stay out the of wind, smoking away. No matter where I looked I couldnt see an ash tray for blocks, but the area around these smokers was littered with butts. So, I rationalized the problem.
PROBLEM: cigarette litter is not the cigarette but the butts..what are butts, but only the filter of said cigarette.
SOLUTION: get rid of the filter!
Here is where my thoughts went. Careful now, they wander like a little 4 year old in a mall filled with puppy dogs, kitty cats and gum drops being tossed around. Filters really dont DO anything in a cigarette. (http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/cigbuttfilters.htm) The main thing that a filter seems to do is keep the tobacco out of the smokers mouth, allow the cigarette have a mouth piece so it wont collapse and will filter out some of the vapours and smoke. So, what does a filter do? By the sounds of it, it makes a cigarette safer in that it filters out the unwanted qualities but lets in the wonder addictive portions of the cigarette to keep people smoking more. Cause, lets face it, who would continue to smoke a cigarette after the first time if it was like literally sticking your head over a camp fire and sucking in pure smoke? Cigarettes are supposed to be cool. Cool is supposed to be dangerous. I mean, when was the last time you saw a harely davidson motor cycle flying down the highway doing 140km/hour with a guy sitting on the bike straped in with so many safety devices that he looked like he was wrapped in pillows, with training wheels on his bike, and you said "now that is cool"? You would say "that is cool" when you see a guy with just leather pants and leather vest, no helmet, flying down the highway on a bike doing 140km/hour, sticking it to the man and laughing in the face of danger. Hey, never said 'cool' and 'smart' were linked either. So, dangerous is cool, taking pain is cool, taking discomfort and keep doing it is cool. So, lose the filters, make cigarettes incredibly painful to smoke and totally unenjoyable. Who wants to keep smoking a cigarette when you have to keep spitting out pieces of tobacco? just the incredibly addicted.
I can now hear you saying "but then the streets will still have trash on them cause the smokers will just smoke what they can and then throw the litle bit of paper at the end on the ground". True, there might be a few little bits of paper, but they would either blow away or be washed away in the rain. BUT, I hypothesis that there wont be any pieces of paper or tobacco thrown on the street. Why? simple. Have you ever seen a group of people smoke a marijuanna joint, get to the end (no filters) and then toss the butts on the ground and walk away? hell no! These people invented the idea of a roach clip (a sort of alligator clip device that they can use to hold the 'roach' up to their lips so not to burn their fat fingers as they get that last few puffs of marijuanna) so they wouldnt be throwing away a lot of butts. Also, even when they have smoked as much as they can and their lips burn cause the heat is getting too close, they will still lick their fingers and either grab the flame bit and put it out so that they can put the roaches into a container with their other roaches so that they can roll one more joint later; or they will just pop the roach in their mouth and eat it. So, if we lose the filter, put the tobacco of the cigarette right up to their mouths, these smokers will most likely smoke that cigarette right up to the last puff and then save the cigarette for later, or bring their own roach clip to get the last few puffs.
Why am I so sure about that? simple...price. Lets say you walk into a restaurant and you order a steak and it comes with all this paper garnish of an umbrella, green pieces of paper and stuff and it only cost $2 for the whole meal. Well, you would leave the garnish and probably leave whatever of the steak you couldnt eat because it was cheap and all. Now, order that same steak, no garnish but the steak cost you $35. You will not only try to eat every last bite of that steak but chances are if you ate it all but 2 bites, you would ask for the waiter to bring you those two bites to go because it was so expensive.
How does that fit with cigarettes with no filters? simple, all have to do is raise the cost of cigarettes (as they are sky rocketing now) to the point that the 'steak' stops costing $2 and now costs $35. Smokers will then smoke as much as they can, put out the fire, save their cigarette 'roaches' and take them home and roll their own cigarette in their house or workplace and can then dispose of their garbage as they see fit. Then, it doesnt matter if they just throw the papers on the ground like they do in public, because now they are rolling in their own private place and the only thing that they are messing up is their own dwellings.
So, in the end, if we get the gov't to stop trying to educate people on smoking but simply make laws making cigarettes less enjoyable to smoke (no filters), then they might have a chance at killing two birds with one stone. They would curb the butt litter problem AND more than likely stop kids from starting to smoke at a young age by making it a horribly experience to begin trying.
posted by Capt_Canuck at 3:39 PM
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