Why, oh why, is every playground in HRM filled with disgusting cigarette butts? People who smoke: grow the f**k up! This is where kids play. HRM: institute an immediate $100 fine on anyone caught smoking within 50 metres of a playground (and actually enforce it). I dare anyone to say smokers have more of a right to smoke than our kids have to clean playgrounds.
This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2007.
OMG, yes! I can’t express how much I hate that shit, and I am really glad somebody brought it up. And beaches are even worse than playgrounds. Have you been to Chocolate Lake? Listen, you dirty, lazy fuckers. Enjoy your vile, stinky, disgusting habit in the great outdoors. I can live with that. But put your filthy garbage in your pockets, not on the ground. You already stink of stale smoke. What’s a few smelly butts in your pocket? It’s too dirty to go in your pocket, but you’ll put it in your MOUTH?
omg… stop with the wide sweeping statements you loud mouth cunts. I’d bet dollars to dimes that the people that are doing this aren’t even of age to be smoking so they hide out in the parks with their cigs & their booze and don’t give a flyin fuck about you, me or anyone else. Enough with attacking fuckin smokers already. jesus christ… get off your high horse and examine your own life. Smoking is my one “bad habit”, how many skeletons are roaming in your closets?
Carnate hit the nail right on the fucking head. But while we’re at it, let’s not forget the waddling lardtubs and their candy wrappers. According to a recent news report, obesity is quickly overtaking smoking as the number one health threat.
Elbee, Carnate did not hit the nail on the head. Carnate merely made a knee-jerk reaction toward a perceived attack on his ‘one bad habit’ and turned it into something personal. CPED wasn’t complaining about smokers in general but the inconsiderate twits that feel cigarette butts aren’t litter and choose to dispose of them anywhere they feel like it, in this case, kids’ playgrounds. And more to THAT point, I would like to know why cigarette butts aren’t considered litter like every wrapper, coffe cup and plastic bag that create a similar eyesore. Littering laws cover these items so why not cigarette butts. I’ve seen too many smoker/drivers thoughtlessly dump their butt-laden ash-tray onto the road while stopped at a red light. Those butts are concentrated with all the shit that’s going into your lungs; benzene, arsenic, cyanide, formaldehyde, etc. Where do you think that toxic sludge goes when it rains?The habit is legal (for now) so I will defend your right, but please be considerate to those around you who do not share your choice.
It could be considered a knee-jerk reaction had this been the first or one of a few attacks on smokers. Every day I read how filthy & disgusting we are. Everyone hates us, yadda yadda yadda. I AM what would be considered a considerate smoker & will be the first one to smack someone for just tossing their butts around. I’m just very tired of having to defend myself for the actions of a minority. Yes their some prick smokers out there, but let’s be realistic. There’s plenty of pricks in any labled group of people. I just choose to ignore such people. The litter & garbage left behind is unsightly and hazard, but this concentration of hate mongering on smokers is just rediculous.Non smokers have been givin all avenues to avoid us, which I agree with by the way, but on the same token UNTIL such time that the government takes away my right to abuse myself as I see fit, would it not be in everyones best interest that they make butt bins more accessable so that the 50/50 person will choose to dispose of properly. Some will litter just cause that’s how they are. Others would dispose properly if they were given an easy avenue for that purpose.
Let’s have some clarity here, people. This is not one of those posts vilifying and demonizing smokers in general. Let us make a distinction between responsible smokers like Carnate, who obviously never flicks his butts on the ground in playgrounds or anywhere else, and dirty pigs who think the world is their ashtray. And while no litter is good litter, let us also make a distinction between ordinary, unsightly litter and toxic, bacteria laden litter. If my kids found a potato chip bag blowing around on the ground in a playground, I would encourage them to pick it up and put it in the trash can. Cigarette butts, on the other hand, are in the same category as used needles and condoms. Imagine a beach littered with used condoms. Do you want to spread your beach blanket out over that?
I understand Carnate’s frustration. I personally don’t care if you smoke at the bus stop. The city streets are full of every kind of airborne polution. Singling out cigarette smoke as the Great Evil is stupid. Unfortunately, I have observed that the vast majority of smokers flick their butts on the ground no matter where they are. I don’t buy the arguement that there are no ashtrays. Put it out and put it in your pocket until you find a suitable place to dispose of it, just like you would a candy wrapper. Like I said, if you don’t mind putting it in your mouth, it shouldn’t be a problem to put it in your pocket.
I actually do care if someone smokes at the bus stop. They’re designated as non smoking areas. My gf takes the bus every day & every day has to deal with one of these assholes. She’s a non smoker & is very alergic to it as I’m sure many others are. Sheltered or not, raining or not, that is about respect.
Smoke yourself to oblivion for all I care but clean up your butts! Seriously, I live in an apartment complex where practically everyone smokes and I deal with the smell of it wafting in my windows and through the hallways. But nothing irks me more than to come out my front entranceway and see the steps, sidewalk, grass and flowers my (often extremely cheap) landlord has bothered to plant littered with cigarette butts. Clean up your crap!! You live here for chrissakes, show a little pride!
So we’ve moved from parks to apartment complexes? I may be mistaken, but I do believe there’s a bylaw in the tenancy act that says your landlord must provide a safe a clean living environment anywhere on the proptery (which may or may not be limited to high traffic areas). As such, you could easily (and justifiably) lodge a complaint. At the very least could you not ask for a proper receptacle to be supplied at the appropriate interval from the entrance? I do tend to forget this is about bitching rather than problem solving, but most things that “irk” a person can be easily solved.
How about EVERYBODY in Metro stop being littering dickweeds. How about that? Plastic baggies of dogshit (when it even makes it to a bag), timmies cups, GUM!!! What’s so hard about holding onto something until you find a trashcan or take it home with you? And while we’re at it…STOP SPITTING ON THE SIDEWALKS, PEOPLE!!!
I smoke and like many reasonable smokers, I am acutely aware of how my smoking and how I dispose of my butts affects others. There are 2 non-smokers in my home. I always smoke outdoors – at work and at home and I am limited to where I can smoke. What irks me is the smoking nazis who cannot tolerate even the site of a smoker. It doesn’t matter if the smoker is well out of reach of their nostrils or not, it’s the fact that people are still smoking that bothers them. I’ve seen non-smokers approach the area where my co-workers and I smoke deliberately in order to sneer or make a derogatory remark. I let them have it in spades. One guy said you smokers disgust me (we were a full 30 ft. from the entrance of the building). I looked him straight in the face and said you are looking for trouble by going out of your way to approach us where we are allowed to smoke. You disgust me with your attitude and looks. If I had a dog with a face like yours I’d shave it’s ass and make it walk backwards yet they allow you out of your cage don’t they? I’m seriously fed up with the whiners. You’re getting responsible smokers who are on the verge of turning radical. The next time someone does that to me, I’m going to use his face as an ashtray. As for butts lying all over the ground? Put back the receptacles and the problem will go away. I’ve never seen so many butts as there are on the sidewalks and gutters now. So the city in all it’s wisdom has created a monster. Imagine that!
I want people like BJ and Carnate to know that some non smokers really appreciate their responsible attitudes. Fortunately, it’s an attitude that is becoming more and more common, though by no means universal. And the peer pressure that will get smokers to adopt a similar attitude has to come from other smokers.But. I DO NOT buy the arguement that the lack of ashtrays justifies tossing butts on the ground. Yes, there should be more ashtrays. But if you’re walking down the street enjoying a timmies, you wouldn’t dream of throwing the empty cup on the ground. You’d hang on to it until you found someplace to put it. Why is a butt different? Tell you what: start tossing your butts in trash cans. There are still a few of those around. Once the city has put out a few hundred trash can fires, maybe they’ll get a clue and put some ashtrays out there.