Smoke-free beach idea ignites debate

Palm Beach Post ^ | September 26, 2006 | Will Vash

[Sacajaweau]

Butts bother you....Bird sh** doesn't. Amazing!!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

We had over a dozen small fires this summer directly connected to a flipped cigarette into the woods. One was less than a half mile from our home.

[Dixie Yooper]

"Butts bother you....Bird sh** doesn't. Amazing"

Perhaps while your training yourself to use an ash tray, you can train the birds to use a toilet.

[Just another Joe]

I'm not anti-smoker.

I didn't say you were, but my sweeping statement makes just as much sense as yours.

Not all smokers consider the world their ashtray and not all anti-smokers are just nannys wanting to control another's behaviour.

[Malacoda]

Birds don't know any better, nor do they have any manners -- people ought to. I don't care if you smoke -- heck, smoke three cartons a day for all I care. Just don't leave your butts in the sand, where my kid will dig them up when he's building a sand castle.

I have the same issue with idjits who chew gum and spit it out or drop it in the street or on the sidewalk.

[Old Professer]

Anti-smoking crusaders seem to believe that smokers are their toilet.

[CSM]

"The panel unanimously recommended that city staff pursue an agreement with Ocean Ridge to enforce the litter law at the park..."

No need to go any further. Just enforce the current laws.

[ArrogantBustard]

Bird droppings are biodegradable, and are regularly cleaned off the beach by the natural processes of the tides, the wind, and the rain ... and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the sand-crabs eat the stuff. Cigarette smoker droppings (butts) are not biodegradable, at least not very fast. They accumulate.

Clean up after yourself! Take the minimal effort required to clean up your debris (like maybe not throw it on the ground in the first place); I'll bet that simple step would end the vast majority of the flak you get from those you feel are "anti-smokers".

[SouthernBoyupNorth]

I Smoke. I also use ash trays and never leave butts any where other tan designated receptacles. Yet I can not smoke in bars any more, I cannot smoke in restaurants, I cannot smoke at work come January, and now I will not be allowed to smoke outdoors. So much for freedom of choice. I get to be a second class citizen and a leper because some fat ass politician is out to score brownie points.

Excuse you.

[CSM]

"I'll bet that simple step would end the vast majority of the flak you get from those you feel are "anti-smokers"."

I'll take that action.

[Just another Joe]

"I'll bet that simple step would end the vast majority of the flak you get from those you feel are "anti-smokers"."

I'll take that action.

And I'll give him odds.

[ArrogantBustard]

In the long run, you'll lose. I remember the beginnnings of what some folks call the "anti-smoking crusade", in the 1970s ... I remember smokers acting like they had an inalienable right to light up anywhere and everywhere, and toss their debris on the ground where they stood. (Sound familiar? Some still have that attitude.) Polite requests to exercise a modicum of discretion, moderation, and common courtesy were ignored ... and the result was laws, laws and more laws. I don't approve of the nanny-statism ... I just find it utterly predictable.

[Just another Joe]

Polite requests to exercise a modicum of discretion, moderation, and common courtesy were ignored ... and the result was laws, laws and more laws.

And since then, when polite requests are answered by a, "I'm sorry, I'll put it out if it's bothering you" in public places, when there are smoking and nonsmoking restaurants, bars, etc, when there are fewer smokers than ever before..........the result is laws, laws, laws.

The nanny statist, power hungry, poor excuse for a liar, anti-smokers are no longer in it for personal reasons. They are now well funded and have many making a living off it.
Follow the money.

[elkfersupper]

I just don't mind banning the smoking for one reason: smokers throw butts wherever they want.

Before the smoking bans, there were ashtrays everywhere.

Now, there are none. Unintended consequences.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Smokers believe the world is their ashtray.

I'm one of the hard-core defenders of smokers but smoking should be banned on beaches. It's a no-brainer. How hard is it to throw your butt in a trash receptacle?

[ArrogantBustard]

Any group of people engaged in an activity which has the potential to be seriously obnoxious to the general public has two options:

1) They can police themselves
or
2) They can be policed.

Doing (1) above isn't an iron-clad guarantee that (2) above won't happen (though it's the best preventative), but failure or refusal to do (1) above is an iron-clad guarantee that (2) above will happen.

Smokers a generation or so ago notoriously refused to police themselves; the refusal continues. The results are utterly predictable.

[elkfersupper]

the world's smokers are kind enough to give me a free fireworks show along the highway.

There would be less of this if there were places to smoke other than in one's car.

[Alexis the Bengal Kitty]

I stopped smoking on June 20, 2006. I stopped for alot of reasons. One of them was being tired of being an outcast for doing something that is legal.

Have I ever thrown out a cigarette butt..sure in my younger days but as I got older I had more consideration and used a ashtray.

I am glad I do not smoke anymore, but I find it ridiculous all the things that folks come up with to persecute smokers. When I go to the beach, I find way more trash than cigeratte butts.

I see soda cans, beer bottles, other trash and of course, the trash that the ocean coughs up on the beachs.

The issue should not just be cigerette butts but all trash, period.

[ArrogantBustard]

Follow the money.

Yep ... that's why I said "in the long run". The current situation is a generation or more in the making, it's not going to change over night.

[ArrogantBustard]

There would be less of this if there were places to smoke other than in one's car.

Stuff and nonsense ... I've been seeing roadside 'fireworks' for decades.