Submitted by rollotomasi07071 t3_ye4g0a in newjersey
See this doesn't have to go hand in hand. I'm calling bullshit here.
NJ is so anti smoking that they don't provide any opportunity to put the cigarette butts away. Guarantee you this would be much less of an issue if ashtrays and filters were more regularly available.
France and Japan encourage you to throw the butts in the garbage. Southeast Asia simply has ashtrays at every restaurant or bar table plus filters on hotel balconies. Much less butts are on the street because of it.
If the US implemented more of this, particularly Northern states like NJ, this would not be nearly as big of an issue.
That doesn’t track. How many people smoke in their cars and throw the cigarette out the window? Since they’re a smoker in their own vehicle, wouldn’t they know to have a trash bin in their car?
My late grandmother lived a mile from a traffic light. People would light up at the red and when they got to her place, throw the butt out the window. The first 8 feet of her lawn was nothing but cigarette butts. They were nearly impossible to get out of the grass.
People just don’t really litter in Japan to begin with. Every time I visit I am hard pressed to find any spec of trash on the ground.
Every food/drink related establishment has ashtrays because it is frowned upon heavily to ash on the ground outside. There is also usually one of those ashtray stands so a group of people can ash their cigs there and discard the butt into the garbage under the ashtray. If there isn’t one outside an establishment, people use an empty beverage container that they hold in their hand. Butts don’t get thrown on the ground, always the trash can. People smoking in their cars typically have a drink bottle filled with a bit of water and store the butts in there and then discard later.
While I disagree with the bill in the article, I don't want to foot your "proposed" bill because smokers can't properly dispose of their debris.
No public trash bins then?
No additional ashtrays/bins paid for by public money. It's not just the cost of the bin itself but then there's the cost of people to empty it, to pick up litter around it, to replace it when it eventually gets broken etc.
Literally the same logic. “I don’t like people using so many plastic bags! Remove recycling bins so plastic bags go away!” ^i ^know ^nj ^doesnt ^allow ^plastic ^bags ^anymore
I don't get it...You know you can't recycle plastic bags in any single stream recycling bin right?
Is a filter those tall skinny stack things? Because I’ve seen enough of those just slowly smoldering all day long to know they are useless and gross. They make the whole parking lot or area smell bad if someone tosses a lit butt in there. You’d take any other garbage with you, take your butts too!
> I'm sure there's plenty of portable personal ashtrays available on the market these days
You are correct, there are. I've been using one for my public forays for years since I refuse to contaminate the environment.
Well, that's on tobacco companies to actually change the formula, so to speak. No reason a cig butt shouldn't be biodegradable. That goes for ALL single use plastic items. This tragedy of the commons is a grift to put all environmental concerns on the citizen, and not the multi billionaires that could actually do something meaningful.
There should be a federal ban on cigarette filters. They are what does the damage. Some of the first successful tobacco companies sold either filterless or paper filtered cigarettes.
Race tracks?!??
The others you’ll probably be able to sell but good luck with that one haha
I don’t think this will stop them
Soon every town will have one gazebo known as the designated smoking area which will be the only place to smoke in town. Just one gazebo always filled with people trying to avoid eye contact and the fact that the only reason they’re here is because of a bad health decision made when they were 17.
it sounds like those little glass rooms in las vegas and southern airports.
They could decorate it and bring food. It could become the it hangout in town.
Doesn't sound bad at all with that description. Because if we don't corral them somewhere, they just stand literally right outside an entrance/exit and the smoke always finds a way inside.
"Smokers have rights too!" Yeah, and none of them include triggering people's asthma, allergies, and stinking up the place while leaving your trash all over. Even when there's a disposal fixture right there next to you. You don't wanna get wet in the rain? Then bring an umbrella. Cold? Wear a coat.
Right? I'm pregnant and I hate walking into someone's cloud of smoke because they're standing immediately in front of the door
Not a smoker:
I agree with boardwalks 100%. Six flags, Jenks, Seaside, etc already ban it in the amusements area. Meadowlands bans it indoors already, and i believe they have non-smoking areas in the outdoor section.
State stuff like historic sites? Again, pretty sure its already banned, certainly indoors.
Cemeteries? is this really an issue?
> Cemeteries? is this really an issue?
I would think kids might gather and smoke in cemeteries. I don't know, even that seems like quite a stretch, but it's all I can come up with.
do we live in a cheasy 80s movie?
Hey, Tony, me and Tony are headed to the cemetery to smoke
Do you think kids still don't do that? It's not really cigarettes anymore, but they still go to these places to smoke/vape nicotine and marijuana since they are usually out of sight and away from the adults responsible for them.
Not a stretch. It’s actually really common. I’ve had to chase away a batch of teens smoking while sitting on my mother’s headstone.
Probably because of the litter.
New Jersey acting like they care about clean air and littering is comical.
For real, drive through north jersey to see the wonderful clean air and the streets you could eat off of!
Yea Vernon is nice
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How about casinos?
I'm glad to know almost all of my smoking friends will hold onto their butts until they can find an appropriate recepticle.
Amen brother.
I don't know about all amusement parks, but Great Adventure has huddled you into smoking boxes for like a decade. And they were strict about it, my buddy was hanging out straddling the line and got told "inside or we are kicked out."
I once lit a cig 20 feet from the exit line on my way out of the park and had an employee yell at me, tell me to put in out, and follow me until I crossed the line... when magically it was fine to smoke there.
was there last weekend. they still had at least one of those inside the park that i noticed. most of them though have signs up saying pretty much "we know this looks like a smoking area, but it isn't".
Anyway the one that they did let you smoke in was way off to the side of everything so i don't see an issue with that or feel like we need to take it away from smokers. They aren't bothering anyone, its outside, staff doesn't need to go near it, etc. Rather that then people trying to sneak smokes throughout the park and making a mess.
It should be banned in all public places. If you want to kill youself, do It away from everyone else so we dont have to breath in your disgusting smoke
This is a horrible take. Why should it be banned outdoors? It's an open air environment where it can be away from you...
Not everyone does it away from other people. There are many people, like myself, who have asthma and will have an asthma attack from 2nd hand smoke, even if it is outdoors. I cannot even tell you how many times I have had an asthma attack from people smoking right outside an entrance/exit to a building, walking around the boardwalk, etc.
Fuck your litter. It’s fucking gross seeing cigarette butts all over the street and even worse in nature. Just selfish assholes making a mess and throwing their trash all over the ground.
Fuck assholes who project individual issues and generalize them to an entire group of people.
Not every smokers litters you asshat.
The amount of irony in this thread lol. So many people complaining about entitlement and not changing their habits for other people while they demand other people change their habits because of them aka other people.
Some (really most) do litter so literally anywhere it’s legal to smoke, there will be litter.
If every smoker dropped butts it’s be very noticeable. Instead these type of people will yell at the sky
Exactly. There’s tons of outrage here for no reason.
People just like raising there fists to make themselves feel better.
Exactly “I hate seeing litter” yea me too. Also unless they’re in the city, I guarantee they rarely if ever come across smokers. You shouldn’t shift policy because one day a year you get a whiff of an unpleasant smell.
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How to know if you are self centered: you don’t notice that everything in a 20 foot radius of you smells absolutely disgusting because of the flaming tobacco you have in your mouth.
Would you feel the same way about your neighbors safely burning garbage in a fire pit in their own backyard?! ITS OUTSIDE IT MUST BE OKAY!
I agree, all perfumes must be banned!
How to know if you are self centered: you want to ban something other people enjoy because it smells slightly unpleasant to you.
Good God the entitlement non smokers have is insane.
For the record I've been to cities around the world (mainly in Asia) that smell like literal garbage. It's not the most pleasant smell but I'm not out there trying to ban their way of life
its not about the smell its about the fact that it literally fucking kills people. One group is saying "hey do what you want but don't have a negative impact on my life and health" and the other is saying "im entitled to a 10 minute break at work and if you dont like breathing in my disease causing poison just go somewhere else" and you think the former is the entitled one?
Secondhand smoke is bad for whoever breathes it in. Doesn't matter if it's "not that bad". The people breathing it in didn't sign up for it, they don't want to breathe it in, and shouldn't have to because of someone else's choice.
Now you know how those of us who despise marijuana feel. Ever since it went legal I can't drive anywhere without smelling that shit poisoning the air.
Because fuck your second hand smoke, that’s why
Real intelligent take there. That's when you know you don't have a good reason to ban it in all public places
The vast majority of what they're referencing is parents that smoke in their own homes and in the car with children. Not people standing in the middle of a public park or a cemetery...
Yeah I’m sure people love seeing cigarette butts all over grandma’s grave when they visit.
Are there butts on grandma's grave now? Also, who's going to enforce?
Do not smoke, have never smoke tobacco. I see no reason to make kaws against smoking tobacco stricter… I can’t recall the last time I even smelled tobacco smoke in a publuc place.
Lol, what a nothing burger, smoking is already banned at almost all of these places already. If it's not, most smokers aren't bands of sociopaths. We mostly keep our smoke to ourselves.
This is ridiculous, and honestly is a huge step back in the context of legal marijuana. Fuck everyone who supports this bullshit resolution.
Everyone vapes now anyway
Yes, but in NJ, if you can't smoke there, you can't Vape there.
That was all thanks to one lawmaker who years ago thought she saw someone smoking where is was banned, complained to management about it, but was informed they were vaping. But she was not satisfied because it "looked like they were smoking" went back to Trenton and introduced a bill to add vaping to the "clean air act" (which passed)
Well considering secondhand vaping is also a thing I can get on board with that ban.
We're getting a little crazy with all these smoking bans. I used to be a smoker many many years ago and I love the fact that we prohibit smoking indoors but I could care less if someone wants to light up when they are outside and not close enough to annoy anyone else.
Burial sites, are dead people now offended by cigarette smoke. This is what NJ state legislators are busy doing. $56,000 of debt per tax payer highest in the nation and this is how they spend their time. Next they will pass another spiteful gun law that does nothing to protect anyone and we pay them for this.
I quit smoking a few years ago but I actually don't mind the smell.
I guess it makes sense to ban it though, most people really seem to detest it. Racetracks though? Has this lady ever been to the Meadowlands? Ninety percent of the people are either tweaked or drunk, cigarettes are almost a necessity.
Please ban smoking on the boardwalks! The weed smell this past summer overpowered everything around it.
A ban doesn’t do much though when you can just refuse to give your name and walk away when caught.
It absolutely should be banned in cemeteries. Throwing cigarette butts on a grave is incredibly disrespectful to the dead and their loved ones. Last time I visited my grandparents’s grave I saw a cigarette butt on their grave and I’m still pissed about it.
Asinine
The state needs more smoking posts to dispose the buds…complete ban will not solve the issue…also smokers are addicted to nicotine some maybe offering free help will reduce the amount of smokers hence reduce the amount of buds scattered on the streets.
The state regularly offers free nicotine replacement stuff. Its all OTC and pretty cheap compared to a pack of smokes or vape anyway.
I think we kind of hit critical mass on smokers where no matter what happens won't change their mind. I always knew it was bad, price and social stigma is what got me to quit, but some folks are more stubborn.
As much as i don't think its a good thing to promote or normalize vaping, and still think there are unanswered questions and other risks with that, i'd like to think we can find a quiet way to get these folks to switch just from a trash and second hand perspective.
Is weed included in the smoking ban?
It’s been included in every smoking law so far so I’d think this is the same.
As the years have gone by, and smoking became less frequent in both private and public areas, I’ve discovered my tolerance to second hand smoke has decreased (I grew up with a smoking father). While it doesn’t bother me, unless I am in an outdoor restaurant etc., I do notice the smell. As long as someone is not puffing behind me in a non-smoking area — let them kill themselves.
That's going to hurt medical marijuana patients
If you need to smoke so much that you can't be in public, get edibles.
I'm not interested in breathing that shit in
Unfortunately that’s not always the best solution. If I’m in the midst of a panic or PTSD attack I can’t always wait the 2 hours for an edible to kick in when smoking or vaping can reduce symptoms in minutes or seconds. I do think there needs to be regulation and common sense courtesy to others but it does really suck for people that are genuinely disabled and aren’t always conveniently at home when symptoms flare up.
OK so what did you do before it was legal?
I only just started using it this summer when I got my medical card so nothing. And I still haven’t smoked away from my home because the places I go have no smoking rules in place that I follow, but it would help my health tremendously if I was able to occasionally have a place I could go in those places and prevent me from dealing with needless terror and pain that I have to when I can’t use my most effective medication. I don’t think disabled people should be made to either stay in their homes or live in pain. I think there has to be a reasonable solution that allows people to use their medication and allows others to not be subjected to smoke if they don’t want to be. I’m not in disagreement at all about having no smoking areas just that a reasonable alternative spot should be available and you shouldn’t need to walk a mile to find a safe and legal place to smoke.
I disagree. And it seems I'm in the mass majority
If your solution involves having me deal with your smoking, I'm not entertaining it
The fact that’s all you got from everything I said is very disappointing. And from every other comment you’ve made on here it seems like you just want to be angry about this, but not even consider other peoples feelings and opinions or any solutions. My whole point is I DONT subject anyone else to my smoke and have no desire to, just want to have places out of the way that are okay to smoke at without needing to go home every time.
Do you realize the significant cost difference, as well as the huge difference in how long different consumption methods take effect? It's not as simple as just switching to edibles.
I could not care less. Your problem represents an impossibly small percentage of the population, that has multiple avenues to explore
I'm just pointing out it's more nuanced than you're claiming.
It's not.
Take an edible, and figure out your own dosing and time tables. Or stay home.
Again, not that simple, Mr/Ms/Mx Know-it-all
Staying the fuck home is definitely that simple
Walking the fuck away from someone smoking is just that simple as well.
So is creating and enforcing legislation that makes it illegal to snake in public places
You'll never take away my freedom to snake in public.
Oh, I forgot people with disabilities should hide at home and never be seen.
Oh, I forgot people with disabilities should hide at home and never be seen.
Sorry that you don't like the smell of freedom.
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Every day we lose a little more of our freedom....
and Im not even a smoker
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All for them banning it racetracks.
Former smoker/New Yorker: banning smoking in public places works and I’m (begrudgingly) very pro bans
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Feckless Phil Murphy and the nanny state legislature strike again !!!!!
Most those places other then race tracks already do ban it
I'd rather they just jack the fines for polluting with butts through the roof. I don't mind the smoking outdoors, its the people littering.
It really shouldn't be banned anywhere outdoors. I mean come on... when we're outside there is plenty of space for the smoke to travel in the air away from people.
I actually hate that NJ is so strict with it in establishments. Down south like in Texas and Georgia it's perfectly acceptable to smoke in an outdoor bar. NJ won't even let you do that most of the time.
Stop this madness. Is it that big of a deal to let people smoke outside? There are parts of the world that still let you do it indoors and I have been there and applaud those places.
I get the issue with indoor smoking and air travel but outdoors, what is the big deal as long as somebody isn't blowing it right in your face?
Imagine wanting to be Texas lmao
Fuck off to Texas then lmao
Imagine being an asshole who tells someone to get lost because they don’t have a coherent argument of their own.
Imagine actually thinking you need to prove a point to a smoker? Lmao
So smokers aren’t human beings?
You’re a shit person with a shit take who can’t even use a question mark correctly.
To me? They're human, but their priorities are nowhere near important to me.
Same reason ya'll can't get transplants, mate. You make stupid choices. Get fucked
The only thing getting fucked here is your singular brain cell failing to having a normal conversation.
I’m not even a smoker, but you’re too dumb to even realize how little sense you make 😂
I have... a few times actually... it's a nice state. Sorry I believe in the right to be able to smoke outdoors
It's not a right. You're a fucking nuisance to others. And the mass majority of people want smokers to fuck off
In what way is it a nuisance to smoke? For fucks sake I am minding my own business and most of the time I am away from non-smokers when I do it. As long as we're respectful of other people's personal space and not blowing it in their face why is this such a big deal to smoke outside? It's not like the smoke even lingers outdoors nearly as much as indoors...
Everyone can smell it, and you, from 100 feet away.
Everyone can smell bad hygiene too. Or bad food. Or sweat. Smelling bad isn't banned...
My smelling your BO isn’t bad for my health. Me breathing in your second hand smoke is
Yes it is that big of a deal. Name another bad health habit that kills innocent bystander causes diseases asthma attacks etc. So if i have asthma and smoking is a trigger i shouldn't be allowed to frequent outdoor spaces that may have some drunk asshole not being mindful or where the wind is blowing his smoke? If I have neighbors that smoke on their porch and i cant open my windows because smokes comes into the house are they going to pay my medical bills if i develop a condition due to their behavior? Do i not have the right to open the windows and not have to worry about whether or not the air is gonna give me an asthma attack in my own house?
They should ban 10 minute breaks for smokers at work next.
Good.
He is the best
I would definitely support this. Nothing better than finding cigarette butts tossed onto the beach or somewhere in nature.
Thank God I f****** hate cigarettes and the smell and how everyone who smokes thinks it's their god-given right to do it anywhere and leave their cigarette butts everywhere.
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I'm not against legal weed. I'm not a smoker either, but i did previously smoke. I'm certainly not militant anti-smoker, but i can probably smell a cigarette from a block away, because, damn i could go for a smoke......
ANYWAY, when i smell something these days its always pot.
Again, i don't have a problem with pot, but i wish folks would be a touch more discreet about it.
Smokers got the message years ago
It's not just simply annoying. It is a medical concern for people with lung conditions, such as asthma.
I work in one of the casinos. We need a ban in those buildings.
Ms Murphy can suck me off. Fuck you and your nanny state, social control bullshit. I pay my taxes and work my ass off, if I want a smoke while sitting at the park and relaxing I damn well will do it.
Smokers cost out health systems billions of dollars a year. Any law that will promote smoking cessation is a bonus. .
Overheating costs our health system billions of dollars a year too. I would even venture to guess that more people have diabetes and that is a larger drag on the health system than smoking.
Well, you could say that about overweight people or people that don’t exercise or anyone who drives a car. Once you eliminate smokers people will be on to the next group until we are all just eating the same thing and taking no risks.
Data supports the cost related to smoking related illness. Obesity is a close second. It’s not about taking risks. It’s about the cost of that to society.
Good, it’s time as being acceptable in public is long past.
Wastesofa t1_itw9h5l wrote
I think a large issue that is being overshadowed by second hand smoke is the toxicity of cigarette butts. Often people will think "oh its just plant and paper, it'll biodegrade" and will just drop on the ground. Just like it does to your lungs, it leaches toxic chemicals and additives into the environment. A large part of the bands on smoking is for littering and environmental protection, not just smoking around others.
Edit: Perhaps the burden of smoking trash disposal should be the responsibility of the smoker, not the state. I'm sure there's plenty of portable personal ashtrays available on the market these days. Keep it in your ashtray and hold on to it until you do see a trashcan like you would do with EVERY OTHER PIECE OF TRASH YOU WOULD HAVE. I don't eat a candy bar and just throw the trash on the ground if I don't see a trash can. If you chose to smoke you have to take responsibility for your own trash. I don't think that's asking too much.