Throw a Cigarette Butt on the Ground and You Could Face Three Years in Jail

Hey, and don't forget that they have you on facial recognition now, so they can catch you 24/7 even if a cop isn't around to see you do it. Pretty soon we will all be being fined for everything, even swearing, just like in the movie “demolition man”.

reply to post by xuenchen



As usual, within the Police State Industrial Complex, the punishment does not fit the crime. How about a $5 fine?

However, throwing a cigarette butt on the ground is no different than littering. Not sure when or how it bypassed the trash category.

reply to post by xuenchen


Having recently quit smoking (wish me luck...7 days and counting) I can say that butts are a problem. I can also say I never threw one on the ground....always kept an empty can in the car to put them in and if outside, being in the military I am use to field stripping and keeping them in my pocket until I find a trash can. I do take exception to the punishment.

Amazing that they can come up with this kind of punishment for littering yet have sex with a 14 year old, and as long as she or he appears older only get a month or two behind bars...kill someone while drinking and driving...may not ever face punishment, the 15 year old that killed my wife and children never faced a judge.

I understand the spirit and the fact that no judge would likely impose that penalty but then again we do have some really stupid people on the bench now a days so why would you support something like this ? I could support something which fit the crime like say pick up litter for 30 days but prison....nope...stupid law...knee jerk reaction.

Litter is Litter and this law needs to include all of it. Although it is really insane.

Attempted arson charge for throwing a lit butt may be a better charge.

How about employing people to pick up cigarette butts if they are that big of a problem?

Or

Have a recycle program where you get paid for each butt?

I would like to be there and see what a complete wazte of a cop can be the person who will drag someone in jail for 3 years over the remains of a cigarete smoke. As if we did not have more serious trouble to ponder about.

More so when the legislators commit the greatest environmental crimes both in legislation and in person.

I wash such things down the toilet drain as mere obstraction to the real matter so as to have us poor mouse distracted. Like they were the cat....

Time will show who tbe cats are if you know how i mean.

As an owner of a private prison farm, I'd definitely love this. Means more slave labor to rent out to business owners.

Keep in mind slavery was NOT abolished in the US. Slavery of prison inmates is still constitutionally protected.


The 13th amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction


The more private incorporated prisons the more free legal slave labor.
Slaves have no rights once convicted, and thats the constitution.

Yup, those baby-eating heathen cigarette butt throwers deserve federal prison time for tossing a teeny tiny 100% biodegradable piece of litter on the ground.

But as for styrofoam burger containers, toxic waste into our waterways, oil leaking cars, and carcenogenic soot pumping into our atmosphere to the tune of billions of tons per year ?

Meh, slap on the wrist.

It has an agenda. This hate legislation has an agenda.

One day you will be forced to reveal whether you smoke. To smoke and say that you do not will draw as much action from 'the smartest, and most fit to run things', as, say, an insurance injury scam artist would attract for a disabling back injury.

Cops will duly note the propensity to smoke, during a routine roadblock exercise or random house search. Then drones will be deployed, and you really can't escape being seen, in Zion, these days. This tobacco tidbit will go to the authorities, insurance companies, psychiatrists etc....

In such cases, for a cop to find your tobacco will be the same as the insurance investigator finding the injured disabled claimant out bungee jumping. I know how they operate.

It's funny. Butts are simply cellulose. Wood or paper products. They simply biodegrade.

In case you do not know it yet, obama care has a second tier which will psychiatrically evaluate the masses, neatly zipping up the conspiracy files on 911, Sandy Hoax, gun issues and so forth...since no one will want to speak. Cigarettes are targeted because of their healthful nootropic properties, and because they help shield against the deadly fallout from Japan. They will tax the bejeesus out of it, and they will call it a medication.

14 years ago I spotted the first sound byte, courtesy of the media creatures, declaring that tobacco is craved by 'disturbed' minds.
It is, after all, their planet. They are chosen by God. The story ran in the paper. I may have a copy of it stashed.



Care to speak up, Rahm? Why just cigarette butts, and not all litter?

This is a proposed hate law, plain and simple. I am beyond belief no one sees this.

Butts are small wads of harmless cellulose.

Butt now, they are evidence. DNA evidence.

You'll see.

# 109

reply to post by xuenchen


I have nothing against salary-based fines on such matter, if you lose 30-50% of your monthly salary because of some cigarette butt or can thrown on the ground, I believe a person does learn a lesson from it. Although jail-time is absurdity. Holding one person in jail for 3 years is expensive and not worth the taxpayers money.

For such matters, financial punishments (salary-based, a´la 1000 a month salary pays 100, while 10k a month pays 1000) should exist, but nothing harsher.

This is ridiculous and not a well researched law.

Everyone knows electric shocks are the only way to punish a monkey.


I mean if someone is not capable of critically thinking about smoking. How are they meant to comprehend the consequences of littering.

Cito
As an owner of a private prison farm, I'd definitely love this. Means more slave labor to rent out to business owners.

Keep in mind slavery was NOT abolished in the US. Slavery of prison inmates is still constitutionally protected.


The 13th amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction


The more private incorporated prisons the more free legal slave labor.
Slaves have no rights once convicted, and thats the constitution.

Yea I know it. That's the trash part of that amendment and the ugly part is that people had to be considered property for it to get there. I'd scratch that part out personally and very specific parts of the 14th. But apparently people like some of these things the way they are.

wow .. thought was bad in singapore .. got fine for smoking there ( was outside away from people ) never did pay and no intention return there .. from the article looks worse in america for smokers now ( always field strip cigarrete when done and dispose of properly wont leave butts laying around ) .

So I did some research so I'd actually have a clue what's going on.
Apparently the Government is going after the wrong culprit. The problem isn't the smokers who are targeted and convinced to smoke, it's the material that companies are manufacturing "Filters" with that is the real issue here.

It's not biodegradable according to all of the information I have dug up.
I will link the basic Wiki though and anyone can Google around.
Cig Filter Wiki

Most cigarette filters are made from cellulose acetate. Cigarette filters contain twelve thousand plastic-based fibers, and just like other forms of plastic, 'they do not biodegrade'[8] The leftover filter is the most common form of litter with International Coastal Cleanup volunteers collecting an estimated 53 million cigarette butts each year. The Filters non-biodegradability increases landfill demands, add costs to municipalities' waste disposal programs, and create environmental blight in public spaces.[9] What may be surprising is the level of toxicity found in a single cigarette butt. Using standard tests adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Novotny and other researchers discovered that a cigarette butt soaked in a liter of water for four days will kill both the topsmelt and the freshwater fathead minnow fish species.[10] The pollution caused by cigarette butts turn out to be a double-barreled problem: the 4,800 chemical compounds in cigarettes, at least 69 of which are carcinogenic, plus plastic filters that contain dangerous compounds and aren't biodegradable [10].

This resistance to biodegrading is a factor in littering,[11] environmental damage[12] and suggested lung damage.[13] In the 2006 International Coastal Cleanup, the number of individual cigarettes and cigarette butts collected amounted to 24.7% of the total number of garbage items collected, over twice as many items as any other category.[14]

So clearly this is a real problem it's not contrived, but it is TRUE that the Government is attacking the victims rather than the ultimate perpetrators (Big Tobacco Inc) of this travesty.

Just in case, here is a little more info provided:

The raw material for the manufacture of cigarette filters is cellulose (obtained from wood). The cellulose is acetylated (i.e. making it into a material called cellulose acetate or simply "acetate" for short), dissolved, and spun as continuous synthetic fibers arranged into a bundle called tow. The cellulose is a substituted diacetate (actually 2.35 - 2.55 substitution range) cellulose, due to its chemical and physical processing. This tow is opened, plasticized, shaped, and cut to length to act as a filter.[3][4]

Cellulose Wiki
Cellulose Acetate
Acetate
Ester

So the real question is, with all of the billions of dollars why cannot the Big Corps and Gov't figure this one out on their own?
With all the endless possibilities and they cannot come up with a biodegradable or 'reusable' filter of some sort?
Gotta be kidding me, expert chemists everywhere but yet no one has a solution?

As usual, it's apparent that no one here cares about looking further than the title. If you did, you would find many of your issues and concerns addressed. I'm not even going to bother relaying the information. If you're not curious enough to look for the truth yourself, well, then just take the word of a far-right-wing blog and bitch and moan to your heart's content.

Secondly, living in the desert southwest, I am highly aware of how many LIVES are lost, not to mention forest acreage, wildlife, businesses and homes, to the flick of a single cigarette butt.

It's really too bad people don't use their brains anymore.

Perhaps they should adopt Australia's method of curbing cigarette butt litter,by making them so expensive that if you buy a pack you have no money left to go out .

Did you know that cigarette butts can be used to soak up spilled oil? any future oil spills could be cleaned up with a floating net of butts collected by prisoners in chains roaming the streets.

As a smoker when I'm done I always snuff it and put it in a baggie unless I'm in my car where I have an ashtray for later disposal. I had a friend of my daughters in the car once and she kept flicking (not the butt, the ashes) out the window while she was smoking and I told her "You have 3 choices use the ashtray, put it out or walk." She chose to walk, go figure heh.

I too live in a high fire zone and have had no less than 5 major wildfires within 6 miles or less of my house and 3 I think were started by a cig out a car window. As for the punishment yeah make folks go around and pick up trash or whatever for littering, I'm not sure what I'd feel was right for a lit one out a window cause seriously that can be major bad, but I don't trust the gov't not to abuse it so

This is over the top though for littering, but as someone said above about the drunk driving, get caught driving drunk(or texting)=5 years, hurt someone while dui/texting=life in prison and killing someone=the death penalty. But hey "everyone" does it so that'll never get fixed.

Lil

Benevolent Heretic
As usual, it's apparent that no one here cares about looking further than the title. If you did, you would find many of your issues and concerns addressed. I'm not even going to bother relaying the information. If you're not curious enough to look for the truth yourself, well, then just take the word of a far-right-wing blog and bitch and moan to your heart's content.

Secondly, living in the desert southwest, I am highly aware of how many LIVES are lost, not to mention forest acreage, wildlife, businesses and homes, to the flick of a single cigarette butt.

It's really too bad people don't use their brains anymore.

Wrabbit had a whole thread on this about a month ago. I'm surprised that he (or any other mod who has participated) didn't shut this one down. But as I said time and again with that one, you need to do it THREE TIMES for the harsh sentence. I realize it is harsh. Was it harsh when I called my soon to be ex (instead of texting or emailing which she wasn't answering) to see my kids and was given $10000 bail although I had never committed a crime?
You know what? Everyone makes a mistake or two, but throwing garbage that is ON FIRE out of the window is attempted arson and should be treated as such. If you have such disregard for the safety of everyone to throw butts out of your vehicle, THREE times, move out of Illinois.

It's amazing to what lengths our rarified air breathing lawmakers and political types will do to keep the revenue flowing after so many mistakes are made in economic policy, allowing the banks and corporations to put so many people out of gainful employment.

I suppose now might be a good time to apply for a prison guard job to take advantage of the direction it appears our country is headed.

I never flick my butts anyway, but don't consider anyone who does any more than kind of rude and inconsiderate, not deserving of jail time or anything....

reply to post by xuenchen


Singapore can have any laws they want it's their country!

People have zero right to judge other countries/cultures!

Oh, wait, this is in the US.

yes Illinois the nuclear waste capitol of the world is worrying about cigarette butts. laughable indeed

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