What on Earth can I do with 460 cigarettes?

[wineoclockthanks]

They were my Mum's.

I think they're worth about about £250 so don't really want to just throw them away. I honestly don't know anyone who smokes. I've asked local women's refuge and food bank and they don't want them. Although they were bought in UK (and so have had tax paid on them), I don't know where to sell them.

I don't want to make a profit from them as my Mum died from a smoking related illness, so anything I do make I'd donate to Cancer Research or similar, but just don't have a clue what to do.

Any suggestions?

460 cigarettes' worth of harm isn't actually very much, though. It's 20 a day for 23 days. If someone smoked for 23 days of their life, then stopped, the damage to their health would be slight to non-existent.

I don’t understand that argument.

So how about 20 a day for six months? A year? 30 a day for a month?
Are cigarettes no longer addictive? Have I missed something?

Giving them to a homeless person might mean the difference between that person catching something from smoking a germ-laden dog end; or spending their last £10 on tobacco and forgoing food as a result.

This. And only this.

Your Mum as a smoker obviously loved her cigarettes. She would want someone who's going to get them someway, to have them.

I seriously can't believe what I'm reading

I'm saying that 'causing 460 cigarettes worth of harm' is virtually meaningless.

I can only see one eye roll on the thread, by the way, so not sure why Freda has been projected across London by it!

Not op. I get it, you look at something your mum has spent money on and want to do something useful with it. But I still think the best thing is to get rid.

I’m confused too.

Sell on fb. Or give on freecycle.

@Thememorylingers it’s certainly not because I’m a featherweight!

I was thinking more metaphorical eye rolls in that loads of people feel my thoughts are not fair. I’m quite prepared to be wrong. I’m a very flawed person generally but I have passions.

So how about 20 a day for six months? A year? 30 a day for a month?

460 cigarettes is only enough to smoke 20 a day for 23 days. Even if the OP were to give them all to one person (which no one has suggested) that number of cigarettes in itself is not sufficient to harm anyone.

If you are pointing out that they will form part of an ongoing habit supplemented by other cigarettes - well, that is exactly the point many have been trying to make on this thread. The OP's cigarettes will simply substitute for bin-tobacco or tobacco bought at the expense of food. They won't cause anyone to smoke who wouldn't already be smoking.

Would people at work be interested in them? When I worked in an office I remember a member of staff coming back from a holiday and giving everyone (who smoked) a packet of cigarettes.

Or possibly dish them out around the homeless? If you can afford it, a hot drink and a packet of them.

They will just substitute? They won't increase an individuals smoking habits?

They won't be sold or given to young people? Or is that OK in certain circumstances?

If I died and my daughter burnt my stash, I'd haunt her.

If I were your daughter I’d burn your stash to get you back for a final hug.

They will just substitute? They won't increase an individuals smoking habits?

Yes. Because people don't stop smoking because they can't afford cigarettes. They forage for dog ends, or they go without food, or they might even be driven to steal or prostitute themselves.

There are regulars where I work who turn up daily to the smoking area outside work and go through the bins for longish dog ends, which they then decant into carrier bags full of dog ends. Whether they smoke them themselves or have a cottage industry in second-hand tobacco, I don't know, but it's revolting, pitiful and utterly lacking in dignity.

If the OP can spare the humiliation of someone who has so little in life that they have to smoke the saliva-ridden tobacco of others that has been lingering on the pavement or in a bin, in my opinion that can only be a good thing.

Lol.

There's a retired man in Blackpool who makes art from cigarette butts, maybe he could use them for artwork to bring awareness to anti smoking.
Have a look at www.goodnewsnetwork.org/pharmacist-has-collected-120000-cigarette-butts-for-art/

I can't believe the righteousness on this thread. The homeless I've worked with would have been glad to get them and wouldn't have been more damaged in the longer run by having decent packet or two rather than scratching around for dog ends.

I'm not denigrating this man and his art, but is there really a need to 'bring awareness to anti-smoking' in the 21st Century UK?

Smokers are the pariahs of society. Tobacco products are decorated with picture of rotting lungs and gangrenous feet. Advertising is banned.

Some people choose to take the risk - like some people choose to eat with abandon, or go bungee jumping or mountaineering or extreme diving or any number of activities that carry a risk.

I'm sorry about your Mum, OP. Smoking is a hell of an addiction.

I really like JockTamsonBairns post, that was a lovely thing to do and it obviously made a huge difference to the recipient.

The cigarettes are here, manufactured - and for somebody, they'll bring peace/pleasure. I wouldn't put them on facebook, I'd do exactly what Jock did.

FredaFrogspawn Mon 06-Jan-20 20:10:26
If I were your daughter I’d burn your stash to get you back for a final hug.

This made me teary.

When the smoking ban came in, my gran decided she didn't want to be an old lady out in the cold so she quit. She had 2000 silk cut cigarettes at the time, and in her wisdom she decided to bury them in the garden on the request that when she dies, we dig them up and place them in the coffin with her. Her theory was that she would have one hell of a last smoke before she was dust.

I do wonder after 13 years whether there will actually be any cigarettes left (although they are in a tin).

I know you can't send them off with your mum now, but I do agree that the best place is the bin. They're unhealthy and will only contribute to someone else's ill health. Sorry for your loss OP.