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?

Honestly, I'd hand out packets to homeless people until they were all gone. I know maybe they shouldn't smoke but with that many problems, being a smoker maybe one of the quick-fox pleasures they have in life. And as you say, if people are going to buy them anyway, you have saved them a lot of money.

quick fix not fox.

The njs also doesn't support handing out cigarettes to homeless people or anyone else for that matter so you're cherry picking the bits you want to support your argument.

Can I pm you my address? I'll pay postage x

That's fair enough, Stealth and I respect your viewpoint.

I don't agree that it's as black and white as that - I think if people are going to smoke in unsafe ways (foraged tobacco, taking risks to procure cigarettes) giving them cigarettes reduces the potential harm.

I also think that if someone is ill and dying of something not smoking related, there's no harm in giving them cigarettes if they provide comfort at the end of life (I realise that's not the OP's proposition, I'm just giving examples where I feel the 'don't give cigarettes to people' rule wouldn't be beneficial).

The njs also doesn't support handing out cigarettes to homeless people or anyone else for that matter so you're cherry picking the bits you want to support your argument.

Probably because they'd lose out on so much tax from cigarettes being handed out free.

Give them to a smoker with ulcerative colitis - smoking actually helps that for some bizarre reason

So would you give a bottle of vodka you didn't want to an alcoholic?

That is bizarre!

If the alternative was the alcoholic drinking lethal black-market vodka that could blind them, or breaking into an off-licence to steal some vodka, or letting someone have sex with them in return for vodka, I most certainly would give them my unwanted vodka, yes.

Do what you think your mum would have wanted.

Sell them on facebook, I just checked and that can be done. Make sure they are all unopened and within date (I'm assuming cigarette packets have dates, I don't know). You can either sell the lot in one go or a few packets in batches.

There's nothing dodgy about it, smokers will be glad to buy their fags a bit cheaper than in shops.

Good luck.

I think alcohol is uniquely dangerous. A bottle of vodka could kill someone. Alcohol can kill plus withdrawal can too. And behaviour is the worst of all drugs.

Helpful idiots used to hand out spiked hot chocolate to my residents at Christmas. Thereby risking their shelter place since some are dry.

Just bin them. They did your mum huge harm. Don't give them to someone else whose life will also be shortened by them.

The point is that addicts don't just decide to quit because what they are addicted to is unavailable. They resort instead to desperate/degrading measures to get hold of it. That applies to all addicts, not just the homeless - but the homeless are more likely to resort to potentially harmful ways of getting a fix.

I would not give or sell anyone cigarettes, ever. Bin them.

And yet we know raising prices of alcohol and cigarettes reduces use.

Making them less available and harder to get hold of reduces use.
Contradicted by lots of anecdotal evidence on this thread.

Oh and it's the best way to reduce inequalities too

I do think the OP has missed the point that smoking cigarettes killed her mother, and that by selling or passing them on she is facilitating them harming another human - be it reduced lung capacity, a nice chest infection or persistent cold (just what homeless people sleeping outside in January need) or contributing towards them getting cancer.

They'd buy/find them elsewhere anyway? One of the things that drives people to stop smoking is the cost. So they buy 250 fags cheaply from a mate - that 250 fags aren't going to contribute to them deciding to give up, whereas the 250 they would otherwise have done, might have contributed more to that last straw.

Would a homeless person really not smoke any more tobacco half a nice free pack if 20 than if they were scraping dogends together? I'm cynical. I do get that life on the streets would be made more bearable with a pack of ciggies, I'm just not convinced that it wouldn't mean that person smoked more than they would otherwise have done, and I really don't know that I'd be okay with causing a homeless person to catch a cold/chest infection or contribute towards their cancer.

I think if it were me is write to all the secondary schools in the area to see if any of them can make use of them for education (I can't be the only one who remembers that science experiment in school?) - on the basis that that could prevent some children from dying of smoking related diseases. Or I'd see if a cancer charity had use for them for research or education. Failing that I'd take advice from a few different people who work with homeless people to see what they thought of me offering out odd packs to homeless folk. Failing that, I would bin.

What type are they op? I'd be interested in maybe buying them.

Apparently not. It won't cause any increase in use at all. And in fact 460 cigarettes aren't that harmful really.

"I think if it were me is write to all the secondary schools in the area"
My mouth fell open as I read this! Though tbh on this thread I shouldn't be surprised. Kids are gonna smoke. They may as well not spend all their pocket money on them.

Raising the price reduces sales. It doesn't necessarily reduce use across the board. It just means more people in poverty rely on foraged, stolen or bootlegged products.

The sort of person likely to quit because something is expensive is going to be someone with options and enough stability in their life to make reasoned choices.

If you are in the habit of getting your tobacco from the pavement, raising prices will have no other effect than making you have to forage harder if fewer people overall are smoking.

That's not true. These sorts of universal interventions are the best at reducing inequalities.
In general. I can't say for certain how it affects smoking related illness in homeless people. But I'd be surprised if it hugely bucked the trend.