‘Butt Bill’ good for Maine, smokers

by Laura Head

There are some states you don’t hear about until they do something a little bit wacko, like Florida’s presidential ballots or South Carolina’s secession from the union.

In similar fashion, Maine is getting its 15 minutes of fame through lawmaker Joe Brooks’ so-called “Butt Bill.”

According to Monday’s USA Today, the Returnable Tobacco Products Bill is aimed at snuffing out cigarette litter by adding a nickel surcharge to cigarettes to be refunded when the butt is returned.

Next up on the list of bills to be considered by the Maine legislature: the Returnable Bubbalicious Products Bill and the Returnable Single Shoe Products Bill.

After these bills are passed, you’ll never find a cleaner curb outside of Maine, which, by the way, is located somewhere between the Mason-Dixon Line and Canada.

USA Today reports that under the proposed law, cigarette manufacturers would mark filters on each cigarette sold in Maine with 5-cent deposit notices. Smokers would pay an extra $1 a pack in deposits, and the butts could be cashed in at redemption centers where Maine residents have been taking their bottles and cans since 1976.

The bill is expected to be voted out of committee next week and presented to the full Maine House. Brooks, a “reformed four-pack-a-day smoker,” said he thinks the bill will pass. If this bill does pass, and I can get 5 cents for every cigarette butt, I bet I can get $20 for his left lung alone.

There’s no doubt the “Butt Bill” will lessen Maine’s apparent litter problem. Picture it:

Smoker A: “Hey, why are you wasting such a good butt?”

Smoker B: “Dude, it’s only 5 cents.”

Smoker A: “Yeah, Dude, but it adds up. We could collect enough butts to buy another pack.”

Though it’s not likely that people in Maine still use the word “Dude” to address people, smokers’ addiction to cigarettes is likely to keep their butts off the ground for a while. What difference does the extra dollar make when they can get it back?

According to the article, smokers in Maine buy 2.2 billion cigarettes a year. A generous estimate of half of this number — 1.1 billion cigarette butts — leaves the state with an extra $50 million to $60 million of unclaimed deposits. That money could go to important issues like education and the new “Blame Canada” movement, which uses cartoon children to effectively Americanize our friends north of the border.

Opponents argue that smokers will head to New Hampshire (somewhere between the Mason-Dixon Line and Maine) to avoid the extra $10 charge on cartons. Good point, Dudes, but New Hampshire is still quite a drive down the road.

Even going from Augusta (Maine’s capital) to Durham, N.H., is more than a 2-hour drive, and most of that drive is a straight shot south on Interstate 95. Surely smokers would rather save the $20 they’d spend in gas money for the $10 they could get back from cigarette butts bought in Maine.

But if smokers still want to spend the money on gas for the drive, I hear Joe Brooks’ right lung is still available.

Managing Editor Laura Head is a senior news-editorial journalism major from Shreveport, La., which, by the way, is located somewhere between the Mason-Dixon Line and the Gulf of Mexico. She can be reached at (l.a.head@student.tcu. edu).

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