I am a smoker; I know bad stuff. I also drive on the beaches to enjoy our wonderful outdoors and have for the past 25 years.
I was a little distraught about the ban on guarded Lewes beaches, but hey, I drive on so it did not really bother me. I respect people who do not want to be around cigarette smoke or want their kids around it.
Every time we go to the beach we always leave it like we found it. I do not leave trash or my cigarette butts. This past summer however we, that is my wife and I, have found a disturbing trend.
Ninety-five percent of the times we went down there we end up collecting at least 10 or 20 cigarette butts that someone just used the sand as an ashtray and left them there. That is just in the area we occupy.
So, smokers tend to think that we are being picked on, yet some, not all for sure, treat the beach as their own personal ashtray. I smoke; I wish I didn't, but I do. If smoking is banned on all the beaches it would be a inconvenience, but I would support it and live with it.
Better that than seeing one of the great beaches in the United States become a ashtray for someone who is just too lazy or inconsiderate to pick up after themselves.
Tom Farrow
Lewes
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