Smokers at Berkeley

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>These crackheads are always around Sproul Plaza, in front of Dwinelle, and other random places on campus. They are SO annoying! I always have to hold my breath when going past them, not to mention inhaling unnecessary toxins beforehand.</p>

<p>These crackheads are one of the most unpleasant things about Berkeley; the world would be better without them, and the air quality too! I hate having to inhale toxins/hold my breath everytime I walk through Sproul; I've even started to take a detour route to Dwinelle to avoid these smokers, but even then I still sometimes encounter some along the way. It's SO annoying; they are a detriment to everything's health!</p>

<p>How do I get rid of them?</p>

2

<p>Write a strongly worded letter (much like this post) and send it to their mothers!!!</p>

3

<p>crackheads are not smokers…there is a huge difference. yes, they are annoying, but one drug is illegal and the other is not. </p>

<p>its their choice. if they want to die quicker, so be it.</p>

4

<p>If they are actually smoking (anything), then they need to stay at least 25 feet away from doors and operable windows and not have their smoke blow in. Or the university needs to enforce its rules on smoking.</p>

5

<p>I have never seen smokers who care about the 25 feet rules :confused:
In some other countries, smoking is strictly prohibited on campus by law. But I don’t think US has such a rule?</p>

6

<p>sllamas1: in my eyes, smokers are no better than crackheads. In fact, smokers are comparable to mass murderers, as the very act of emitting tobacco shortens the lifespan of everyone else in your range. Secondhand smoke has been correlated with lung, breast, and even brain cancer (tumors). Not to mention that it causes heart disease. Secondhand smoke is especially dangerous to pregnant women (their fetus) and children. Heck, secondhand smoke even increases the incidence of tooth decay. Just standing near a crackhead increases the incidence of mortality.</p>

<p>–</p>

<p>Atable is right. These smokers never care about the 25 feet rules. </p>

<p>I was outside of Dwinelle yesterday, and children were around, you know, the innocent type. I had ten minutes to spare before class, so I thought I might as well teach this crackhead a lesson for spewing death all over the place (especially around innocent CHILDREN). </p>

<p>“Hey there. You mind smoking somewhere else? There are children around here.”</p>

<p>“Wha…? Whaddayou want?”</p>

<p>He turned his head, and his cold, sociopathic eyes met mines. I could see in his cold blue eyes nothing by hate. Hate for the children! Hate for the University! Hate for the squirrels resting on the tree above his head! </p>

<p>“Could you please smoke somewhere else? There are children here.”</p>

<p>He remained silent. His pale white face began to redden.</p>

<p>“Hey, are you listenin–”</p>

<p>“WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TRYING TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO?!!!” </p>

<p>He screamed at me, and began to cuss indiscriminately.</p>

<p>“Listen man, I’m sorry but–”</p>

<p>He leaped at me. He tried to deliver a quick punch at my head but I ducked in time, and retaliated with a roundhouse kick. His cigarette fell to the ground, and he was knocked out. I triumphantly stepped on the death machine, and stubbed the cigarette.</p>

<p>The children began to clap, and I walked to close feeling like a hero. </p>

<hr>

<p>@ucbalumnus: sorry for the confusion. I’ll refer to them as smokers from now on.</p>

7

<p>Unless you actually mean crackheads who smoke the crack, it would be best to write what you actually mean – “smokers” to describe those who are smoking something, “crackheads” to describe those using crack – instead of using the terms interchangeably.</p>

8

<p>You’re in Berkeley, were you expecting anything else? And for the record, I totally thought you meant smoking pot at first… That’s just as expected in the great Bay Area</p>

9

<p>^ If Berkeley intends to surpass Stanford, it definitely needs to enforce smoking laws first. I’ve been to Stanford several times, and there are rarely smokers (or as the OP refers to them, “crackheads”) around. The air is fresh and the campus is beautiful. If only Berkeley were the same; I’m sure that would lighten the mood for many stressed students.</p>

10

<p>Berkeley will never surpass Stanford.</p>

11

<p>Lucyan, I get that you may be concerned about your health, however keep in mind reports of harmfulness of tobacco are much exaggerated as they are done in study conditions which suggest being trapped in an enclosed area filled with tobacco smoke. Furthermore, there are also political agendas which focus on anti-smoking campaigns so your hate towards smokers is most likely overdone.</p>

<p>Hate is an extremely strong emotion, and If you honestly believe that smokers are somehow hateworthy because they hurt the people around them, you should start hating everyone who works in the fast food industry, has taken transportation, has used electrical devices for home heating, because these things have a larger impact on your health than the exposure of second hand smoke around sproul plaza.</p>

12

<p>You should stop complaining. They’re not blowing smoke in your face or going out of their way to damage your lungs. They’re adults who are smoking and enjoying themselves. Get over it</p>

13

<p>HAHAHAHAHA this is hilarious! Lucyan, get over yourself.</p>

14

<p>hahahahah you can’t. You should move.</p>

15

<p>Lucyan- I would rather be gasping for my last breath in a room full of smokers then trapped in one with you. Get over yourself!</p>

<p>One time while with my grandmother -who smoked 2 packs a day until she was 65 and then started again at 90 (she lived to be 94)- was in her “non-smoking” days this one day we went to lunch. This was still an era when you entered a restaurant and they asked you which section you would like to sit in. I opened my mouth to answer “non-smoking” and she loudly said. “smoking, please!!” I turned to ask her why and she said, “I don’t want to sit with those non-smokers; stuffiest people I’ve ever met. Smokers are always more fun.”</p>

<p>And off we went to sit with the smokers. Thank you for proving Grandma’s point so eloquently!</p>

16

<p>@zeppelinlover Your grandmother sounds like an awesome person!</p>

17

<p>Berkeley- home to hippies, cigarette and recreational drug users, homeless people, and a large LGBT population. What did you expect? This isn’t Stanford, which is like Heaven on Earth with angelic human beings and the most superior academics on the planet. No offense to Berkeley, it’s one of my top choices and I got rejected from Stanford, but this thread is just ridiculous…</p>

18

<p>Besides, aren’t all the UC campuses banning cigarette smoking in 2014?</p>

19

<p>How is this thread ridiculous? I pay to go to this school. I deserve to walk by campus without people trying to kill me and my friends with a bag of smoking cigarettes.</p>

<p>Darthpwner, if what you say about UCs banning cigarettes is true, I will leap in the air with joy knowing that smokers and their death machines will soon be gone for good.</p>

<p>And to the poster who said that I should also hate the people who make fast food for selling toxic food, you should know that there is a difference: I can choose to eat fast food, but I can’t choose to make someone not smoke (well technically I can with a bit of force). Smokers make their bad choices, and as a result, affect everyone standing near them. </p>

<p>Indeed, smokers are tyrants that strip bystanders of their free will: by simply smoking, they deny the rights of the people around them to choose whether they want to be healthy or not.</p>

20

<p>Lucyan, funny how you fail to address the example of transportation use. Is the logic too much for you? If you hate it so much, go buy a gas mask, no one will stop you and it’ll be much more productive than complaining on CC, where I doubt anyone is actually a smoker at Berkeley who does the things you claim they do.</p>