4 ms·

Santa Barbara approves jail time for straw ban violators

24 points by Xcelerate 8y ago

venning 8y ago
> ...Americans use 500 million plastic straws a day ... hundreds of thousands of straws are found littering coastlines around the world each year... If "hundreds of thousands" means 500 thousand, then this is saying that 0.00027% of those plastic straws are found on coastlines. I understand that there are problems with both of those statistics, but it still seems a bit odd to publish them like this (there are 13 words between those numbers). Again, the "500 million" number is likely wrong (as OP references, [1]) and the "hundreds of thousands" number was probably the author taking a spitball at something that there aren't real statistics for, but they still chose to print it. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/business/plastic-straws-ban-fact-check-nyt.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/business/plastic-straws-b... EDIT: In reference to [1], being within an order-of-magnitude is pretty impressive for a 9-year-old.
dev_dull 8y ago
How many more laws until we become a just and fair society?
hajile 8y ago
Loads of misdemeanors won't get you jail time, but are way worse than handing out a simple straw. Stupid law is stupid.
beeclimb 8y ago
Santa Barbara resident here. Where is this coming from? Jail time? Fake news? I'm cringing for even typing that out. https://www.keyt.com/news/santa-barbara-s-county/the-last-straw-no-straw-ban-in-santa-barbara-yet/773800218 https://www.keyt.com/news/santa-barbara-s-county/the-last-st...
- ghein 8y ago
  The proposal was fine and jail for repeat offences, now it's been kicked to "review". Like Seattle's job tax once you get serious attention on something, not to mention the teeming hordes of trial lawyers drooling at the opportunity to sue Santa Barbara Council for ADA violations, the idea is going to die a quick death. They would have gotten away with it without all those people blowing it out of proportion...
tatersolid 8y ago
I wonder how many choking victims will die because of this law. An emergency tracheotomy cannot be performed due to the lack of a small sterile plastic breathing tube... or does that only happen in the movies?

24 points by Xcelerate 8y ago

> ...Americans use 500 million plastic straws a day ... hundreds of thousands of straws are found littering coastlines around the world each year... If "hundreds of thousands" means 500 thousand, then this is saying that 0.00027% of those plastic straws are found on coastlines. I understand that there are problems with both of those statistics, but it still seems a bit odd to publish them like this (there are 13 words between those numbers). Again, the "500 million" number is likely wrong (as OP references, [1]) and the "hundreds of thousands" number was probably the author taking a spitball at something that there aren't real statistics for, but they still chose to print it. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/business/plastic-straws-ban-fact-check-nyt.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/business/plastic-straws-b... EDIT: In reference to [1], being within an order-of-magnitude is pretty impressive for a 9-year-old.

dev_dull 8y ago

How many more laws until we become a just and fair society?

hajile 8y ago

Loads of misdemeanors won't get you jail time, but are way worse than handing out a simple straw. Stupid law is stupid.

beeclimb 8y ago

Santa Barbara resident here. Where is this coming from? Jail time? Fake news? I'm cringing for even typing that out. https://www.keyt.com/news/santa-barbara-s-county/the-last-straw-no-straw-ban-in-santa-barbara-yet/773800218 https://www.keyt.com/news/santa-barbara-s-county/the-last-st...

ghein 8y ago
The proposal was fine and jail for repeat offences, now it's been kicked to "review". Like Seattle's job tax once you get serious attention on something, not to mention the teeming hordes of trial lawyers drooling at the opportunity to sue Santa Barbara Council for ADA violations, the idea is going to die a quick death. They would have gotten away with it without all those people blowing it out of proportion...

tatersolid 8y ago

I wonder how many choking victims will die because of this law. An emergency tracheotomy cannot be performed due to the lack of a small sterile plastic breathing tube... or does that only happen in the movies?