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Legislator wants to ban nicotine candy  

A northern Utah lawmaker wants the state to do away with nicotine candy that he says poses a danger to children.

Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, plans to introduce a bill in the upcoming legislative session that would "outright ban" the nicotine candy.

"It's on the shelf now," Ray said. "We're going to take it off the shelf. We're basically making the comment that it's just not welcome in Utah. Go somewhere else and kill their residents but we're going to draw the line here."

Ray said the candies -- which differ from approved smoking-cessation products -- are designed to look like candy or gum and are attractive to children. Ray's own 7-year-old daughter saw some advertised and asked for some, which frightened him because just a few of the candy tablets can kill a young child.

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S. 1147: Text of Legislation, Introduced in Senate 

• This version: Introduced in Senate. This is the original text of the bill as it was written by its sponsor and submitted to the Senate for consideration. This is the latest version of the bill available on this website. . . .

• (a) Short Title- This Act may be cited as the ‘Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009’ or ‘PACT Act’.

• (b) Findings- Congress finds that--

• (1) the sale of illegal cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products significantly reduces Federal, State, and local government revenues, with Internet sales alone accounting for billions of dollars of lost Federal, State, and local tobacco tax revenue each year;

• (2) Hezbollah, Hamas, al Qaeda, and other terrorist organizations have profited from trafficking in illegal cigarettes or counterfeit cigarette tax stamps;

• (3) terrorist involvement in illicit cigarette trafficking will continue to grow because of the large profits such organizations can earn;

• (4) the sale of illegal cigarettes and smokeless tobacco over the Internet, and through mail, fax, or phone orders, makes it cheaper and easier for children to obtain tobacco products;

• (5) the majority of Internet and other remote sales of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco are being made without adequate precautions to protect against sales to children, without the payment of applicable taxes, and without complying with the nominal registration and reporting requirements in existing Federal law;

• (6) unfair competition from illegal sales of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco is taking billions of dollars of sales away from law-abiding retailers throughout the United States;

• (7) with rising State and local tobacco tax rates, the incentives for the illegal sale of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco have increased;

• (8) the number of active tobacco investigations being conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives rose to 452 in 2005;

• (9) the number of Internet vendors in the United States and in foreign countries that sell cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to buyers in the United States increased from only about 40 in 2000 to more than 500 in 2005; and

• (10) the intrastate sale of illegal cigarettes and smokeless tobacco over the Internet has a substantial effect on interstate commerce.

• (c) Purposes- It is the purpose of this Act to--

• (1) require Internet and other remote sellers of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to comply with the same laws that apply to law-abiding tobacco retailers;

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S. 1147 - Summary: PACT Act 

5/21/2009--Introduced.

Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009 or PACT Act - Amends the Jenkins Act to: (1) include smokeless tobacco as a regulated substance; (2) impose shipping and recordkeeping requirements on delivery sellers (sellers using the telephone, mails, or the Internet) of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco; (3) require common carriers of cigarette products to obtain age and identity verification upon delivery of such products; (4) require the Attorney General to compile and publish a list of delivery sellers of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco who have not complied with the registration or other requirements of such Act; (5) increase criminal penalties and impose new civil penalties for violations of this Act; and (6) grant jurisdiction to U.S. district courts to prevent and restrain violations of this Act and direct the Attorney General to administer and enforce this Act. Amends the federal criminal code to: (1) treat cigarettes and smokeless tobacco as nonmailable and prohibit such items from being deposited in or carried through the U.S. mails (with specified exceptions, including for mailings for consumer testing); and (2) authorize officers of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to enter the premises of certain cigarette shippers to inspect records and inventories. Prohibits a tobacco product manufacturer or importer from selling or delivering in states cigarettes not in compliance with model or qualifying state statutes. Limits the applicability of this Act with respect to Indian tribes and certain tribal matters. Directs the ATF Director to create regional contraband tobacco trafficking teams and a Tobacco Intelligence Center to monitor and coordinate tobacco diversion investigations. Expresses the sense of Congress with respect to the precedential effect of this Act.

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OFFICIAL BUSINESS MEETING NOTICE & SUMMARY:  

II. Bills . . .

S.1147, Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009 (Kohl, Leahy, Schumer, Specter, Feinstein, Klobuchar)

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S. 1147: PACT Act  

This is a bill in the U.S. Congress originating in the Senate ("S."). A bill must be passed by both the Senate and House and then be signed by the President before it becomes law.

Bill numbers restart from 1 every two years. Each two-year cycle is called a session of Congress. This bill was created in the 111th Congress, in 2009-2010.

The titles of bills are written by the bill's sponsor and are a part of the legislation itself. GovTrack does not editorialize bill summaries. . . .

Sponsor:

Sen. Herbert Kohl [D-WI]show cosponsors (13)

Cosponsors:

Robert Casey [D-PA]

Richard Durbin [D-IL]

Dianne Feinstein [D-CA]

Kirsten Gillibrand [D-NY]

Thomas Harkin [D-IA]

John Kerry [D-MA]

Amy Klobuchar [D-MN]

Patrick Leahy [D-VT]

Mark Pryor [D-AR]

Charles Schumer [D-NY]

Arlen Specter [D-PA]

Mark Warner [D-VA]

Jim Webb [D-VA] . . .

Last Action:

Nov 19, 2009: Committee on the Judiciary. Date of scheduled consideration. SD-226. 10:00 a.m.

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PACT Act Q&A 

As tobacco product excise taxes increase, so do the prices of tobacco products. Criminal organizations exploit these increases by selling contraband or counterfeit tobacco products for their own financial gain and without regard to youth access prevention laws. This illicit activity deprives governments of tax revenue and hurts law-abiding businesses. Law enforcement groups, trade associations, health care advocates and the states have been advocating for the passage of legislation to combat illegal Internet sales of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco a number of years.

The Senate is currently considering S.1147 – the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act (“PACT Act”), which would impose new restrictions on Internet cigarette and smokeless tobacco sales. This legislation will help States recover revenues at a time when they need it most, ensure appropriate age verification, and restore a level competitive environment for the law-abiding wholesalers and retailers throughout the United States who pay their taxes and play by the rules. The PACT Act is an important step in addressing the larger issue of stopping the trade of contraband tobacco.

The PACT Act is strongly supported by a broad array of advocates. Earlier this year, the House passed the PACT Act by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 397 to 11. Since 2002, both houses have passed the PACT Act on multiple occasions.

Opposition to the PACT Act arises mainly from a few owners and operators of cigarette Internet sites – the sites that engage in the very activity that has robbed states of hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes and that has taken enormous business from legitimate retailers and wholesalers. Congress should reject these arguments, and do so based on a clear and accurate understanding of what the PACT Act will do for the states, for retailers and wholesalers, for law enforcement, and for the broad array of other stakeholders who strongly support it. Below are a series of questions and answers intended to clarify why the PACT Act should be enacted. [Top]

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• Internet Cigarette Sales--an Illegal Rip-off of Our Nation / It's Time for the Feds to Act! (PDF) 

• Intent on determining whether progress has been made in curbing the illegal Internet sale of tobacco products, an American Wholesale Marketers Association (AWMA) researcher selected 27 Internet sites at random and purchased 22 cartons of cigarettes using a Visa card and a prepaid Visa card. Of the 27 random sites selected using the Internet search engine Google, 74% allowed the use of a credit card—Visa, Diners Club, MasterCard, and/or American Express.

• None of the cigarettes purchased carried U.S. state tax stamps, and in no case were taxes collected at the time of purchase.

• The American Wholesale Marketers Association will notify proper state authorities of the purchases and pay the appropriate amount of tax to comply with the law.

• Age verification was virtually nonexistent. Most sites simply had a statement on the home page, or hidden in a disclaimer or under Frequently Asked Questions, stating that a purchaser must be a certain age to buy cigarettes. Some asked for a simple check-off that the buyer was over 18.

• This study clearly demonstrates that efforts to restrict illegal cigarette sales via the Internet are ineffective, that billions of dollars in taxes are going uncollected, and that legitimate sellers of tobacco products in the U.S. face unfair competition from unscrupulous online purveyors who are scoffing at U.S. laws and tax requirements.

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Members 

State and Local Members

Altria Client Services Inc. on behalf of Philip Morris USA Inc. and U.S.; Smokeless Tobacco Company

Alabama Grocers Association

American Beverage Licensees

Alabama Wholesale Distributors Association

American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance – AHGA . . .

Pennsylvania Distributors Association

School House Strategies

Texas Association of Business

Virginia Chamber of Commerce

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Senate Committee Urged to Pass PACT Act 

The Coalition to Stop Contraband Tobacco -- a group made up of several trade associations, public officials and a unit of a major tobacco company, among others -- gathered on Capitol Hill yesterday to urge the Senate to pass S. 1147, the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act of 2009.

If passed, the legislation will help combat online sales of untaxed cigarette and smokeless tobacco products, and help prevent youth access to tobacco. It closes gaps in current federal laws regulating "remote" or "delivery" sales of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products, according to the organization. The PACT Act was passed in the House in May, and the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to discuss the bill today.

Some trade association members of the Coalition to Stop Contraband Tobacco include NACS, AWMA, FMI, NATO, NATSO, PMAA and SIGMA. Altria Client Services, a division of Altria Group, is also a member of the coalition on behalf of Philip Morris USA and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co.

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• Clearing air on cigarette ads  

There seem to be two Dr. Alan Blums.

One is a tweedy academic — the family medicine professor and director of the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society at the University of Alabama who has devoted his dead-serious career to the prevention of tobacco-induced illnesses.

The other is the self-described “Bart Simpson of the anti-smoking movement” — the alter ago who donned a fake pharmacist’s lab coat Wednesday to help set up “Your Cancer and Drug Store,” an exhibition on tobacco advertising that opens today in the Buffalo Museum of Science. . . .

The approach reflects a lesson learned in 1977 when Blum, then a Miami hospital intern and nascent anti-smoking crusader, lost a contentious radio talk show debate with a tobacco industry spokesman while the host, Larry King, blew smoke in Blum’s face.

Ever since, “I’ve tried to bring some humor and satire to a depressing issue that many people take very seriously,” Blum said. The strategy has included “house calls” to tobacco festivals and “anything else we could do to ridicule the brand names.”

Satirical references abound in “Your Cancer and Drug Store,” which was gleaned from a trove of tobacco advertising and promotional materials that Blum started collecting 15 years ago and now fills 2,500 boxes in his Alabama center.

He started by buying items distributed by cigarette companies that a Connecticut store owner had accumulated over two decades. “He must’ve thought it had collectible value, but it cost more to ship it [to Alabama] than I paid for it,” Blum said.

From the outset his goal was to mount an exhibition that underscored the everyday irony of seeing tobacco products on the shelves of pharmacies that dispense drugs prescribed to combat cancer, heart disease, hypertension and other diseases linked to smoking.

“I wanted to do an over-the-top, walk-through exhibit,” he said, citing the role that drugstores have played in keeping America smoking. “I’m not going after individual pharmacies as much as the chains that own them.” . . .

By touring “Your Cancer and Drug Store,” he said, “you are looking at origins of cancer just as much as you would by looking through a microscope.”

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I wanted to do an over-the-top, walk-through exhibit. I’m not going after individual pharmacies as much as the chains that own them.
Prof. Alan Blum, on his Buffalo, NY, ad exhibit that explores the role that drugstores have played in keeping America smoking.

Your Cancer and Drug Store: One-stop shopping: prescriptions, cigarettes, urgent care and chemo.
Alan Blum's mock-drug store: an exhibition on tobacco advertising that opens today in the Buffalo Museum of Science.

OfficialWire: Government Approved Lab Finds E Cigarettes Are Much Safer Than Tobacco Cigarettes 

LPD Services, a U.K. based lab that is fully accredited has submitted the results of its findings on the Gamucci line of e-cigarettes. As most have suspected, the lab indicated that the electronic cigarette is much safer than traditional tobacco cigarettes.

There have been several reports from highly credible labs around the world on the e cigarette. One from South Africa, New Zealand, the U.K. and several others that are high profile in nature and performed by stout anti-smoking advocates that believe in harm reduction. All of these labs came back with the same result: the e cigarette is many times safer than traditional tobacco cigarettes.

There seems to be an air of change on the horizon concerning the e cigarette with strong lab results supporting claims of a smarter and safer choice over the tobacco cigarette. Top anti-smoking advocates like Dr Murray Laugesen, who has been the recipient of top awards from the World Health Organization in his fight against the harm of tobacco, supports the e cigarette.

Professor Michael Siegel is a doctor also and another strong advocate for harm reduction

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ITC hikes prices of premium cigarettes 

Tobacco and FMCG major ITC on Wednesday hiked prices of its premium cigarettes -- India Kings and Benson & Hedges -- in the range of 5-10%. While India Kings, priced at Rs 100, will now cost Rs 110, a pack of Benson & Hedges will come for Rs 105 against Rs 100 earlier.

An ITC spokesperson confirmed the hike but declined to give details.

Anand Shah, an analyst with Angel Broking, said the hike was partly to compensate for various regulatory issues and also because the company has seen earlier price hikes being absorbed without a dip in sales.

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Newton TAB Editorial: Smoking ban a bad idea  

Newton --

This week the Board of Aldermen passed an ordinance disallowing pharmacies from selling tobacco products. We are very disappointed in the vote and in the 18 aldermen who supported the measure, including some who told us privately that they were opposed to such a ban but didn't want to be seen as pro-smoking.

We applaud Aldermen Bill Brandel, Jay Harney and Amy Sangiolo for courageously voting against it. . . .

If the intended purpose is to make it more difficult for teens to buy cigarettes, it's a noble effort, but it's not going to work. All we've done is taken cigarettes out of a carefully monitored setting where underage smokers are probably least likely to buy cigarettes and deferred the business to gas stations and convenience stores, where underage smokers are more likely to buy cigarettes.

With all the substantive problems facing this city, our aldermen should not be getting involved in legislating what stores can and cannot sell. That's not why we elect them.

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Florida cigarette sales have dropped sharply since new tax  

Cigarette sales have fallen sharply across Florida since a $1-a-pack tax increase took effect July 1, plunging nearly 50 percent in some counties.

Statewide, cigarette sales that regularly topped 100 million packs per month dropped to 73 million packs the month the tax became law. Since then, sales have inched back to around 78 million packs but remain well below prior levels.

To supporters, the sagging sales are evidence that the tax is meeting its public health objective: getting smokers to quit. Critics, however, say many people are simply buying their cigarettes elsewhere or switching to items that aren't subject to the higher tax, like small cigars.

The state charge on cigarettes is now $1.34, compared with the 34 cent tax that had been in place since 1990.

"It's working exactly the way it was designed to work. People are quitting," said Rep. Jim Waldman, D- Coconut Creek, a cigarette tax champion. "If I could, I'd raise it another dollar."

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• Market Watch: Cigarette Trade Changing In Central America 

Now, more than ever, Central America is an ever-changing field of opportunities and obstacles. John Parker profiles the region and goes through the numbers market by market.

The combination of rising income, more influence of free trade policies, multinational business connections, and smokers seeking higher quality brands contributed to greater cigarette imports by countries in Central America in 2008. Estimated cigarette imports for countries in Central America in 2008 rose to about 11 bn pieces. That is an estimate for total imports tabulated by adding data for each of the seven countries. The net regional imports would be about half of that because of large shipments to other countries in Central America by Honduras and Guatemala. BAT and subsidiaries account for most of the cigarette output in Central America.

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