Tobacco.org

EDITORIAL: A moving target  

When the federal government raised the tax on the loose tobacco people use to roll their own cigarettes a staggering 2,000 percent, companies stopped selling "loose tobacco." Smokers stopped buying it. Very little of the projected tax revenue of $35 million per month appeared.

Yet smokers still roll their own cigarettes and still legally buy the ingredients.

Pipe tobacco is taxed at a rate of $2.83 per pound. Loose cigarette tobacco is now taxed at $24.78 per pound. . . .

Again and again we see that taxes meant to change the behavior of the taxed backfire. They rarely raise the revenue their proponents promise, generally don't cause people to act as predicted and often create unintended consequences.

The fairer a tax is, the harder it is to evade. . . .

Seemingly incapable of learning, the federal government is now looking to set stricter legal distinctions between pipe and cigarette tobacco in an attempt to collect its money. Unmentioned is the issue of why the tax on one should be 10 times the tax on the other.

Perhaps government policymakers think pipes are cool and intellectual, and home-rolled cigarettes are just uncouth. If so, that's a poor rationale for tax policy.

Jump to full article »

More tax money going up in smoke  

Specialty tobacco retailers in Hawai'i are bracing for the ignition of a new state law on Wednesday that dramatically increases taxes on cigars, pipe tobacco and smokeless tobacco.

The tax hike, passed by the Legislature in May, will result in state taxes accounting for half or more than half the wholesale price of such tobacco products, with consumers paying for the hike in retail purchases.

The move comes on the heals of a federal tobacco tax increase that took effect in April, and was intended to increase revenue to the state in an effort to help balance its budget.

But the higher taxes are also expected to hurt sales for retailers already suffering in the bad economy by curbing smoking for some consumers or leading them to buy tobacco elsewhere.

"It's going to kill us," said Diane Chow, manager of Kipuka Smoke Shop in Hilo.

Jump to full article »

Cigar Store Owners Support Appeal of Smoking Ban Enforcement Case 

Ohio's three-year-old smoking ban is costing small businesses big money and jobs. That's why the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association is siding with proponents of an appeal of a lawsuit against draconian enforcement of the ban.

In a case before the 10th District Court of Appeals in Franklin County, it is being argued that enforcement of the ban has gone too far when health department inspectors make no allowances for the best efforts of establishment owners to ensure that patrons adhere to the letter as well as spirit of the law.

"It's a mess. Businesses are losing money and jobs in the midst of an economic crisis. This means the state is losing money, too, but the state's loss of tax revenues are at least being partially offset by fines collected for alleged smoking ban violations," said Chris McCalla, legislative director for the IPCPR.

McCalla cited a recent Federal Reserve Bank study

Jump to full article »

FLORY: Loopholes affect all people, not just the wealthy  

Back in April, the federal government slapped a huge tax increase on bulk tobacco, raising the tax from $1.10 to $24.78 a pound.

Few people would tolerate a 2,200-percent increase on any tax. Cigarette rollers must have weak lobbyists.

Thanks to this tax, the out-the-door price of tobacco jumped from about $20 to $45 a pound. But then a loophole was born.

Visit a tobacco store today and you will discover the roll-your-own crowd still buys for $20 a pound, with one slight difference.

Tobacco sold today is a little chunkier and it is labeled as pipe tobacco. Producers figured out the tax increase does not apply to pipe tobacco, so that's what they call it now.

Jump to full article »

Oropharyngeal Cancer on ADVANCE for LPNs 

In the United States, 90 percent of people with oropharyngeal cancer use tobacco products.4,9,10 Although tobacco smoke contains numerous carcinogens that directly contact the oral mucosa, tobacco tar possesses the most damaging elements.4 Smoking indirectly increases a person's susceptibility to malignancy by depressing the immune system.14 Secondhand smoke contains four chemicals defined as human carcinogens, as well as 10 others classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as probable carcinogens.15

Tobacco-related cancer risk increases significantly with the frequency and duration of smoking, especially with high-tar and non-filtered cigarettes.16 The highest risk, however, is associated with a smoking history of greater than 20 pack-years (a pack year is defined as the number of packs per day times the number of smoking years).2,16 Smokers increase their risk of developing oral cancer by 2-18 times compared to nonsmokers.2

Recent studies suggest that even greater risk is related to cigars and pipes.9 Smokeless tobacco contains 28 known carcinogens and raises the risk for buccal, gingival and inner lip cancer 50-fold.10 The nicotine in chewing tobacco is absorbed 2-3 times faster than cigarettes and remains in the bloodstream longer. Most frightening is that the quantity of nicotine in 8-10 dips of smokeless tobacco is equivalent to smoking 30-40 cigarettes a day.10

Jump to full article »

Texas Legislature Passes Massive Smokeless and Other Tobacco Tax That Allows 'Marlboro Man' and 'Copenhagen Man' to Benefit 

The Texas Senate voted 29-2 to pass a $100 million tax increase on smokeless tobacco and other tobacco products. HB 2154, while being a laudable program to fund rural doctor programs and changes in the business franchise tax, relies on an enormous tax on smokeless and other tobacco products, such as pipe tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco to help fund the legislation. The Texas House voted on a similar measure by a vote of 79-61 after much contentious debate. This issue has been debated over the past three legislative sessions and is largely viewed as an internal tobacco industry fight between industry giant, Philip Morris (now Altria), and the smallest companies says National Tobacco, headquartered in Louisville, KY.

"It is unfortunate that the Texas Senate, with little debate and what appears to be little understanding of the real market, passed a large tax increase on the small companies that compete with the 'Marlboro(R) Man' and 'Copenhagen(R) Man,' not realizing such a tax hike will do little to sustain these programs going forward," says Ron Tully, Vice President of National Tobacco. "This new tax is a huge gift to the same tobacco company that was sued in the late 1990's by the State of Texas, and the same company that recently lost an Appeal in the US Department of Justice case, for deceptive trade practices."

This bill changes the methodology of how smokeless tobacco is taxed, from being a tax on the manufacturer's list price to being a tax based on the weight of tobacco in the final retail package. . . .

Interestingly Philip Morris has managed to maintain an exemption from this new weight-based tax for its popular Black and Mild(R) cigar products. Texas will now have the unpopular distinction of being among only a few of the 50 states that have elected to switch to a punitive weight-based tax on many tobacco products."

"When doctors who have historically opposed smoking, stand with Philip Morris, you know it has got to be a bad deal for someone. If Philip Morris is supporting a tax on the tobacco industry, you also know it must be a good deal for them and the brands they sell. And it is," Tully says.

Jump to full article »

When doctors who have historically opposed smoking, stand with Philip Morris, you know it has got to be a bad deal for someone. If Philip Morris is supporting a tax on the tobacco industry, you also know it must be a good deal for them and the brands they sell. And it is.
Ron Tully, Vice President of National Tobacco, on Texas' new tax on raw tobacco products.

A French icon, up in smoke 

In a series of film comedies in the 1950s, among them “Mr. Hulot’s Holiday” and “My Uncle,” the late French actor Jacques Tati created the iconic film persona of a quixotic, amiable nonconformist who blunders through life with a pipe clenched between his teeth.

What would Mr. Tati say now that his pipe has been censored? The Paris public transit system and the national railway recently refused to display posters for a Tati retrospective that showed him riding a scooter with his trademark pipe.

Jump to full article »

Mr. Hulot's Pipe Censored By Paris Metro  

Jacques Tati's Mr Hulot, whose pipe was as much a trademark as his hat and beige raincoat, is seen riding his Velosolex motor scooter in a poster advertising a retrospective at the Cinematheque de Paris.

But the pipe has been replaced by a small colored whirligig by Metrobus, the group that manages advertising on Paris public transport . . .

A Metrobus spokesman appeared unperturbed, reacting with the kind of assurance in adversity that would have done Mr Hulot proud.

"I really don't understand what all the fuss is about," he said.

Jump to full article »

• Paris Métro censors Monsieur Hulot 

The Paris transport authority has made a fool of itself by doctoring an innocent poster featuring Jacques Tati, the late film-maker and actor who played the beloved eccentric Monsieur Hulot. . . .

Tati, who died in 1982, made only nine films but he left an impressive legacy. It's impossible to think of post-war France without Hulot, an old-world character baffled by modern fads and technology. Also, we are told that Tati never smoked the pipe. He just used it as a prop.

And note the moulinettes (windmills) in the opening of the film below.

Jump to full article »

M. Hulot privé de sa pipe [M. Hulot Deprived of his Pipe] 

The mishap which touches the poster of the traditional exposition to the scenario writer Jacques Tati, presented in this moment to Paris to the French Cineclub, in any case causes the debate on the strict application of the law Evin. In the center of the official poster, the realizer of the “Holidays of Mr. Hulot” walks on his Solex, a pipe with the mouth. But on the posting campaign diffused in the Parisian subway and buses, this pipe disappeared… with the profit from a windmill. In all, more than 2.000 posters distributed in all network the RATP underwent the small final improvement with the paces of censure.

“Does one Have to prohibit the books of Sherlock Holmes under pretext that he also smoked? ”

Behind this strange initiative, one finds Métrobus, the advertising agency of the RATP.

Jump to full article »

• Famed pipe at center of French anti-tobacco uproar 

French activists, defenders of the arts and even a government minister are up in arms over a Paris ad campaign they are calling too politically correct.

The RATP, the Paris public transportation authority, decided to doctor a photo of beloved French actor and director Jacques Tati, removing an iconic pipe from his lips for a poster advertising a Tati film festival.

They deemed the touch-up necessary for the poster to conform with a French law prohibiting the promotion of tobacco products. . . .

"We're brushing up against the ridiculous with this situation," French Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot was quoted as saying by the French daily Le Parisien. Bachelot herself voted for the 1991 law that bans tobacco promotion in France.

Jump to full article »

French tobacco advertising laws force comedian's posters to omit pipe  

.

Instead of puffing pensively in the melancholy fashion that endeared him to millions, the star of M Hulot's Holiday has suffered the indignity of appearing on billboards with nothing but a yellow children's windmill in his mouth.

Métrobus, the publicity arm of the Paris public transport network, says allowing M Hulot the freedom to smoke on buses and underground metro platforms would be an infraction of the law banning advertising of alcohol or tobacco.

Jump to full article »

IPCPR Stresses 'Freedom, Unity' for All Vermont Citizens 

Contrary to its motto - 'Freedom and Unity' - the state of Vermont is one step closer to tightening its current smoking ban by prohibiting the use of tobacco and other smoking products in all workplaces throughout the state.

The International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association says the freedom of all Vermont citizens - smokers and non-smokers alike - is at stake and state legislators should be spending their time on issues that truly matter - like jobs and the economy.

"The United States Constitution gives the right to employers to decide how to conduct their businesses, and that includes whether or not to allow smoking on their premises.

Jump to full article »

• The Latest Thing They're Smoking in Pipes on College Campuses: Tobacco  

Dan Nemets, a sophomore at Central Michigan University, likes the TV show "Family Guy," heavy-metal musician Ozzy Osbourne and a good pipe.

Mr. Nemets took up pipe smoking 18 months ago . . .

Friday is International Pipe-Smoking Day, when a number of puffers will unite to protest tobacco taxes and smoking bans. They will also engage in slow-smoking competitions to see who can keep a pipe going the longest. Each contestant is given just two matches. Events, which will go on all weekend, are promoted by the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association. . . .

Health advocates may warn of oral cancer, mouth lesions and rotting teeth, but Mr. Nemets and his online brethren are in the vanguard of an unlikely set of smokers taking to the brier -- people in their 20s.

"They're eager to learn," says 71-year-old Vernon E. Vig, president of the New York Pipe Club and the United Pipe Clubs of America. . . .

sales of pipe tobacco are rising again after years of decline, and many think young smokers are the reason. . . .

Pipe-smoking groups on social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace have attracted thousands of members. Questions in the forums include: A bent or straight pipe? . . .

"It's a misconception that pipe smoking is a healthy alternative," says Thomas J. Glynn, director, cancer science and trends, for the American Cancer Society. Dr. Glynn says that pipe smoking has been associated with oral cancers and lesions of the lip, tongue and gums which can cause severe facial disfiguration.

Youthful pipe smokers seem to think the habit is less harmful than smoking cigarettes because the smoke isn't inhaled.

Jump to full article »

• Tobacco paraphernalia targeted  

Imperial Beach is tightening the rules for tobacco shops with an ordinance that prohibits any new business from selling tobacco paraphernalia, such as pipes, bongs, cigarette rolling papers and hookahs.

Existing businesses, however, may continue selling tobacco paraphernalia, which is legal. And the ordinance states that the sale of tobacco and cigarette lighters is OK. But no new shops may sell water pipes or any pipe made of metal, wood or glass.

The City Council approved the ordinance with a 4-0 vote at a meeting Wednesday. Councilman Jim King was absent. The ordinance will take effect 30 days after a second reading set for Feb. 4.

Other cities in San Diego County have passed similar ordinances, including El Cajon, which passed one last February. That city limits how tobacco paraphernalia is displayed. For example, items in store displays may not be visible to passers-by.

State and federal laws already criminalize the sale of drug paraphernalia. However, tobacco shop merchants say their pipes are used for smoking tobacco.

City Attorney Jim Lough said the new ordinance is trying to close that loophole. He said while the city can't regulate tobacco, it can limit shops that sell tobacco paraphernalia.

Jump to full article »