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• Gristedes chief still on warpath on cheap Indian cigarettes 

The freshly remodeled Gristedes supermarket on 25 University Place has expanded its space, adding new sections for beer, hot food, a salad bar, bakery and organic products, all looking like crowd-pleasers beneath Thanksgiving decorations strung above the aisles.

But cigarettes are no longer on sale here -- seemingly a sign of the times in this upscale Greenwich Village neighborhood near New York University.

"We haven't had them for some time now," said an assistant manager who identified himself only as Thomas. He noted that cigarettes are available at other Gristedes stores in New York (about 20 still carry them), even though he believes the demand is down. The main reason for the decline in tobacco sales, another Gristedes manager said, is that "people know where they can get them elsewhere" for half the price that conventional retailers in New York charge -- upward of $95 per carton, with $4.25 in state and city taxes tacked on.

He was alluding to untaxed tobacco sold on Indian reservations, a subject that has bedeviled convenience-store operators and New York governors from Cuomo to Paterson.

Led by its Greek-born owner and C.E.O., John Catsimatidis, a longtime New York City mayoral wannabe who smokes an occasional cigar, Gristedes Foods Inc. has claimed in protracted litigation that Indian merchants on two Eastern Long Island reservations are luring away New York customers, and even helping to fund organized crime gangs and terrorist groups like Hezbollah with bulk sales, a charge some politicians dismiss as absurd but others solemnly repeat. . . .

Since he cares so much about health, why does he sell any cigarettes at his grocery stores?

"There is such a thing as freedom of choice," the mogul replied. "I lecture my wife, who smokes, and tell her, Why don't you just have one or two instead of more? It's like what the Greek philosophers say: Everything in moderation."

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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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• CORCORAN: Ottawa's fruit-flavoured tobacco bomb 

The result was Bill C-32, officially titled The Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act -- a misnomer if ever there was one. Today, a year later, what Mr. Harper's Conservatives have delivered instead is an over-the-top law that threatens a global trade war and another bonanza for Canada's already out-of-control contraband cigarette market.

The trade-war potential gathered momentum earlier this month when, according to Inside US Trade, the United States joined Argentina, Mexico, Switzerland, the European Union and other nations in opposition to Ottawa's new anti-bubble-gum tobacco law. At a meeting in Geneva, the nations said Canada's law would restrict trade in regular tobacco products to the benefit of Canadian tobacco producers.

The more immediate impact of the law, however, is a ban on the sale in Canada of virtually all brands of U.S. cigarettes. Guess where that leads? The logical result of a ban on legal imports of Marlboros and Winstons is new demand for illegal supplies through the burgeoning Native-dominated contraband market, a tax-evading multi-billion-dollar industry that already accounts for between 33% to 50% of the Canadian cigarette market. . . .

While this may look like another case of unintended consequences run amok, it more likely is part of deliberate scheming by Health Canada officials and others who are consciously using fruit-flavoured smokes to create a global tobacco trade bomb against the U.S. and tobacco industries in Europe, South America and Asia. . . .

Still, Bill C-32 became law, even though Senator Segal abstained over the trade issue. As a result, Mr. Harper's opportunistic election gimmick, aimed at curbing the use of flavoured tobacco to children, will do nothing to protect children. By further enhancing the power and scope of the contraband market, it will only increase the supply of illegal cigarettes, a prime source of tobacco to the young. At the same time, the government has launched a protectionist scheme that threatens a trade conflict.

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• P.M. UPDATE: Cherokee Nation sponsoring tobacco cessation events  

TAHLEQUAH -- In an effort to keep area residents healthy, Thursday, has been designated as Great American Smoke-out Day in the Cherokee Nation. In honor of the event, the tribe is offering classes and incentives to help smokers and tobacco users stop for at least one day.

Cherokee Nation Healthy Nation will be celebrating the day by offering free cessation kits and prizes to all who commit to stop smoking and using tobacco for at least one day. Resources

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• EDITORIAL: Illegal cigarettes can't be ignored  

It is in society's obvious interest, then, to crack down on the rampant trade in contraband cigarettes. And, in fairness, some efforts have been made. Brennan and Benzie report that a law enforcement trial project, in which U.S. and Canadian officers worked side by side this summer on Canadian Coast Guard vessels, led to more efficient cross-border patrolling. Such joint operations should become permanent.

Other ideas include restricting raw materials for large-scale cigarette-making to those with a valid manufacturers' licence and working with native groups to bring about a First Nations tobacco tax equal to the province's. It might also help if government did more work to promote alternate – and legitimate – economic pursuits in First Nations reserves, thereby easing dependence on illegal activities.

The illicit tobacco trade didn't appear overnight, and it won't be easily eliminated. But more could surely be done to stanch this dirty business, to protect both government revenues and public health.

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• $2 billion in tax revenue up in smoke 

One in two cigarettes smoked in Ontario is illegal, robbing provincial and federal coffers of more than $2 billion a year and raising concerns about children gaining easy access to tobacco.

"There's absolutely no doubt that there's an incredible amount of revenue lost both in the province of Ontario and Quebec and to the federal government as well," provincial Community Safety Minister Rick Bartolucci said in an interview.

A study for the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers' Council found that illegal cigarette purchases in Ontario have climbed to 48.6 per cent, followed by Quebec with 40.1 per cent. . . .

Originating on First Nations reserves, the contraband smokes are readily available in most towns and cities.

"People have to understand the severity of buying, of making ... and what damage it does do," said Bartolucci.

But how do we know? Enter the squad of "butt pickers."

In a separate investigation last month, the National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco collected by hand 19,770 cigarette butts near 110 high schools, and discovered 30 per cent were illegal.

The coalition, which was launched by the Canadian Convenience Stores Association, whose members lose an average of $115,000 in sales annually due to illegal cigarettes, analyzed 14,064 butts from 75 Quebec high schools and concluded 45 per cent were contraband.

Because each legal cigarette has a distinctive marking on the filter, investigators are able to pinpoint hot spots for untaxed and unregulated smokes.

Ontario and Quebec represent about 95 per cent of illegal tobacco sales in Canada, and about 33 per cent of cigarettes sold in Canada are contraband, according to the manufacturers' council study. . . .

The major source of that supply is the Akwesasne native reserve that straddles Ontario, Quebec and the State of New York. Ten cigarette manufacturing plants on the U.S. side pump out billions of cigarettes annually.

"We know that perhaps 95 per cent of the contraband in Canada originates in illegal operations located on four First Nations reserves, the most important of which by far is the U.S. side of Akwesasne near Cornwall, Ont. There is also Kahnawake near Montreal, Tyendinaga near Belleville, and Six Nations near Brantford," said Cunningham.

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• NYPD takes on Indians to halt billion-$$ flow 

MOHAWK NATION OF AKWESASNE -- The NYPD has gone on the reservation -- sending its drug czar upstate to try to help cut off a massive pipeline of pot and ecstasy to the city run by Mohawk Indian smugglers on the Canadian border.

"I was astounded at how lenient the border is," said Chief Joseph Resnick, head of the NYPD's narcotics division.

He spoke after a trip six weeks ago to the Akwesasne reservation, which straddles the US-Canadian border and which he said supplies most of the high-potency marijuana and ecstasy sold on city streets.

"Once you cross into the US, you're on the Indian reservation, which is sovereign land. The whole border is the real point of origin. When we bust large numbers of ecstasy and hydroponic pot, most of it comes through there."

The feds say that in the last 10 years, more than $1 billion worth of marijuana has come through the reservation, which stretches five miles along the banks of the St. Lawrence River. . . .

The crossing, featured in last year's Oscar-nominated movie "Frozen River," is also a major route for illegal immigrants as well as huge quantities of untaxed liquor and cigarettes, investigators said. . . .

One self-professed smuggler interviewed by The Post described how easy it was to elude US Border Patrol officers, who oversee the waterways on the US side of the river, and the Mounties' marine patrol on the Canadian side.

"We go at night and run all night. I get on my Jet Ski, put on a helmet and night-vision goggles and just go. The boats we have are way faster than theirs. They can't catch us."

He said he earned about $300,000 in a two-week period last year after delivering a haul of cigarettes, liquor and pot -- and returned with large equipment bags stuffed with stacks of $100 bills, which took all night to count, he said.

"There are about 100 millionaires on the res," . . .

Leaders are proud of their members. Although the Akwesasne reservation suffers from some of the same problems as others -- high unemployment, obesity, alcoholism -- it also has successful industries, including tobacco factories, construction and maple syrup.

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• Survey shows most NZ smokers want to quit 

The 2008 New Zealand Tobacco Use Survey: Quitting Results published today shows overwhelmingly most smokers want to quit, Associate Minister of Health Hon Tariana Turia said.

Minister Turia said that helping smokers to quit was a priority for the Government and was one of the six health targets.

This report presents the quitting results of 15 to 64 year olds from the 2008 New Zealand Tobacco Use Survey, including where possible, in comparison with the previous survey (2006).

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• Seneca educates lawmakers on treaty rights, tobacco economy  

State lawmakers at a public hearing heard claims of "lost" tax revenues ranging from tens of millions to billions of dollars from untaxed cigarette sales on Indian reservations.

While none of the witnesses backed up their claims with substantive evidence, the Seneca Nation of Indians presented officials with a three-inch thick document on its treaty rights, legal history, and an economic study by a Harvard economist that pinpointed how - and how much - the nation's tobacco-based economy benefits the state.

The hearing, which was chaired by Sen. Craig Johnson, D-N.Y., was an all day - and sometimes heated - event at Manhattan Community College Oct. 27. The aim was to investigate why the state has failed in its attempts to collect cigarette taxes from reservation cigarette sales to non-Natives.

J.C. Seneca, a Seneca Nation tribal councilor, testifying on behalf of the nation, addressed that question at the beginning of his testimony.

"The answer to that question, put simply, is that your government has no authority to do so,

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• Seneca Nation of Indians president to meet with Obama today  

Seneca President Barry E. Snyder Sr. will travel to Washington, D.C. to participate in a first-of-its-kind national Indian nations conference to be staged by President Barack Obama. The all-day conference will take place today.

"During his 2008 presidential campaign Obama promised to go beyond a government-to-government relationship with Native Americans and create a nation-to-nation relationship. This conference indicates he is interested in giving nations a true voice," President Snyder said. "I look forward to taking part in this critical dialogue."

In October 2008, Obama pledged, if elected, he would appoint an American Indian policy advisor to his senior White House staff and would host an annual tribal leadership conference. . . .

In recent weeks, the Seneca Nation has made a strong stance against renewed efforts by some New York State elected officials to collect taxes on tribal tobacco sales. The Senecas have reiterated their position that long-standing federal treaties prohibit states and other governments from taxing Indian nations. The Senecas are also looking for federal assistance to overturn the Kempthorne policy which prohibits off-reservation gaming.

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• NY Indians Descend on NYC Cigarette Hearing | Long Island Press  

The New York State Senate hearing on the state’s non-collection of taxes on cigarettes sold to non-Native Americans on Indian Reservations brought representatives from Indian nations from all over New York State into a highly charged arena at the Borough of Manhattan Community College on Tuesday.

The hearing was chaired by state Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington) and had several other senators on the committee in attendance throughout the day. Though the hearing was scheduled to end at 2:30 p.m., the full slate of witnesses and complexity of the testimony being given extended to just after 4:30 p.m., with only two brief breaks in between.

Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington), chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Investigations and Government Operations, will be leading the hearing at Manhattan Community College.

Johnson had to call for order on a couple of occasions during heated exchanges between Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn) and JC Seneca of the Seneca Nation of Indians that prompted mocking rebukes from Indians in the auditorium. Golden implored the Seneca nation to help New York State given the $4 billion budget deficit the state is facing claiming that New York State will soon be in the same position as California and issuing IOU’s to contractors, vendors and employees. This was met with calls from the crowd, many of whom were yelling out “That’s not our problem” and taunting the senator as he walked out midway through the proceedings.

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• New smoking ban a bit hazy on Flathead Reservation 

Here on the Flathead Indian Reservation, the Montana Clean Indoor Air Act has run into some hazy skies.

Tribally owned bars and casinos are exempt from the state's smoking ban. That means the Grey Wolf Peak Casino north of Evaro and the Kwa Taq Nuk Resort in Polson, owned by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, still offer both smoking and nonsmoking casino areas.

But here on the Flathead Reservation, some enrolled tribal members who own liquor licenses also allow smoking in their bars.

"The way I understand it, the state and health department won't pursue it if we allow it, because they have nowhere to take it," says Lori Peterson, an enrolled member of the tribes and owner of the Pheasant Lounge in Ronan.

Rick Wheeler's bar sits a block away, on the other side of Ronan's Main Street.

"Ninety percent of my customers smoke," says Wheeler, who is not a tribal member. If he enforces the smoking ban, Wheeler says, virtually all of them will simply cross the street to a bar where they can light up inside, and the business he's owned for 20 years will go belly-up.

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• Quebec to crack down on contraband tobacco 

The Quebec government on Wednesday unveiled a push to stop trade in illicit cigarettes, including stiffer fines and a moratorium on manufacturing permits.

The bill, introduced by provincial Revenue Minister Robert Dutil also gives more power to police, notably municipal organizations, to arrest, fine or charge producers, distributors and consumers of illegal cigarettes.

"This is probably the most important element," Dutil told reporters Wednesday.

About 30 per cent of cigarettes smoked in Quebec are contraband and the Quebec government is losing about $300 million a year in taxes, Dutil said.

He blamed organized crime for most of the illicit trade, but noted natives also are involved.

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• Seneca Nation Leaders, Members Testify at Cigarette Tax Collection Hearing 

J.C. Seneca, a tribal councilor and co-chairman of the Seneca Nation Foreign Relations Committee, and Robert Odawi Porter, Senior Policy Advisor and Counsel, appeared today before the State Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations. The hearing, held at Borough of Manhattan Community College, focused on the issue of whether New York State has the right to collect taxes on Native American tobacco sales within its borders.

Addressing the hearing panel, Councilor Seneca said the recurrent question of 'Why doesn't the State collect taxes on commerce taking place on Indian lands?' has a simple and definitive answer: It lacks authority to do so.

"For over 200 years, New York State has tried to steal our lands, assert jurisdiction over what lands we have left, and impose its taxes on us and our activities. In response, and in our defense, the United States promised to protect us from any effort by the State to impose its taxes in our territories," Councilor Seneca told the hearing panel.

"Your oaths of office require you to uphold American laws and treaties. Whether you do so or not is up to you, but I assure you that we have no intention of compromising any of our treaty right that have already been bought and paid for through the relinquishment of most of our aboriginal rights," Councilor Seneca said.

The Seneca leader detailed the Seneca Nation's effort to build its economy across its five Western New York sovereign territories, which has contributed over $1.1 billion to the state-wide economy in the past decade.

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• NY may try to collect taxes on Indian cigarettes 

A deepening deficit has New York officials looking again at how to collect unpaid taxes on cigarettes sold by Indian tribes to non-Indians.

The issue is also making unlikely allies of cigarette makers and anti-smoking interests who say taxation would limit illegal sales and keep cigarettes out of the hands of minors.

A budget hearing Tuesday in Manhattan will weigh the potential revenue against concerns that any attempt to collect the taxes could cause a repeat of sometimes violent confrontations between the state and tribes in the 1990s. The Legislature has pressed for collection before, but past governors have refused, preferring to try to negotiate agreements.

At stake is what lawmakers, cigarette companies and a leading anti-smoking group say is $400 million or more in annual revenue. That disputed figure would be almost equal to a proposed cut in midyear school aid that's intended to help close a $3 billion budget deficit.

For tribes like the Seneca Indian Nation, the taxes could mean an end to fortunes

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