Tobacco.org

Public health initiatives and youth smoking prevention measures are inneffective for over 30 percent of the tobacco industry 

Imperial Tobacco Canada today stated that Canada has lost its leadership in tobacco control thanks to provincial and federal governments ignoring the growing crisis of illegal tobacco sales.

In a speech delivered today at the Canadian Club of Montreal, Benjamin J. Kemball, President and Chief Executive Officer of Imperial Tobacco Canada said "As simplistic as it sounds, part of the solution is to acknowledge that we have a problem. Governments have to work in earnest to find effective solutions that go beyond police operations. A good first step would be to bring everyone involved to the table, from the health communities to the First Nations communities. Someone needs to be put in charge." . . .

Imperial Tobacco Canada believes that effective and enforceable tobacco control regulations are necessary due to the health risks associated with tobacco. The real issue today is the rampant growth of illegal cigarettes that are falling into the hands of young people at pocket money prices; that have no government mandated warnings or other health information; that are manufactured in unlawful factories with no government oversight and no reporting of ingredients or product testing.

Imperial Tobacco Canada believes that something should and can be done now. The road to solving the growth of illegal tobacco sales begins with the Prime Minister mandating a high-level ministerial appointee to take charge of the problem, enforce the current laws, control raw material and machinery. However, none of this will work if the First Nation communities are not invited to be at the table to help shape the solutions.

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• South Florida Cigarette Smuggling Funds Terrorism  

In less than five minutes, the brutal attack left Quinsey and Azimkar dead, the two pizza deliverymen and a pair of guards clinging to life, and the historic 1998 peace agreement between Irish Catholics and Protestants imperiled.

The bullets rang out thousands of miles away, but investigators now believe the assault had its origin in an anonymous cargo ship docked at a bustling South Florida port.

A gray-haired 57-year-old Cutler Bay man with no criminal history named Roman Vidal sold millions of cigarettes that had been smuggled to Dublin criminals who funded the terrorist group that killed Quinsey and Azimkar, investigators say. The charges are just the latest link between black-market U.S. smokes and violent terrorist groups around the world.

It's the first cigarette smuggling case in Florida with explicit ties to a terrorist organization, but at least four major rings around the country have been busted in the past seven years with proven connections to Hezbollah, the Iraqi Kurdistan Workers Party, and North Korean weapons runners. A four-month-long New Times review of court filings and interviews with investigators reveals exactly why smuggling smokes may be the best racket for America's enemies. . . .

For the average smoker, those under-the-table, tax-free packs might seem like a bargain. But as the recent history of cigarette smuggling vividly illustrates, when you buy black-market smokes, you never know whose paycheck you're signing. . . .

In 1999, Garcia was called to Atlantic City to help Lou Calvarese — a hefty agent with a long undercover FBI résumé. Calvarese introduced him to May and Charles Liu, a Los Angeles Chinese-American couple with an incredible operation.

Though most smuggling operations involve actual commercial cigarettes, the Lius contracted with four factories in China that produced quality knockoffs of Marlboros, Camels, and other major brands. . . .

That meeting was just the beginning of a massive six-year operation. Garcia would eventually infiltrate the highest levels of the Lius' international smuggling network, a staggering chain involving nearly 100 people in China, the United States, and Canada. Garcia eventually learned that the operation had ties to North Korean weapons smugglers.

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For the average smoker, those under-the-table, tax-free packs might seem like a bargain. But as the recent history of cigarette smuggling vividly illustrates, when you buy black-market smokes, you never know whose paycheck you're signing.
Text from yet another trenchant, well-researched and well-written article on cigarette smuggling, this time from a small South Florida paper. The big mainstream media orgs are getting drubbed on this subject.

• Anti-tobacco group slams report 

Contentions that cigarette prices have no effect on tobacco consumption are wrong, says Louis Gauvin, co-director of the Coalition québécoise pour le contrôle du tabac.

Léger Marketing conducted a study last month for the Canadian Convenience Stores Association. In its report, which was made public this month, association vice-president Michel Gadbois says cheaper cigarettes won't influence the number of people who get hooked on tobacco.

For months, dépanneur owners have complained that cigarette prices, and the taxes on tobacco products, are too high and are hurting their bottom line.

Calling the study, conducted in 25 Quebec cities, biased, Gauvin this week questioned who Gadbois's employer really is.

"We believe that Gadbois is doing more work for the tobacco industry by suggesting lower taxes," Gauvin said. "If a convenience store is having financial difficulties, it's not solely because taxes on tobacco are too high." Gadbois says he stands by the study's findings.

"(The coalition) is just complaining that we're using arguments that they may or may not like," he said.

Gadbois also said younger smokers are more likely to buy contraband cigarettes, because they are cheaper.

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• Is your kid a smoker? Blame your demographic 

Whether your child becomes a smoker may be determined in part by the neighbourhood he or she grows up in, according to a new report by a Montreal-based research centre.

"We wanted to develop a better understanding of how neighbourhoods affect health," said Christiane Montpetit, who wrote the report for the Centre Léa-Roback, a research institute that focuses on the impact of social inequality on health.

Researchers at the centre analyzed about 20 different smoking related studies produced over the last decade and tried to draw conclusions about environmental factors that encourage or discourage tobacco use among youth.

Overall, adult Quebecers are smoking less, partly because of smoking bans in restaurants, bars and other public places. But 31 per cent of young people (age 20 to 24) in Quebec still smoke, and most start in their teens.

As with adult smoking, socio-economic status plays a role, in that a greater percentage of poor kids smoke. But an even stronger link seems to be the level of education of parents, the report notes. . . .

Montpetit acknowledged the report raises more questions than it answers, but it shows that strategies that target only the individual might not be an effective way to reduce smoking among teens.

"We all know that in certain neighbourhoods, often wealthier ones, it is considered shameful to be seen smoking. People actually hide when they smoke. ...Whereas if you live in a place where everyone smokes, it becomes a social activity," she said.

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• BLIZZARD: Smoke 'em if you swiped 'em 

Canada's illegal cigarette trade is soaring out of control -- and governments at all levels are reluctant to do anything about it. . . .

With cigarettes selling illegally for as little as $10 a carton, it's mostly kids who are buying.

"They're recruiting youth to transport the cigarettes from the Akwesasne Mohawk territory to smoke shacks in other aboriginal communities," Harvey said.

In one case, a 17 year-old girl was making $6,000 a week doing that and used the money to finance her drug addiction.

"The general public sees this as sticking it to the tax man and that it's their right to buy cigarettes at low prices (because) the government is over-taxing them," he said. "They are really financing organized crime groups, who are using this money to produce drugs such as Ectasy and meth labs across Canada."

I don't smoke. I don't like people to smoke around me. But if people are going to buy a legal product, they should do so legally. This week, the UN said Canada is a "primary source" of Ecstasy and methamphetamines.

As long as governments refuse to deal with the illicit tobacco trade, we'll continue to be the party drug dealer of choice to the world.

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• Langley RCMP hand out first ticket to man smoking in car with a child 

Langley RCMP handed out their first ticket recently to a driver caught smoking with a child in the car.

The man was pulled over while he was smoking with a 13-year-old in the car. The driver was handed a ticket with a $109 fine and also was given a 24-hour suspension for driving under the influence of alcohol.

The man's name was not released by police.

Langley RCMP Cpl. Holly Marks believes it was one of the first tickets of its kind handed out in B.C.

"The wife was in the car and she was not upset that he got a ticket," she explained Wednesday. "She told the officer she had been trying to get her husband to stop smoking in the car."

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U.S. Rep. Phil Roe Joins Fight Against Canadian Tobacco Bill  

A Northeast Tennessee Congressman is the latest person to join the fight against a bill making its way through the Canadian legislature that could hurt American burley tobacco farmers.

On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Phil Roe, R-1st, sent Canadian International Trade Minister Stockwell Day a letter voicing his opposition to that country's "Cracking down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act."

Known as C-32, the bill would ban the sale and manufacture of flavored cigars and cigarettes in Canada. The legislation unanimously passed the Canadian House of Commons on June 17 and is now making its way through the Canadian Senate. . . .

"I view this as a trade measure rather a health measure," Roe wrote in his letter, which called C-32 a "protectionist measure" because it could put American tobacco farmers at a loss while creating a market for tobacco varieties not commonly grown in this country.

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Smoking cessation initiated during hospital stay for patients with coronary artery disease: a randomized controlled trial 

Interpretation

More patients in the intensive intervention than in the minimal intervention were abstinent at 1 year (absolute increase of 19%). The odds of quitting smoking were 2 times greater for those in the intensive intervention. The unique contributions of this study include significantly higher rates of continuous abstinence for patients admitted to hospital for CABG than for acute MI, significantly lower rates of abstinence among patients who used pharmacotherapy regardless of the intervention group (which is a finding consistent with general hospital patients) 28 and real-time tracking of the prevalence of tobacco use among patients admitted for acute MI or CABG. The prevalence of tobacco use was higher for patients with acute MI (34%) than the provincial average of smoking prevalence (22%-24%), 29 which is an important consideration for case-load estimation. In addition to receiving the intensive intervention, the absence of a previous acute MI and having a postsecondary education and at least some restrictions on smoking at home contributed to successful long-term cessation of tobacco use.

The rates of confirmed long-term abstinence observed in this trial are among the highest rates reported in cardiac populations and are among the highest reported absolute differences between minimal and intensive interventions. 8 Our results suggest that intensive counselling provided during the hospital stay is more effective than a stepped-care approach that provides intensive counselling only after a patient has relapsed. 30 By significantly increasing abstinence among cardiac patients, inpatient programs for smoking cessation have the potential to produce sizeable reductions in cardiac events 1,3,4,6,7 and hospital costs. . . .

Fifteen years ago, routine smoking-cessation interventions for cardiac patients in hospital were deemed an "idea whose time has come," 40 but the interventions have not been widely adopted. The current trial contributes to the international evidence base and provides support to suggest that future research and practice should focus on dissemination of intensive interventions for smoking cessation into standard hospital practice for cardiac patients. The potential contributions to health and health care costs are substantial.

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Council butts out, this time 

City councillors are butting out of the contentious issue of banning smoking in public housing.

They voted against taking a position yesterday, instead referring the issue to CityHousing's independent board for consideration.

"The devil is in the details," said Councillor Chad Collins, adding it's difficult for the city to take a position when it doesn't know how the restrictions would be implemented.

"There's still a lot of work to be done. I see this as the start of the process."

Public health staff had recommended the Board of Health, which includes all councillors, endorse a smoking ban for all new housing properties and some existing units as they turn over. The position would then be forwarded to the CityHousing's board to be considered for a formal policy.

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• Intensive smoking-cessation program can double quit rate in cardiac patients 

Cardiac patients were twice as likely to successfully quit smoking if they received intensive in-hospital counseling plus follow-up support vs only minimal in-hospital counseling, in a recent study [1].

Among patients hospitalized for CABG or MI who were smokers, 54% who received the intensive counseling protocol vs only 35% of patients who received minimal support were confirmed nonsmokers one year after discharge.

Unfortunately, counseling patients about quitting smoking--which research has shown can greatly reduce the risk of a subsequent cardiovascular event--is often neglected by cardiologists, author Dr Ellen Burgess (University of Calgary, Calgary, ON) told heartwire. . . .

The study is published in the June 23, 2009 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

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Smoking triggers more stress: Survey 

Canadians hoping to blow off economic anxiety with cigarettes could get burned, according to new research linking smoking with significantly higher-than-normal stress levels.

Drawing on data from 2,250 adults, Pew Research — a non-partisan American think-tank — found half (50 per cent) of all smokers claim to experience frequent stress in their lives, compared with just 35 per cent of ex-smokers and 31 per cent of non-smokers. Even controlling for basic demographic traits such as sex, age, education, income and parental status, the researchers say current smokers are still significantly more likely than non-smokers and quitters to have self-reported stress.

With a survey showing a quarter of smokers worried about the recession are smoking more, and another 13 per cent are delaying quitting for the same reason, experts say the new report reflects an urgent need to debunk the "mythic relaxation response" of cigarettes.

"Many smokers perceive smoking as a way to calm stress, when, in fact, what they're doing is satisfying nicotine cravings and withdrawal," says Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst for the Canadian Cancer Society. "In many respects, smoking — or the delay in having a cigarette — is the cause of stress."

Cunningham believes Pew's report supports the need for more educational messages

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Ky. tobacco growers oppose Canadian bill  

Tobacco advocates used to being on the defensive in their own country are fuming over a Canadian proposal they say could essentially ban some American leaf often used in cigarettes.

The measure winding through Canada's parliament would outlaw selling tobacco embellished with fruit and candy flavors, which health officials say entice youngsters to smoke. Supporters of the cash crop worry that American burley -- a variety commonly blended with other types of tobacco and laced with flavors to smooth its harsh taste -- will be snarled in the ban, and that other countries will be encouraged to enact similar restrictions.

The bill was passed by Canada's House of Commons and has gone to the nation's Senate. Tobacco officials and their congressmen are working hard to keep the bill from passing, arguing the livelihood of farmers and manufacturers is in jeopardy.

Roger Quarles, president of the Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative in Lexington, said the flavorings added to burley are undetectable to consumers.

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Tobacco farmers growing anxious  

Kentucky's tobacco industry will be able to conduct this growing season as usual, but farmers question what new FDA regulations and a possible Canadian ban on burley will mean for the future.

"Contracts are being signed as we speak today," Tommy Bale said of the sales contracts farmers make with tobacco companies, meaning this season won't be impacted.

Bale is not only a farmer, but also president of Bale Tobacco Marketing, with a tobacco weigh station in Glasgow with Phillip Morris International and elsewhere. Phillip Morris exports what it purchases in Glasgow to manufacturing plants outside the United States, including to Canada.

"From the knowledge that I have, the (Canadian) regulation is overkill," Bale said. "It was good that it originally targeted cigars that had a candy flavor, but now it will eliminate any flavorings at all."

That means that Kentucky burley - which is blended with flu cured tobacco - could be banned from the nation.

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Ready, Fire!, Aim. How Bill C-32 is a Perfect Example of Government Mismanagement 

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq's May 26th announcement that the Conservative Government would make good on an electoral promise to ban flavours in tobacco products, has proven to be the perfect example of the current government's gross mismanagement of a very important public health file.

As the government journeys dangerously closer towards formalizing Bill C-32 (An Act to Amend the Tobacco Act) into law, Casa Cubana is once again calling on all Parliamentarians and the media to consider the very serious implications of legislating any issue on a premise of fear, not fact - hate, not health. The current market environments in our country are such that Bill C-32 will only come to destroy thousands of legitimate Canadian businesses and jobs, while further fueling the criminal networks involved in tobacco, drugs and weapons trafficking. There is only a "perceived" health benefit to banning flavoured tobacco products in Canada, says Luc Martial (in charge of government affairs with Casa Cubana and formerly with the Non-Smokers' Rights Association, the Canadian Council on Smoking and Health, the National Clearinghouse on Tobacco and Health, and the Tobacco Control Programme at Health Canada). Bill C-32 is perilously leveraged on this misguided perception and our country will in the end only come to be hurt by the government's gross negligence on this file, says Mr. Martial.

Casa Cubana testified before the Standing Committee on Health last Thursday and brought these issues (e.g. lack of research and consultation) to the forefront. We were quite surprised by the lack of interest among Committee Members,

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Federal Government About To Legislate a Lie into Law 

Bill C-32, An Act to Amend the Tobacco Act, is currently being debated and will likely pass Second Reading in the House of Commons shortly. By all indications, further to the discussion led in the House yesterday, it would appear that the Bill will likely find little obstacle within Parliament and effectively become law by the end of June. When this happens, thousands of legitimate Canadian businesses and jobs will be destroyed. As a result, Casa Cubana is immediately seeking a federal government bail-out. This bail-out sought, however is not one which will cost Canadians, but rather benefit them - by asking government not for money, but rather honesty, integrity and accountability.

While private sector stakeholders like Casa Cubana will continue to try to properly educate and inform politicians on the issue, we remain quite discouraged at the obvious notion that several politicians have since demonstrated through their support of this Bill (yesterday) a gross lack of knowledge about these products and understanding of effective tobacco control policy, says Luc Martial (in charge of government affairs with Casa Cubana and formerly with the Non-Smokers' Rights Association, the Canadian Council on Smoking and Health, the National Clearinghouse on Tobacco and Health, and the Tobacco Control Programme at Health Canada).

While Casa Cubana has not lost complete hope that common sense may still one day prevail in the House of Commons, it is at this time being forced to consider its broader legal options. Should the bail-out sought not be forthcoming, Casa Cubana will be considering seeking legal advice on the possibility of bringing legal action against some politicians and anti-tobacco groups for libel and defamation. Through an orchestrated hate and misinformation campaign against an otherwise legitimate and legal Canadian company, these individuals and organizations will have since secured unjustified proposed legislation that will have a direct and devastating financial impact on thousands of legitimate Canadian business owners across the country. Casa Cubana now challenges these outspoken politicians to effectively step outside the secured, absolute-privileged parameters of the House of Commons and reiterate the offensive statements and unsupported allegations they have since made (yesterday) about these products and the companies that manufacture and distribute them.

Casa Cubana will also consider seeking a legal opinion on a possible anti-trust legal action against the government, which through Bill C-32, is effectively proposing to arbitrarily ban our legitimate tobacco products in favor of those manufactured and distributed by our competitors. In this sense, the government's Bill, if it were to become law, would knowingly and simply just shift Casa Cubana's legal tobacco sales to (1) criminal groups

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