Tobacco.org

Eddyville bar joins growing list of smoking ban violators 

The Pit Stop Sports Bar and Grill is the latest Heartland Bar to suffer a suspended liquor license.

That suspension is the result of violating the state's smoking ban.

The suspension will begin on July 3 and last for seven days. The bar's owners will also pay a $1,000 civil fine.

The KTVO viewing area has been a hotbed of opposition to the smoking ban.

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New Homeopathic Spray Offers Fast, Short-Term Relief From Nicotine Cravings 

NIX-IT is an oral spray that temporarily relieves nicotine cravings and the uncomfortable symptoms associated with nicotine withdrawal, including anxiety, irritability and dry mouth. Unlike long-term cessation products, NIX-IT acts fast and can be used as-needed, anytime, anywhere.

"While NIX-IT can assist adults in quitting tobacco, it isn't a hardcore stop-smoking product," says Dave Savoca, president of Smokey Mountain Chew, marketing company for NIX-IT. "It's really targeted to adult tobacco consumers who need to manage tobacco cravings in specific situations. Because it's easy to carry just about anywhere, NIX-IT is perfect for curbing cravings on long flights, at indoor events, during movies, at restaurants or anywhere else consumers can't or choose not to smoke."

Savoca says NIX-IT, manufactured in the USA at an FDA-regulated facility, falls under the newly-designated category of personal tobacco management, and will be available in retail stores nationwide.

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Most Swedes support ban on outdoor smoking 

A new survey by Synovate that was commissioned by the Swedish Network of Tobacco Prevention reveals that 73 percent of Swedes support a ban on smoking in the outdoor dining sections of restaurants. This would suggest that Swedes are getting tired of second hand smoke, even within the well-ventilated realm of the great outdoors.

The Local newspaper reports that the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union (HRF) is demanding the government extend its existing 2005 ban on smoking in all licensed premises. The original ban proved very popular with Swedes, leading the Parliament to establish a goal of expanding this notion against exposure to passive smoking in public by 2014.

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• Mom Indicted After Toddler Died From Cocaine, Nicotine  

An East Cleveland mother and her fiance have been indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter after the death of her 2-year-old from eating cocaine and nicotine.

Deanna Henderson, 24, and Antoine Fentress, 24, were also indicted Monday on charges of endangering children and domestic violence. . . .

Henderson pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter, and Fentress pleaded guilty to endangering children.

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• Big tobacco pays Dutch opposition to smoking ban 

Ton Wurtz, treasurer of the foundation 'Red de kleine horecaondernemer' (Save the small hospitality entrepreneur), has admitted to receiving "about 50,000 euros per year" from the tobacco companies. Wurtz also holds biweekly strategy talks with Willem Jan Roelofs, the chairman of the cigarette industry foundation SSI, he said.

Smoking was banned in cafes, bars, hotels and restaurants in The Netherlands a year ago. Just before the ban went into effect on July 1, 2008, Wurtz, who has been the spokesperson for a foundation that stands up for smokers since 1993, and other seasoned tobacco lobbyists established the foundation to represent the interests of small cafe owners.

The smoking ban was primarily adopted to guarantee the right of employees to work in a smoke-free environment. But critics say small bars, with no employees except the owners, should be exempt from the ban. Several court cases are underway against cafes that defied the ban.

The law firm representing the small cafe owners has been negotiating with the tobacco industry about the possibility of it bankrolling future lawsuits challenging the smoking ban. . . .

"We are talking to several parties about financing a procedure, SSI amongst them," Marco Gerritsen of the Van Diepen Van der Kroef law firm confirmed. "They haven't promised anything yet."

SSI's is a collaboration between British American Tobacco (Pall Mall), Imperial Tobacco (Gauloises) and Japan Tobacco International (Camel); Philip Morris (Marlboro) left the group in 2005. Tobacco companies fear a decline of 5 percent of sales because of the smoking ban in bars. Roelofs: "That is a substantial loss in an already contracting market." He denied the SSI has any intention to finance future court cases.

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UPDATE 4-BAT eyes Asia boost from $494 mln Indonesia deal  

British American Tobacco Plc bought a majority stake in a top Indonesian cigarette firm on Wednesday, lifting its share in the world's fifth-largest and fast-growing market as it looks to offset flat sales elsewhere.

BAT, maker of Dunhill and Lucky Strike cigarettes, said it paid $494 million for an 85 percent stake in PT Bentoel Internasional Investama, Indonesia's fourth-largest cigarette maker by volume, and would buy up the remaining shares by the end of August.

London-based world number-two cigarette maker BAT, like other major players, is looking to expand in growing emerging markets as western ones are hit by the effects of higher taxes, smoking bans and restrictions on advertising.

"The purchase... makes sense as Indonesia cigarette (market) is dominated with kretek (clove), which accounts for around 93 percent of total cigarettes consumed," said Jakarta-based analyst Ella Nusantoro of Citigroup in a note to clients.

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Editorial: New rules for nicotine  

Given how deadly tobacco products are known to be, an outright ban on smoking may seem less hypocritical than regulation. But it would have been politically impossible to achieve. And in any case, it would have simply driven smokers into an underground black market.

Though it has taken a long time, social attitudes toward tobacco use in this country have changed. Today, just one American in five smokes. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that, over the next decade, the new law will cut youth smoking by 11 percent and adult smoking by about 2 percent. It may not be perfection, but it certainly sounds like progress.

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BATES: An urgent plea to America's Smoker in Chief  

The truth is that precious few smokers can quit without help. And that's where our society continues to have a massive blind spot. Tobacco-caused disease has become the nation's leading preventable cause of death, killing more than 400,000 Americans every year, yet our health care system and federal government do next to nothing to help smokers who want to quit but can't conquer their cruel addiction.

Historically, nicotine addiction has been one of the most difficult of all drug addictions to break. . . .

Oregon ranks among the worst states at breaking this promise. . . .

Obama could do more -- much, much more.

I'd like to see him enroll, very publicly, in a smoking cessation program. He could speak up about his struggle and demonstrate to the nation that even a strong, savvy person often needs help breaking the addiction.

Obama could also lead the way on ramping up spending on help for smokers who want to quit. States should be held to their early promises, and health insurers should be required to cover cessation programs.

Years ago, if my struggling father could have had a few hundred bucks worth of physician-supervised cessation treatment -- something he could not afford on his own -- it could have saved tens of thousands of dollars in surgeries and cancer treatment.

Even better, he'd still be here today.

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BREHM: Legislation snuffs Big Tobacco's marketing mayhem  

I applaud Obama's effort to tighten tobacco laws because I, too, share his regret of becoming a smoker as a teen. I tell my three children constantly that starting to smoke is the single biggest regret of my life, and I have struggled to quit numerous times over the past 20 years. I am ashamed to admit that I still find it hard to stop completely.

So I cannot help but commiserate with Obama when he talked about his continuing efforts to stop smoking. . . .

I wish this law would have been approved 30 years ago. I don't remember being influenced as a teen by tobacco marketing, but I see the power a McDonald's commercial has over my own children, and don't doubt my friends and I were impacted by clever ads featuring kid-friendly characters such as Joe Camel.

If this new law prevents teens from starting to smoke, it will go a long way toward making our next generation healthier. And a lot less stinky.

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AMA meeting: More to do on tobacco control  

Chicago

The American Medical Association reaffirmed its commitment to tobacco control at its Annual Meeting in the wake of recently passed legislation supporting the organization's long-held position that the Food and Drug Administration should regulate cigarettes and other nicotine products.

But the organization is also calling for several other steps that would make a further dent in smoking rates.

The House of Delegates approved a resolution calling for the stoppage of the sale and marketing of tobacco products in pharmacies. It also agreed to work with government agencies and pharmacy trade groups to remove tobacco from the shelves and push for relevant legislation toward this end. Delegates said it didn't make sense for businesses to both sell products to improve health and ones that damage it.

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Few Americans Would Completely Ban Smoking 

Few adults in the United States support enacting a policy that would make smoking in the country totally illegal, according to a poll by Gallup. 83 per cent of respondents oppose this rationale, while 17 per cent support it.

Also, 52 per cent of respondents disapprove of a new law that gives the federal government power to regulate the manufacturing and marketing of cigarettes and other tobacco products.

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The Greenville News editorial: New federal tobacco regulations not necessary  

President Barack Obama recently signed new, sweeping tobacco regulations. The new rules have been long sought by anti-smoking advocates but they're heavy handed, constitutionally suspect and simply unnecessary. . . .

The fact remains that onerous new regulations are not needed. Smoking already is in decline nationwide, not because of federal intervention but thanks to individuals making healthy choices.

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Smoking out profits from BAT shares 

For BAT-Kenya shareholders, however, smoke has meant one of the highest returns at the Nairobi Stock Exchange in the past one year, making a mockery of the bourse’s one-year bearish run.

The returns have been two-fold, in price appreciation and dividend pay-out. On January 21, for example, BAT shares were selling at Ksh137 ($1.75), but by June 24, the price had risen to Ksh170 ($2.2), an appreciation of Ksh43 (US 55 cents).

A shareholder who bought into the company on January 21 would, however, have made a bigger killing, given that BAT-Kenya paid a final dividend of Ksh12.50 (US 16 cents) on April 30.

Taken together, the price appreciation and dividend payout mean that the total gain per share for the investor would have been Ksh55.50 (US 71 cents) by last week, equivalent to a 41 per cent gain in investment in just four-and-a-half months. Globally, annual gains of around 10 per cent on capital are considered good.

The gains registered by the BAT stock far outstrip those made by the NSE over the last four weeks, when the bourse registered some recovery pressure.

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Contraband destroyed 

ISLAMABAD: Customs authorities have set on fire a huge quantity of alcohol, hashish and counterfeit and smuggled cigarettes at the Tarnol Customs warehouse here.

Federal Board of Revenue Chairman Sohail Ahmed, on the occasion, said the huge quantity of contraband was seized from unscrupulous elements during the crackdown launched by the FBR against criminals. He said a countrywide operation would be launched soon in order to effectively control rising incidents of smuggling and other crimes.

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• Terrorism and Tobacco--How Cigarette Smuggling Finances Jihad and Insurgency Worldwide  

Smugglers take the same routes today — driving SUVs along paved roads or with guidance from the Tuareg and satellite phones — to move weapons, drugs, and, increasingly, humans — through the Sahara for transport across the Mediterranean Sea. The paths are no longer known as the Salt Roads of the Tuareg, but as the “Marlboro Connection,” named after the most lucrative contraband along this 2,000-mile corridor.

Among those who control this underground trade is al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an Algeria-based terrorist organization widely believed to have been backed by Osama Bin Laden. Descended from the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (known by its French acronym, GSPC) the group has hundreds of members and is blamed for a bloody campaign of bombings, murders, and kidnappings across North Africa and Europe. The lead smuggler, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, 37, is blamed for the 2003 kidnappings of 32 European tourists and the 2006 murder of 13 Algerian customs officials. “They are a significant threat,” says Lorenzo Vidino, author of Al Qaeda in Europe. “Of all Islamic terrorist groups, they have the most extensive and sophisticated network in Europe… And among their activities, smuggling is particularly important.”

Military officials and scholars say cigarette smuggling, in fact, has provided the bulk of financing for AQIM. The money comes not directly from smuggling, but from charging protection fees to others moving the untaxed cigarettes through the Sahara. The most smuggled brand is Marlboro, followed by Gauloises and American Legend, as well as counterfeited Rym, a popular Algerian brand. . . .

Hezbollah, the Taliban, and al-Qaeda are involved in smuggling cigarettes; so are the Real Irish Republican Army (Real IRA) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Terrorist financing through cigarette smuggling is “huge,” says Louise Shelley, a transnational crime expert at George Mason University and an adviser to the World Economic Forum on illicit trade. “Worldwide — it’s no exaggeration… No one thinks cigarette smuggling is too serious, so law enforcement doesn’t spend resources to go after it.”

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