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TN EDITORIAL: Factors conspire for quitting 

If there ever was a time to stop smoking, it's now.

There's never been more or better reasons to quit the cancer sticks -- a new state law banning smoking in restaurants and bars, the brutal cold and wind outside, the increasing restrictions on where smokers can light up, the ever-rising cost of smokes, the increasingly common refusal by employers to hire smokers. . . .

The biggest hit for smokers is the new law that went into effect Jan. 1, banning smoking in essentially all restaurants and bars in the state. Noncompliant customers can face $50 fines, while repeat business offenders can be penalized $200 a day. . . .

The frigid winter certainly is doing its part to make smoking miserable. Smokers who duck out of work or a bar for a five-minute puff have got to be thinking it's not worth it.

All the signs point to 2010 as the year to quit.

Most importantly, the decision to quit smoking will add years to your life. It's more than a resolution -- it's a lifesaver.

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Smoking on Buncombe County government property banned 

Smoking anywhere on property owned by Buncombe County government is now illegal, and a key backer of the change hopes it will clear the air around doors to the county courthouse and other buildings.

Some smokers say it is another step in a series of tighter rules that are turning them into outcasts.

County commissioners adopted the change in August at the urging of Gibbie Harris, Buncombe County health director, and the county health board. The rule took effect Saturday.

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President Obama’s Smoking Struggle Moves Tobacco Insider to Reveal a Fresh, No-Nonsense Quit Method 

Inspired by President Obama's struggle with cigarette smoking, and all those New Year resolutions waiting to fail, a researcher who used to work for big tobacco and who was himself a heavy smoker, has revealed his fresh, no-nonsense way to quit. Unlike all other methods he allows for you to smoke while quitting, he has no fixed quit dates and no rigid time frames. He encourages you to accept cravings, to tell no-one you're quitting, to manage weight increase, and to quit only when your life is calm. His method delivers much more control, much less stress, and a much higher chance of success by removing all of these tough pressure processes as you try to quit. . . .

Here are some of his radical ideas -

* Have a cigarette while you quit - it's OK, there should be no guilt in having a cigarette at one time or another as people quit.

* Have no "quit" dates - it is nonsense having a "drop dead" target date when smoking must stop forever.

* Have no rigid time frame for quitting - quitting will finally happen when the time is right for the individual.

* Accept cravings -

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Authorities say Cypress Pointe Apt. fire was accidental  

The improper disposal of a cigarette caused a fire that killed a recent UNCW graduate early Saturday morning, according to the Wilmington Fire Department.

23-year-old Rory Michaelson died in the fire the broke out at Cypress Pointe Apartments on New Centre Drive.

According to the fire department, firefighters battled the flames for three hours before it was extinguished.

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UPDATED: Asheville’s Hookah Bar will defy NC state law banning smoking  

Little has changed at the Juggling Gypsy Cafe and Hookah bar in Wilmington since the start of the smoking ban in North Carolina Saturday. Patrons continue to smoke. However, this is not an act of civil disobedience. Bar manager Denny Best says bar management has found what it believes to be a loophole in the new ban, allowing customers to continue to smoke tobacco through the water pipes.... However, buried at the very end of the smoking ban legislation is an exemption for actors on a live production set. So, thanks to a web cam and a streaming web site, the Juggling Gypsy is now a stage, and all the patrons its players.

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the Juggling Gypsy's Smoking Show on USTREAM: The Smoking Show,  

The Smoking Show all day long! Fire and Drums at 8, DJ M-It and the Glowjam at 11.

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Hookah Bliss 'to stay open' 

am Bliss, owner of Hookah Bliss on Franklin Street, said this week that the business will stay open and possibly go to court over the smoking ban if it is fined.

"We're going to stay open long enough to get a ticket," he said. "We're going to fight them in court."

The business specializes in hookahs, which are water pipes used for smoking tobacco, and serves beer. It has been open for about two and half years at 418 W. Franklin St. in Chapel Hill.

Hookah bars were not included in the exemptions that were granted to cigar bars under the smoking ban law. Cigar bars were defined as businesses that generate at least 60 percent of their quarterly revenues from the sale of alcoholic beverages and at least 25 percent of revenues from the sale of cigars.

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Wilmington hookah bar defies smoking ban with "reality show"  

Lights! Camera! Hookah!

That's the refrain that you might hear at one local hookah bar in Wilmington. However, this has less to do with Hollywood and more to do with smoking.

Little has changed at the Juggling Gypsy Cafe and Hookah bar in Wilmington since the start of the smoking ban in North Carolina Saturday. Patrons continue to smoke. However, this is not an act of civil disobedience.

Bar manager Denny Best says bar management has found what it believes to be a loophole in the new ban, allowing customers to continue to smoke tobacco through the water pipes.

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SC bars benefit from smoking ban 

LITTLE RIVER - The North Carolina smoking ban took effect Jan. 2, but business on the South Carolina side of the border are seeing some extra customers.

Just 100 yards south of North Carolina, Jimmagan's Sports Bar and Grill has seen more business the two days following the ban than it had in a week. People are trickling down to Jimmagan's, looking for a bar where they can smoke.

"They didn't act like they're mad about it," Jimmagan's bartender Amber Doyle said. "I'm sure it's aggravating to have to go stand outside in the 20 degree weather, but they've been OK with it. We're not that far from North Carolina, so it's going to benefit us."

Doyle said she didn't know how long the new customers would keep coming back, but hopes they enjoy their first visit and are convinced it's more than a bar they can simply go to smoke.

Jimmagan's regulars say a ban at the establishment wouldn't be all that bad.

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Restaurants, bars adjust to smoke-free environment  

Just after midnight on Saturday when the new statewide smoking ban went into effect, Spunky McDoogle's cook Colin Morse said some of the restaurant staff had a ceremonial throwing away of ashtrays.

Like other establishments in New Bern that previously allowed smoking in designated areas, the restaurant and bar on Glenburnie Road has adapted to the new state law that requires that the enclosed areas of almost all bars and restaurants be smoke-free.

Spunky's walls are being repainted to give the now smoke-free venue a clean start, Morse said, and patrons and staff will now have to go outside to light up.

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COMMONWEALTH BRANDS, INC v. FDA- Amicus Brief (PDF) 

the plaintiff tobacco companies challenge eleven provisions of the FSPTCA, primarily on the theory that the provisions violate the First Amendment. The Supreme Court’s commercial speech jurisprudence, which balances the free speech rights of commercial actors and the government’s responsibility to protect the public, provides the framework for assessing this challenge. The challenged provisions are readily sustained under that framework because they ensure that tobacco purchases are made with a full understanding of the enormous health risks posed by tobacco use and are tailored to curtail the marketing practices used by the tobacco industry to mislead consumers and attract underage customers. . . .

I. The Challenged Restrictions Regulate Commercial Speech. . . .

II. The Advertising Restrictions Easily Satisfy The Central Hudson Test. . . .

A. The Government Has A Strong Interest In Protecting The Public From Tobacco’s Detrimental Health Effects. . . .

B. The Challenged Restrictions Are Narrowly Tailored And Directly Advance The Government’s Interest. . . .

III.

The Mandated Health Warnings, Based On Strong Evidence Related To Warning Labels And Evidence That Current Warnings Are Ineffective, Are Reasonable.

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• Smoking ban leaves capital in a haze over details of tobacco curbs  

Dubai will immediately implement the federal smoking ban, but Abu Dhabi is awaiting clarification before deciding which areas of the city will be non-smoking.

On Wednesday, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, President of the UAE and Ruler of Abu Dhabi, signed a law effecting a nationwide smoking ban and controlling the import and advertising of tobacco products throughout the emirates.

Yesterday, uncertainty was rampant among private businesses and government officials alike over when and where the legislation would come into force.

A number of tobacco shop owners said they were awaiting clarification as to how the law would effect them.

However, the new law appears to make little difference to the way most emirates already operate.

Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Ras al Khaimah and Dubai have all implemented full or partial smoking bans since 2007 and the new law varies little from the existing legislation laid down by the respective municipalities.

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Poospatuck cig dealer awaits racketeering sentence 

An Indian reservation smoke shop proprietor convicted of supplying untaxed cigarettes to the black market is being sentenced at a federal court on Long Island.

Prosecutors say Rodney Morrison made a fortune trafficking in contraband cigarettes on the Poospatuck Reservation.

He was acquitted of murder, arson and robbery in a 2008 trial.

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• Tribe, state may revisit cigarette tax discussions  

A federal judge's ruling could draw Yakama tribal leaders and state officials back to the table to devise another cigarette tax agreement.

At issue is whether state authorities can enforce state cigarette taxes on non-Indian customers who buy from tribal smoke shops on the 1.2 million-acre reservation.

A sovereign nation, Yakama tribal members are exempt from state cigarette taxes, and state authorities have long complained that the exemption gives tribal smoke shops an unfair price advantage over non-Indian retailers.

But on Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Whaley in Spokane cited existing case law in reaffirming the state's authority to enforce its cigarette tax on non-Indian buyers at tribal smoke shops.

In response to the tribe's motion that the 1855 Treaty prohibits the state from any tax enforcement on the reservation, Whaley wrote "the Court cannot find that the Yakama Treaty preempts the state's taxation scheme as a whole.

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• COMMONWEALTH BRANDS v. FDA (PDF) 

This matter is before the Court on cross-motions for summary judgment on Plaintiffs’ claim that various provisions of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, Pub. L. 111-31, 123 Stat. 1776 (2009) individually and collectively violate their free speech rights under the First Amendment; their Due Process rights under the Fifth Amendment; and effect an unconstitutional Taking under the Fifth Amendment. Fully briefed, the matter is ripe for decision. For the reasons that follow, Plaintiffs’ motion is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART and Defendants’ motion is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART.

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