Tobacco.org

Business owners, customers react to new smoking ban 

The smoking ban proposal has become the subject of conversation in Huntington bars. A proposal to ban smoking in Cabell County bars and gambling parlors was passed Wednesday by the Cabell-Huntington Board of Health.

"It's the hot topic in the bar right now," said Christene Dugan, bartender at St. Mark's Pub and Grill. "I have heard arguments from both sides."

Dugan said she doesn't think the smoking ban will affect the bars financially.

"I think it will be fine," she said. "I just think people will be upset and complaining for a while. The city is just going to have to get use to people standing on the sidewalk, up and down Fourth Avenue, smoking in groups."

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MUSCOGEE (CREEK NATION) vs. OKLAHOMA (PDF) 

1. This action arises out of the Defendants' ongoing attempts to unlawfully enforce the State of Oklahoma's cigarette tax code (the "Tax Code")' as amended by SB 608 which became effective on January 1, 2010, against the Nation, its members, employees, and licensees. The Defendants impermissibly burden Indian commerce through their attempt to unilaterally impose State mandated restrictions on the sale of tobacco products in Indian country, including tribe-totribal member sales (hereinafter "Indian-to-Indian sales"), enforcement of State law concerning the Master Settlement Agreement (the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) is described in further detail below), and the sale of tobacco products manufactured, marketed, and sold in the stream of Indian commerce ("Native Manufactured" products).

2. The Nation is a federally recognized Indian tribe with inherent sovereignty and the power to regulate commerce within the territorial boundaries of its reservation.. The Nation has adopted, consistent with the Nation's Constitution, a tribal code for the regulation of tobacco trade and sales within the Indian country of the Nation ("Tribal Code"). The Tribal Code regulates the shipment, transportation, receipt, possession, distribution, and purchase of tobacco products within the Indian country of the Nation. The Nation also regulates tobacco trade and sales through licensing tribal wholesalers and retailers to sell and trade tobacco within the Indian country of the Nation.

3. Federal law prohibits States from interfering with Indian commerce or from placing undue burdens on Indians, Indian tribes or Indian traders conducting business within Indian country. The State may not interfere with or burden the Nation's right to sell and trade cigarettes of any kind, quantity, and at whatever price deemed appropriate by the Nation to Indians on the reservation. The State may not interfere with or regulate the distribution or sale of tobacco products that are manufactured, marketed, and sold exclusively within the stream of Indian commerce to Indians and non-Indians within the Indian country of the Nation.

4. Without preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, the State will continue to unlawfully regulate and tax Indians, Indian tribes, and Indian traders in violation of the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States. . . .

[CLAIMS] FOR RELIEF

• Creek Nation files lawsuit over state tax code 

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation has filed a federal suit against the governor, attorney general and other state officials claiming they helped violate federal laws by interfering with the tribe's tobacco sales.

The suit was filed Jan. 11 in Muskogee.

A change made to the state's tax code interferes with the tribe's ability to buy and ship cigarettes made by other tribes' tobacco manufacturers, the tribe says. It's asking the court to rule that the state cannot enforce the tax code.

The suit also asks the court to declare that state Master Settlement Agreement regulations and related statutes have no force on Indian lands -- a request that, if granted, could result in major changes in states' ability to regulate tobacco on tribal land.

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Area hospital employees to be tobacco-free by next year 

Summary

At a Wednesday morning press conference, officials from five area hospitals -- Memorial Hospital, Covenant Health, East Tennessee Children's Hospital, Mercy Health Partners and The University of Tennessee Medical Center -- announced that employees must be tobacco-free while at work by January 1, 2011.

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Human Pathogens Abundant in the Bacterial Metagenome of Cigarettes 

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Study shows Kiwis want to see cigarettes banned by 2020 

Half the nation, including smokers, support completely banning cigarettes within 10 years, a study has found.

The 2008 Health and Lifestyles Survey compiled nationwide interviews from the Health Sponsorship Council of 1608 people, including 422 smokers, and has just been published in the NZ Medical Journal.

It found 49.8% of people agreed cigarettes should no longer be sold in New Zealand in 10 years, 30.3% disagreed and 19.9% neither agreed nor disagreed. Of the smokers surveyed, 26.2% agreed and 55.3% disagreed.

The study also showed public support for plain, unbranded cigarette packets and fewer tobacco retailers.

Pacific Islanders, in particular, showed strong support for the measures.

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• Turkish tobacco workers get upper hand in bitter dispute over jobs 

Militant tobacco workers in Turkey are on the verge of an unlikely victory over the government after a bitter industrial dispute marked by hunger strikes, violent clashes with riot police and a siege of the governing party headquarters.

A dispute that has threatened to spill over into class warfare was triggered last month when the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) announced the closure of 12 factories belonging to Tekel, the former state tobacco and alcohol monopoly.

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• State Senate Democrats urge Gov. Paterson to tax cigarettes sold on Indian reservations 

State Senate Democrats lit a fire under Gov. Paterson Thursday to collect taxes from cigarettes sold on Indian reservations.

The group argued that bootleg cigarettes bought at Indian reservations and sold on the street at a steep discount cost city bodegas, grocery stores and newstands $250 million a year in lost business - and $30 million a week in lost state tax revenue.

Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, hinted that he would oppose Paterson's effort to raise the state's current $2.75-per-pack cigarette tax by another $1 unless there is demonstrable action on collecting the taxes from reservation brokers.

"Right now, I think it would be hypocritical to support a tax increase on already taxed cigarettes while we show a blind eye to the untaxed cigarettes," Kruger said.

Bootleg wholesalers purchase the untaxed cigarettes at Indian reservations for as little as $4 a pack and then typically sell them at two packs for $10.

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Kruger’s Simple Plan for Indian Cigarette Taxes: Arrest Tire Burners, Collect Billions 

A gathering of elected officials sought to add pressure on Governor Paterson to begin collecting taxes for cigarettes sold to non-American Indians on reservations. The best line on the issue, which is sure to ignite strong resistance from the Seneca, came from state Senator Carl Kruger as he distilled the reticence to act on the issue down to this:

"Statements that came out of the executive were things like, 'We don't want to collect the tax for fear that we will shed a drop of blood. Well you know what, when an attempt was made, which lasted about 10 minutes, to collect the tax, some folks went out on a road and set some tires on fire. So everybody took a quick retreat, and the taxpayers of the state of New York lost billions of dollars."

He was referring to the road blockades installed by the Seneca tribe

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• Cigarettes May Cause Infections  

“Nearly every paper that you pick up discussing the health effects of cigarettes starts out with something to the effect that smokers and people exposed to secondhand smoke experience high rates of respiratory infections,” notes Amy Sapkota of the University of Maryland, College Park. The presumption has been that smoking renders people vulnerable to disease by impairing lung function or immunity. And it may well do both.

“But nobody talks about cigarettes as a source of those infections,” she says. Her new data now suggest that’s distinctly possible.

If these germs are alive, something she has not yet confirmed, just handling cigarettes or putting an unlit one to the mouth could be enough to cause an infection.

The idea that tobacco might contain viable germs isn’t just idle conjecture. Several research teams have isolated bacteria from tobacco that they could grow out in petri dishes. Those earlier investigations tended to hunt for — and, when found, attempted to grow — only one or two species of interest, Sapkota says. . . .

Several thousand potentially toxic chemicals have been isolated from cigarettes. Sapkota says that it’s not hard to imagine that the number of germs hosted by tobacco products could rival that of the carcinogens and other poisons residing in or produced by burning tobacco.

How so, when she’s only found genetic material indicting hundreds of germs? Owing to the bacterial probes available when Sapkota began her tobacco work, she was only able to screen for 700-odd species. But newer probes on the market can now screen for the bacterial 16S genetic material of 5,000 or more germs. And if she used such huge batteries of probes now, she said she fully expects she could turn up at least 1,000 hitchhiking bacterial species in tobacco products.

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Benefits Of Purchasing Cigarettes Online 

Saving money of course is a huge benefit when you are looking for an online retailer of your favorite brand of smokes. While looking through any online tobacco shop on the World Wide Web, you are bound to see that many offer their cigarettes at a cheap discount price. If you look even closer, you should be able to see that even with shipping figured in that the prices that a quality online tobacco shop can provide you with is likely to beat the prices in your local area. Many websites offer free shipping on their products, which further increase your savings. Although there are lots of online marketing of cigarettes on a cheaper price, it is the price that you will be paying upon being sick using cigarette. Try also searching at www.ElecrtonicCigarette123.com.

The cigarettes that you can buy online cheap can save you time as they can be shipped right to your home.

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Electronic Cigarette Hollywood Stars User Spotted 

Electroniccigarette123.com Ashley Greene and Nikki Reed of the Twilight cast have committed to quit smoking to provide better role models for their young fans. Good! According to a source, the girls "know they are role models for little kids… If there are a ton of paparazzi photos of them smoking, that's not a positive image."

The girls are using electronic cigarettes to quit, which "look like those fake cigarettes actors use in plays," but contain no smoke or tobacco. Which begs the question: How much does that actually help? . . .

The Popularity of electronic cigarettes is rising at an exponential rate and the Hollywood celebrity is continuing with more and more public figures beginning to use them

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E-cigarettes called danger to health 

Electronic cigarettes, widely used as an antismoking supplement, might cause lung cancer, allergies and mental instability if overused, the Korea Food and Drug Administration said yesterday.

The products, often called e-cigarettes, are shaped like normal cigarettes but run on batteries and capsules of nicotine, although less than the average amount found in ordinary cigarettes. When one inhales on the product, a nicotine solution is vaporized in the mouthpiece. Since being introduced to the Korean market a couple of years ago, they have been catching on in popularity, especially because it is reusable and, thus, cost-effective.

However, the Food and Drug Administration warns that as the products use the same ingredients as cigarettes, but just in smaller doses, they are not safe to use for a prolonged period.

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Fine for under age tobacco sale 

An Edinburgh newsagent owner has been fined £800 for selling tobacco to a 16-year-old.

Muhammad Arshad, 45, who lives in the capital, admitted selling tobacco or cigarette papers to the teenager at his shop on 13 November 2009.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard the sale happened at Arshad's News Plus at the city's Bruntsfield Place.

Fiscal depute Aidan Higgins said the offence came to light during a test purchase by Edinburgh City Council.

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• Former Justice O’Connor Sees Ill in Election Finance Ruling  

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor did not sound happy on Tuesday about the Supreme Court's big campaign finance decision last week. It repudiated a major part of a ruling Justice O'Connor helped write before her retirement from the court in 2006, and it complicated her recent efforts to do away with judicial elections.

"Gosh," she said, "I step away for a couple of years and there's no telling what's going to happen."

Justice O'Connor criticized the recent decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, only obliquely, reminding the audience that she had been among the authors of McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, the 2003 decision that was overruled in large part on Thursday. . . .

"These two cases," Justice O'Connor said, referring to Citizens United and Caperton, "should be a warning to states that still choose their judges by popular election."

Then she sketched out what the future might hold.

"We can anticipate that labor unions and trial lawyers, for instance, might have the financial means to win one particular state judicial election," she said. "And maybe tobacco firms and energy companies have enough to win the next one.

"And if both sides unleash their campaign spending monies without restrictions, then I think mutually-assured destruction is the most likely outcome."

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Gosh. I step away for a couple of years and there's no telling what's going to happen.
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, on the Citizen's United verdict.

These two cases [Citizens United and Caperton] should be a warning to states that still choose their judges by popular election. We can anticipate that labor unions and trial lawyers, for instance, might have the financial means to win one particular state judicial election. And maybe tobacco firms and energy companies have enough to win the next one. And if both sides unleash their campaign spending monies without restrictions, then I think mutually-assured destruction is the most likely outcome.
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, assuming lawyers and unions can match the firepower of corporations.