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The Arizona Republican party is in hot water this week for publishing a photo of President Obama smoking a cigarette. . . .
The photo of Obama with the cigarette dangling from his mouth is a classic Photoshop disaster, culled from an original taken by one Kwame Ross at a University of Illinois campus visit during Obama's 2003 Senate campaign.
The widespread availability of the doctored photo likely deceived the Arziona Republican Party officials into assuming it was real, as this digital hoax has been circulating online long enough -- almost two years -- to make it seem like a stock photo.
Obama has been forthright about the difficulty of weaning himself off cigarettes, but the photo on the cover of AZGOP newsmagazine is not evidentiary of the President's personal battle with nicotine addiction.
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State legislators and the governor acted illegally in taking $7 million from a 2006 tobacco-tax initiative to balance the state budget, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday.
The justices rejected arguments that lawmakers are free to reallocate investment and interest income from the money raised by the tax as long as they do not touch the tax revenues themselves.
Justice Michael Ryan, writing for the unanimous court, said the legislators, and the governor who signed the measure taking the money, are wrong.
He said voters, in approving the 80-cent-a-pack hike in tobacco taxes for the First Things First program, specifically wanted all the proceeds earmarked to improve early childhood development. Ryan said the measure specifically gives the board charged with handing out the cash authority over any interest on funds received but not yet allocated.
Sunday is the World Health Organization's World No Tobacco Day.
The focus of WHO's campaign this year is the effectiveness of warning labels in getting people to stop smoking and using other forms of tobacco. Since warning labels first appeared on cigarette packs more than 40 years ago, Americans have generally taken these warnings to heart.
In the rest of the world, it's a different story, especially in developing countries where smoking and other tobacco use is on the rise.
"Warnings are fine and make sense in Western countries," said Mark Nichter, a Regents' Professor of anthropology at The University of Arizona. "But we're doing something different."
Nichter and two colleagues – his wife, Mimi Nichter, an associate professor of anthropology, and Myra Muramoto, an associate professor of family and community medicine – have been trying to stem the growing tide of smoking and other tobacco use in two of the most populated countries in the world, India and Indonesia.
Children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy and their early childhood years may be predisposed to take up smoking as teens and young adults, compounding the physical damage they sustained from the smoke exposure.
"It is well-known that maternal smoking influences a developing fetus in myriad ways, contributing to low birth weight, premature birth and a host of other health problems after birth," said Roni Grad, M.D., associate professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. "Previous studies have suggested that maternal smoking during pregnancy may increase the risk of the offspring becoming regular smokers as adults, but the impact of postnatal cigarette smoke exposure was hard to differentiate from prenatal exposure."
The study results will be presented on Tuesday, May 19, at the American Thoracic Society's 105th International Conference in San Diego.
The rising price of tobacco is rippling across Arizona, forcing smokers to dig deeper for cash, sparking a potential black market boost and prompting an increase in calls to a state cessation help line.
The federal tax on a pack of cigarettes April 1 went from 39 cents to $1.01, which raises the price by about 10 percent. Cigar taxes went up 40 cents per stick, about a 10 percent increase for most smokers.
The tax on bulk tobacco - the roll-your-own type many smokers have turned to lately to save money - went from $1.09 per pound to $24. That's a 2,102 percent increase.
"They're creating a whole new black market, is what they're doing," said Dan Johnson, 54, a 30-year smoker who rolls his own. "There's going to be a lot more smuggling, that's for sure."
A couple of weeks ago, the price of a packet of "rollies" was about $1.25; now it's approaching $4, said Johnson, a day laborer who can ill afford the added cost.
The state Department of Revenue confirms that rising costs spur the black market.
Revenue Agent Jack Doyle told a state Bureau of Tobacco Education and Prevention Program committee in January that black market products from Mexico, Indian reservations and states with lower or no taxes take money from the state coffers. . . .
"If you can buy a carton of cigarettes in Mexico for $7 and sell it here for more, why not?"
The owner of Fumar Cigars in Phoenix says he has collected 6,000 cigars to deliver to U.S. troops serving in Iraq.
David Haddad said he packed his collected cigars into a package for the overseas troops and is personally traveling to Iraq to present his gift as "a little bit of hospitality," The Arizona Republic reported Wednesday.
"It's an honor to the heroes … because they do what they do (in war) to make it possible so that I get to do what I do ... My company offers ... cigars to resorts all over the world," Haddad said Wednesday. "It's to bring a little bit of hospitality to the troops."
The Arizona Court of Appeals on Sept. 30 delivered a blow against the regulatory powers of the Arizona Department of Health Services by declaring that a luxury Phoenix tobacco shop and bar is exempt from the statewide smoking ban in public places.
The ruling overturns a Maricopa County Superior Court judge's decision in March that validated the department's argument that constructing a bar within Magnum's Cigar, Wine and Liquor Emporium nullified its exclusion from 2006 voter-approved Smoke-Free Act.
The act included several exceptions to the smoking ban, including retail tobacco shops that generate a majority of their sales from tobacco and related accessories. Under the law, retail tobacco shops also must have physical separations to prevent smoke from drifting into areas where smoking is prohibited.
The appeals court found no basis for the department's interpretation of the 2006 act that would forbid smoking in a tobacco shop that sells alcohol or also operates as a bar. . . .
"Although the act specifies that the majority of a retail tobacco store's sales must be from tobacco products and accessories, it places no restrictions on the source of the other 49.9 percent sales," wrote Judge John Gemmill.
FLAGSTAFF - Navajo lawmakers failed to override a veto of a bill that would have banned smoking and chewing tobacco on tribal property.
The veto override needed 59 yes votes, but only 41 were cast in Thursday's session.
The statewide indoor smoking ban that took effect in May 2007 has not had an overall adverse effect on bar and restaurant sales, a study shows.
Of the 371 restaurant and bar owners who responded to both a 2007 and 2008 survey, 4 percent said the smoking ban had an effect on their business, with some of those respondents saying the effect was positive.
The study, by the Arizona State University W. P. Carey School of Business, did not look at what kind of changes consumers have made as a result of the ban.
However, the study's conclusion states, "Smokers still may be spending as much at restaurants and bars, but have switched establishments without a smoking area to ones that have an outside patio in which smoking is allowed. If this is occurring, the negative effect on individual establishments is not seen in the overall data because other establishments have benefited from the ban."
According to the survey, the percentage of restaurants and bars offering outside seating increased from 31 percent to 46 percent from 2007 to 2008.
Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. Thursday vetoed the Commercial Tobacco Free Act that would have banned cigarette smoking and tobacco chewing in all public places on the Navajo Nation, including casinos.
In his veto message to Navajo Nation Council Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan, Shirley said that although it is indisputable and already widely known that commercial and smokeless tobacco use is harmful to individual users and those affected by secondhand smoke, he was concerned that the ban would infringe upon bona fide religious ceremonies.
The president said the ban also would affect the Nation’s ability to generate revenues through its gaming initiative, did not address concerns of due process and equal protection, and failed to adequately focus on underage smoking.
The law, he said, “is unreasonably broad, unenforceable, provides no administrative appeal process, puts the Nation at a competitive disadvantage, and fails to address the real problem on the Navajo Nation of underage smoking.”
The leader of the Navajo Nation on Thursday vetoed a measure that would have banned smoking and chewing tobacco in public places, resulting in strong criticism from lawmakers and health advocates.
Tribal President Joe Shirley Jr. said he rejected the measure because he feared it would infringe on religious ceremonies and inhibit gambling revenue. He also said the measure didn't focus enough on underage smoking.
Shirley said in his veto message that the law "is unreasonably broad, unenforceable, provides no administrative appeal process, puts the nation at a competitive disadvantage and fails to address the real problem on the Navajo Nation of underage smoking."
Tribal lawmakers approved the ban during their session last month in the Navajo capital of Window Rock, Ariz.
The president of the Navajo Nation has vetoed a ban on smoking and chewing tobacco in public places.
Tribal President Joe Shirley Jr. says he rejected the measure Thursday because he feared it would infringe on religious ceremonies and inhibit gambling revenue.
He also says the measure didn't focus enough on underage smoking.
Is protecting the health of the Navajo people endangering their livelihood? Robert Winter, CEO of the Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise, says legislation imposing a ban on commercial tobacco use has that potential.
But Herman Shorty of Navajo Office of Environmental Health, a proponent of the tobacco ban, said Wednesday that Navajo laws and regulations are such "that even reasonable persons have to be protected from themselves because of vices, or safety issues that they may not be aware of the need for."
Representatives from both sides of the issue have presented Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. with documentation supporting their stances. The Navajo Nation Council approved the tobacco ban July 25, and Shirley's decision on whether to sign or veto the legislation is expected today . . .
During Council debate of the legislation, Bates proposed an amendment to exclude gaming facilities from the tobacco bill, however, the amendment failed and the bill passed 42-27.
The Navajo Nation Council has voted to ban smoking and chewing tobacco in public places on the vast reservation, including such outdoor venues as rodeos and fairs.
The council approved the ban on a vote of 42-27 Friday evening at the end of its weeklong summer session in the Navajo capital of Window Rock, Ariz. Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. has 10 days to decide whether to sign or veto the law once it reaches his desk.
The measure prohibits smoking and chewing tobacco in public buildings and shared public air space, but does not affect tobacco used in ceremonies for traditional or religious purposes on the reservation, an area about the size of West Virginia that encompasses parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
"I think the council made a wise decision that puts the health and well-being of the people first," the legislation's sponsor, Navajo Health and Social Services committee member Thomas Walker Jr., said Saturday. . . .
Walker said the legislation stemmed from his interest in the anti-tobacco work of the Southwest Navajo Tobacco Education Prevention Project, organized by Henderson and her brother, Peter Nez. The education project, backed by the tribe's Division of Health and a group of medicine men, the Hataalii Association Inc., pushed for the ban.
But in an age when an estimated 80 percent of Americans don't smoke, tribal casinos are investing in smoke-clearing equipment to keep non-smokers happy and playing the slots.
"It's a business decision casinos are making," said Sheila Morago, executive director of the Arizona Indian Gaming Association.
"People say they don't want smoke in their faces. And engineers keep coming out with newer and better (smoke-removal) systems."
The Gila River Indian Community is spending approximately $500,000 on a state-of-the-art smoke-clearing system at a casino under construction south of Chandler. . . .
Retired Tempe physician Leland Fairbanks, now president of the Mesa-based Arizonans Concerned About Smoking Inc., explained that toxic particulates from tobacco smoke may remain in the air after the smoke itself is blown out of a room.
"And it isn't the smoke that kills anyone; it's the toxins," he said.