Tobacco.org

Boonton students smoking in pocket park draw mayor's eye 

BOONTON - Students are standing in a pocket park next to John Hill School to get their nicotine fix before school, according to Mayor Cyril Wekilsky, who said he wants to do something about it.

Wekilsky said every morning he drives past a little patch of land next to the John Hill School that was dedicated to the town a few years ago so it could be maintained and he is upset to see anywhere from five to 10 or 15 young people he said look as if they are seventh and eighth graders standing on the property "smoking up a storm."

Like most school districts, the grades K-12 Boonton Schools prohibit smoking on school grounds.

"I think we need to address it," said the mayor, who acknowledged an attempt to do something about young people smoking around the high school a few years ago had not succeeded.

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• N.J. assemblywoman seeks sale restrictions for e-cigarettes 

State Assemblywoman Connie Wagner (D-Begen) said she is concerned that e-cigarettes are being marketed to children because they offer flavors like chocolate, banana and strawberry.

The Democrat from Paramus intends to introduce a bill in the Legislature subjecting them to the same restrictions as pipes and regular cigarettes. . . .

Wagner's bill would prohibit their use in public places and workplaces.

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• N.J. prevails in lawsuit against out-of-state tobacco seller Red Jacket  

The state government has prevailed on all counts of a lawsuit it filed a year ago charging New-York-based cigarette seller Red Jacket Tobacco with illegal business practices related to the advertising and sale, by mail order, of "tax free" cigarettes in New Jersey, Attorney General Anne Milgram announced Monday.

In a decision issued by state Superior Court Judge Maria M. Sypek, Red Jacket and its owner, Lesley A. Hoag, were ordered to pay more than $760,000 in penalties, costs and fees requested by the state Division of Consumer Affairs and the state Division of Taxation.

Sypek found that Red Jacket violated state laws by selling cigarettes in New Jersey without a license, and by selling cigarettes not listed in the New Jersey Tobacco Manufacturer's Directory.

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NJ judge fines NY firm for illegal tobacco sales 

A New Jersey judge has imposed more than $760,000 in penalties and fees against a New York-based tobacco seller that offered mail-order, "tax-free" cigarettes to New Jersey consumers.

New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram announced the ruling in the state's lawsuit against Salamanca, N.Y.-based Red Jacket Tobacco on Monday.

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EDITORIAL: Cigarettes still kill 

Living in a college town, it is not a strange sight to see huddles of people standing outside of bars or just walking down the street lighting up and smoking cigarettes. . . .

The search for a safer cigarette will never be over. Even though electronic cigarettes produce no harmful smoke, there is still nicotine vapor being sucked into your lungs. The safest cigarette is no cigarette at all. This e-cigarette idea might be a way to start weaning people off traditional cigarettes, but it won’t be safer or help people quit completely. It can be the starter version for the patch. You still get the feeling like you are smoking but it is not the real thing. . . .

It might be something cool to try once, but when it comes to convenience and the feeling people want or need while smoking, traditional cigarettes are the way people are going to go.

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New Jersey Tobacco Settlement Bonds Are Smoking: Chart of Day 

Now may be the time to sell your tobacco bonds.

The CHART OF THE DAY shows how one issue, the Tobacco Settlement Financing Corporation of New Jersey’s 5 percent bond due in 2041, has outperformed the Bond Buyer 40, a price index of long-term benchmark municipal debt, since the end of the first quarter of 2009. The New Jersey security gained 83 percent by the end of the third quarter, while the index rose 32 percent.

Long-term tobacco bonds, sold by states and municipalities to cash in on their shares of the 1998 settlement with cigarette makers, have rallied more than any other major segment of the municipal market this year, according to Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch & Co. About $37 billion of such bonds have been sold.

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AC set to renew battle over casino smoking ban  

e remains as hazy as the cigarette smoke over the blackjack tables.

Atlantic City was set to ban all smoking last October, but backed off when the recession hit, promising to reconsider in a year.

But there's still no consensus on whether to stick with the current arrangement, which permits smoking on 25 percent of the casino floor, or to try again for a total ban.

"Right now, I don't see where many minds have changed on council," said City Council President William "Speedy" Marsh, who plans to poll council members soon on the issue.

Marsh, who has battled health problems over the past year, said he personally favors trying again for a total ban on smoking. . . .

But the casinos continue to oppose a total ban. Already battered by the poor economy and fierce competition from Pennsylvania and New York slots parlors, the gambling halls fear even further revenue declines they say would happen when their smoking customers take their business elsewhere.

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Editorial: Ban smoking on N.J. beaches  

While a smoking ban on beaches and parks may secure New Jersey's standing as a leading nanny state, it would be a savvy economic strategy to bolster the state's billion-dollar tourism industry while saving lives.

A couple of Shore towns have already enacted smoking limits. But at the rate individual communities are going to ban smoking on the beaches, it could take years to safeguard large numbers of bathers from the health risks of secondhand smoke.

Even better, a North Jersey lawmaker, State Sen. Barbara Buono (D., Middlesex), plans to introduce a measure to ban smoking on all 127 miles of Jersey beaches and in parks, citing "empirical data which support the passage of this public-health and environmental-protection measure." . . .

Jersey also stands to gain from the growth of ecotourism by visitors eager to bird-watch at the Shore and hike and climb in the parks. Clearing the air at the Shore and in the parks would only enhance the state's attraction for these visitors.

There's certainly room for a spirited debate later this fall on Buono's smoking bans in parks, but her proposal to ban lighting up at the Shore is a winner.

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• VIDEO: Officials target electronic smoking devices 

"Smoke in taxis" flashes across a flat-screen television at the unambiguously named Smoking Everywhere kiosks. "Smoke at sporting events. Smoke at the movies. Smoke at the office."

To bring the message home, a salesman at Westfield Garden State Plaza took a drag and blew three perfectly formed rings toward shoppers strolling out of J.C. Penney.

According to the product's marketers, that substance may look like cigarette smoke, but it's as harmless as water vapor. It's almost completely odorless, they say, and it dissipates in seconds.

But some North Jersey health officials aren't convinced.

Buoyed by a recent Federal Drug Administration study that found electronic cigarettes may contain carcinogens and toxic chemicals -- including diethylene glycol, a substance found in antifreeze -- state and local officials have issued warnings about using them or leaving them where they can be reached by children.

Paramus health officials said they are alarmed by reports of people using electronic cigarettes at Westfield Garden State Plaza and are considering a ban on the use of e-cigarettes in indoor public places or work environments, just like regular cigarettes. It would be one of the first bans of its kind in the country.

"The safety of these things cannot be assured," said Paramus Health Department Director John Hopper. "Our concern is the effect to the non-smoking public who may be breathing the vapors of these things -- because they do give off vapors -- in public places." . . .

Darnell White, who owns Smoking Everywhere franchises at the Westfield Garden State Plaza and Palisades Center malls and sells electronic cigarettes online at smokingeverywhere.biz, defended his company, saying it refuses to sell to children under 18 and claiming the product keeps people from smoking traditional cigarettes.

"Anything that gets people away from regular cigarettes is a plus in my book," said White, himself a non-smoker. "At the end of the day, this product has helped hundreds of people to stop smoking." . . .

But smokeless cigarette distributors say the agency has overstepped its authority. Smoking Everywhere sued the FDA in April after the agency seized several of its shipments.

As for Paramus' possible smoking ban, White says he won't let it pass without a fight.

"The name of the company is Smoking Everywhere," he said. "Everywhere means the malls also."

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Bootleg cigs trip 5th suspect 

A Jersey City man has become the fifth person arrested in a crackdown on a ring that allegedly bought cigarettes at low prices out of state and affixed forged New Jersey tax stamps on them to avoid paying New Jersey's $2.70 tax on each pack, officials said.

Sameer Alnsour, 46, of Allen Street, was arrested Tuesday as part of the probe that resulted in seizure of more than $100,000 worth of cigarettes and nearly $280,000 in cash, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said yesterday. He is charged with theft by deception, forgery and conspiracy.

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Soliman: Latest anti-smoking measure goes too far 

I HATE SMOKE. . . .

State Sen. Barbara Buono, D-Middlesex, plans to introduce a bill that would prohibit New Jersey smokers from lighting up in outdoor locations such as beaches, boardwalks and public parks. . . .

While it's true that a person's right to swing his hand ends at someone else's nose, it's also true that people can't walk around with a five foot nose and complain if it bumps into someone.

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Smoking ban may come ashore  

Concerns about the danger of secondhand smoke triggered a ban on smoking in all enclosed public places in New Jersey back in 2006, but now there's talk about expanding the ban to all beaches and public parks.

"I love it. I hope they stop it. You want to smoke? Go in your house and sit there and smoke your head off," Steve Salley of Seaside Heights said.

"I don't appreciate secondhand smoke. I don't want my children around it. I quit smoking when I was pregnant to keep that away from my children so I think it's a good idea," Tricia Butera of Allentown, New Jersey said.

However, smokers like George Harris say a ban at all parks and beaches goes too far.

"If I'm here smoking a cigarette and you're over there, what am I doing to you? I'm not inside, I'm outside, you know? Why are you messing with me now?" Harris said.

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Fired up about beach smoking ban  

An effort to ban smoking on beaches and in parks throughout New Jersey may be a step too far even for some who advocate limits on the right to light up in public.

"That's unreasonable," Bill Godshall, executive director of SmokeFree Pennsylvania, said of a bill that State Sen. Barbara Buono (D., Middlesex) recently announced that she would introduce when the legislature reconvenes after November's elections.

"It's turning into the moralist prohibitionist vs. the pragmatic public-health specialist," said Godshall, an ex-smoker who often visited the Shore as a child growing up in Lancaster County.

Buono, chairwoman of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, quoted a study that blamed exposure to secondhand smoke for 50,000 deaths a year in the country.

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PERSKIE: Ban smoking on the beach?  

The most objectionable thing about cigarette smokers at the beach are the filthy butts they leave behind. I'm all for the immediate execution of anyone who uses the beach as an ashtray. But there's usually enough wind at the beach to quickly dissipate any secondhand smoke - and frankly, I have a hard time believing that it can pose a significant health risk outdoors.

Besides, I really don't mind being downwind from a guy smoking a good cigar on the beach. The combination of salt air and a cigar ... well, it just seems kind of right to me. I like it.

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Four men arrested, $280K seized in northern N.J. illegal cigarette sales probe 

HUDSON COUNTY -- Four men were arrested for illegally selling untaxed cigarettes to retailers and others in northern New Jersey and New York, according to the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office.

Rajae Awad, 39, of Elizabeth; Anwar Ghani, 46, of Elizabeth; Jamal Abbadi, 40, of Elizabeth; and Ahmad Aldabesheh, 48, of Mohegan Lake, N.Y. have each been charged with second-degree theft by deception, forgery and conspiracy, a statement from the prosecutor's office said.

Police seized more than $100,000 worth of cigarettes, about $280,000 in cash, and thousands of counterfeit New Jersey and New York tax stamps during the investigation.

The four men were part of a group that routinely purchased untaxed cigarettes in other states and transported them to a storage facility in Linden, the statement said. The out-of-state cartons of cigarettes were then cut open and each individual pack was affixed with counterfeit New Jersey tax stamps.

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