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The New York City Council has banned the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including little cigars.These little cigars look just like cigarettes, but, due to a tax loophole, cost considerably less. . . .
Council Member Letitia James pointed out that in Central Brooklyn and other communities like it, these brightly packaged flavored cigars are often marketed near the candy, right where they can best capture the attention of the youth. Most councilmembersof her colleagues in the council agreed. The prohibited flavors include chocolate, vanilla, honey, candy, cocoa, dessert, alcoholic beverage, herb and spice flavors. (Menthol, mint and wintergreen flavors are excluded from the ban.)
"A significant number of constituents that I have spoken with also believe that smoking cigars is less toxic and less addictive than cigarettes," James added. "They are wrong. One cigar has as much tobacco as five cigarettes and contains more nicotine. That is why we, as adults, have to stand up and ban these products."
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Federal prosecutors in Alexandria charged 14 people Thursday with paying money or trading guns and drugs to purchase 388,000 cartons of contraband cigarettes intended for sale in New York. . . .
Two people were also charged with agreeing to hire a hit man to kill a man and his wife who were believed to be stealing some of the cigarettes.
State lawmakers at a public hearing heard claims of "lost" tax revenues ranging from tens of millions to billions of dollars from untaxed cigarette sales on Indian reservations.
While none of the witnesses backed up their claims with substantive evidence, the Seneca Nation of Indians presented officials with a three-inch thick document on its treaty rights, legal history, and an economic study by a Harvard economist that pinpointed how - and how much - the nation's tobacco-based economy benefits the state.
The hearing, which was chaired by Sen. Craig Johnson, D-N.Y., was an all day - and sometimes heated - event at Manhattan Community College Oct. 27. The aim was to investigate why the state has failed in its attempts to collect cigarette taxes from reservation cigarette sales to non-Natives.
J.C. Seneca, a Seneca Nation tribal councilor, testifying on behalf of the nation, addressed that question at the beginning of his testimony.
"The answer to that question, put simply, is that your government has no authority to do so,
Redford recently spoke about the products at a Marblehead Board of Health meeting, unloading for the board a bag of such products that she's collected throughout the year. Her presentation left most board members in disbelief.
"Are we the only ones who don't know about this stuff?" asked a bewildered Helaine Hazlett, the board's chairman.
Take a walk into the 7-11 store in Marblehead, and here is what you will find: "grinders" (small metal contraptions that are used to grind up tobacco or drugs), pipes, hookah pipes for smoking specially made flavored tobacco, flavored chewing tobacco, boxes of blunt wraps (tobacco-based rolling papers), cigarettes that are packaged like Chanel perfume boxes, and smokeless-tobacco gum that comes in a candy-mint-like container. The list goes on.
None of these products are illegal to sell, although in most states, including Massachusetts, to buy any tobacco-related product a person must be 18 or older. In fact, as a local tobacco-control officer, Redford's job is to conduct "compliance checks," . . .
Cigarette companies spent approximately $13 billion on advertising and promotional expenses in 2005 for those tobacco-specific products, nearly double what was spent in 1998, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Of that money, Redford says advertisers are more often targeting women and teens.
In 2008, tobacco company Philip Morris USA unrolled its sleek "purse pack" cigarette packaging containing ultra-slim cigarettes; the packaging is made to look as if it is a cosmetics case.
Seneca President Barry E. Snyder Sr. will travel to Washington, D.C. to participate in a first-of-its-kind national Indian nations conference to be staged by President Barack Obama. The all-day conference will take place today.
"During his 2008 presidential campaign Obama promised to go beyond a government-to-government relationship with Native Americans and create a nation-to-nation relationship. This conference indicates he is interested in giving nations a true voice," President Snyder said. "I look forward to taking part in this critical dialogue."
In October 2008, Obama pledged, if elected, he would appoint an American Indian policy advisor to his senior White House staff and would host an annual tribal leadership conference. . . .
In recent weeks, the Seneca Nation has made a strong stance against renewed efforts by some New York State elected officials to collect taxes on tribal tobacco sales. The Senecas have reiterated their position that long-standing federal treaties prohibit states and other governments from taxing Indian nations. The Senecas are also looking for federal assistance to overturn the Kempthorne policy which prohibits off-reservation gaming.
It's no secret that Post-Standard movie critic Joan Vadeboncouer is a smoker. Drive past the downtown building at any time of day, and you're liable to see her standing outside smoking her cigarettes. (Smoking hasn't been allowed in the Post-Standard building for almost two decades.)
It's also no secret that JV knows movies. . . .
Last week, a fun new feature appeared on Syracuse.com called "Joanie's Smoke Break Movie Reviews." There's one posted about Whip It, and another about Zombieland. . . .
Research has shown that young people start lighting up partially because of what they see in the movies, because of the way filmmakers glamorize the dirty habit. US News & World Report has written about the controversy, and so has Forbes, in a story about how student participation in sports can't compete with the powerful influence of smoking in films. . . .
Clearly, it's a hot research topic, and a controversy in Hollywood. What about right here in Central New York? I've heard some complaints about JV's cigarettes, but what do you think? Are JV's "smoke breaks" a vector in the expansion of the smoking epidemic?
Schuyler Hospital announced Monday that it will go tobacco-free starting Jan. 1.
No tobacco use of any kind will be permitted -- inside or outside -- at any Schuyler Hospital facility starting Jan. 1, according to a press release from the hospital.
All designated smoking areas will be eliminated, and employees, patients and visitors will be offered gum and other items in order to avoid tobacco-use while on hospital property.
Four Syracuse hospitals will begin enforcement of a new Onondaga County law that bans smoking within 100 feet of a health care facility on Nov. 19, the date of the annual Great American Smokeout.
The law, which took effect Sunday, prohibits smoking on any public streets, sidewalks and parking facilities within 100 feet of a hospital in the county as long as a sign is posted. Individuals smoking in those areas would be subject to a $50 fine.
Living in Georgia for the past 13 years, I get tired of the boasting about Southern hospitality and the inevitable comparisons to my hometown, New York, as a cold, uncaring place.
At those times, I think back to my days as an N.Y.U. scholarship student in the ’80s, perpetually broke and, at times, feeling sorry for myself.
On one such day, I was walking to class through Washington Square Park and was approached by a homeless man asking for spare change. “Sorry,” I told him. “I don’t even have enough money to buy a pack of cigarettes.”
“Aw, you want a cigarette?” he said. “I got cigarettes.” And he held out a battered pack of Pall Malls.
Ah, the kindness of strangers, New York style.
Officials at Columbia and NYU are considering Draconian new rules that will effectively kick smokers' butts right off campus -- even if they light up outdoors.
Columbia is mulling a total ban on smoking at the 32-acre Morningside Heights campus, while NYU brass hopes to stop smoking anywhere within 15 feet of a school building or air vent.
At Columbia, the idea of a total prohibition has smokers fuming.
"I understand that it's not healthy, but as a stressed- out, underpaid Ph.D. student, I want to have a damn ciga rette in front of the library," snorted Daniel Maurice, 26, a Columbia music student who smokes half a pack a day. . . .
Incensed Ivy Leaguers recently staged a smoke-filled "hookah rally" on the steps of Columbia's Low Library to protest the proposal, which has gone to a newly formed panel that will gather feedback and report to the college in May.
Smokers snarled at the thought of huddling on a sidewalk outside the university's iron gates just to enjoy a timeless staple of college life -- the cram-session nicotine break.
"The entrance to campus will be a smoky gauntlet," said Ren Khodzhayev, 26, a junior who smokes a pack a day. "It's an open campus. Why create these barriers?"
In a show of support, nearly 100 Seneca Nation members boarded charter buses Monday afternoon en route to Manhattan. The purpose of their trip is to attend a hearing on collection of cigarette taxes from reservation retailers. The hearings will be held on the campus of the Borough of Manhattan Community College.
Representatives of the Seneca Nation will testify on the treaty-protected right to free trade and commerce. Tribal Councillor J. Conrad Seneca is one of the representatives who will speak at the hearing. He said in the 10 to 12 minutes he will have the floor, he plans to give a presentation explaining the Seneca's situation, economic impact, treaties, viewpoints, and beliefs.
"I think the more opportunities we have to do that, the more people will learn and understand why we're so upset when New York state tries to impose these laws or these rules upon us," he said.
The New York State Senate hearing on the state’s non-collection of taxes on cigarettes sold to non-Native Americans on Indian Reservations brought representatives from Indian nations from all over New York State into a highly charged arena at the Borough of Manhattan Community College on Tuesday.
The hearing was chaired by state Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington) and had several other senators on the committee in attendance throughout the day. Though the hearing was scheduled to end at 2:30 p.m., the full slate of witnesses and complexity of the testimony being given extended to just after 4:30 p.m., with only two brief breaks in between.
Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington), chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Investigations and Government Operations, will be leading the hearing at Manhattan Community College.
Johnson had to call for order on a couple of occasions during heated exchanges between Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn) and JC Seneca of the Seneca Nation of Indians that prompted mocking rebukes from Indians in the auditorium. Golden implored the Seneca nation to help New York State given the $4 billion budget deficit the state is facing claiming that New York State will soon be in the same position as California and issuing IOU’s to contractors, vendors and employees. This was met with calls from the crowd, many of whom were yelling out “That’s not our problem” and taunting the senator as he walked out midway through the proceedings.
As state lawmakers Tuesday bemoaned losses from untaxed cigarette sales on Indian reservations, an attorney for Gov. David A. Paterson raised the prospect of violence if New York enforces laws aimed at recovering the funds.
Citing State Police, Peter J. Kiernan, counsel to the governor, said it was possible the cost to police of guarding collectors on reservations could surpass the taxes collected.
Native Americans testifying at the all-day hearing at Borough of Manhattan Community College Tuesday, most notably the Seneca Nation, strongly resisted the notion of paying state taxes on the sales to nontribal members. Violent confrontations accompanied two attempts at tax collection by the state in the 1990s.
"A police problem could quickly elevate to a military one," Kiernan said, adding Paterson is still considering how to move forward. He said the state favors a policy of negotiating a peaceful settlement.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg signed legislation on Wednesday to prohibit the sale of most forms of flavored tobacco products in New York City. The new law is more extensive than the federal Food and Drug Administration's ban on candy- and fruit-flavored cigarettes, which took effect last month.
The City Council approved the bill on Oct. 14. The legislation covers "chocolate, vanilla, honey, candy, cocoa, dessert, alcoholic beverage, herb or spice flavors," but exempts "tobacco, menthol, mint or wintergreen flavors."
The city ban includes cigars and smokeless tobacco, while the federal ban is limited to cigarettes. That ban prohibits the sale of cigarettes with "an artificial or natural flavor (other than tobacco or menthol) or an herb or spice, including strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon, pineapple, vanilla, coconut, licorice, cocoa, chocolate, cherry, or coffee."
Three Toronto men are accused of smuggling contraband tobacco over the Peace Bridge into Canada, Canadian officials said Tuesday.
Charged with possession of more than 200 pounds of unstamped tobacco are: Habib Haji, 31; Shafik Patel, 41; and Asmaben Patel, 36.
The arrests were made in connection with an Oct. 16 incident in which a shipment of East Indian and Pakistani tobacco had been falsely labeled as a shipment of balloons, police said.