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Columbia, Md.: Hello Gurus - I was at the Chi Cha lounge a little over a year and a half ago and people were allowed to smoke cigarettes inside, I guess cause it is a hooka bar. Is that still the case?
Fritz: I was at Chi-Cha last night for the always-amusing Notoriety DJ night run by the guys from U.S. Royalty and there were plenty of people puffing away on hookahs. Didn't see anyone smoking cigarettes, but I'm pretty sure you're allowed to smoke 'em if you got 'em.
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Chi Cha Smoking: you're not allowed to smoke cigarettes there at Chi Cha actually. I talked with one of the servers about it and it has something to do with the permit they have only allowing hookah smoke. I don't get it either -- but that's what they told me.
Fritz: Makes sense. (The reason they can allow hookah smoking is because they sell a certain amount of hookah tobacco.)
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Mississippi is planning to auction about 855,000 cartons of contraband cigarettes as early as September.
A new law allows the auditor's office and State Tax Commission to speed up sales and open the auction to out-of-state vendors.
The Solano County Tobacco Prevention and Education Program and Solano Tobacco Education Coalition have joined the wave of tobacco control advocates in California who are working to pass local policies that require tobacco retailers to be licensed.
"The timing is right for Solano cities to consider tobacco retail licensing," said Felicia Flores-Workman, Solano County Tobacco Prevention and Education Program project director. "These local policies are needed because the current state tobacco licensing law is designed to collect taxes on cigarette sales, not enforce laws that prohibit sales to minors."
The Washington County Tobacco Prevention Program has received a grant that will keep operations going through Sept. 25, but after that the future is still uncertain.
The program, which has helped more than 1,000 area residents stop using tobacco and served more than 10,000 youth through prevention programs, was scheduled to end Tuesday due to funding shifts.
Now, a Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant (FLEX) grant from the Ohio Department of Health will keep full services going for three more months while employees apply for additional funding.
"We have (smoking cessation) classes scheduled, we'll be able to provide materials at no cost, we're moving ahead," said director Stephanie Davis. "For now, we're keeping our jobs and more importantly we'll be able to provide services to the community."
Solano County advocates have targeted Vallejo as "ground zero" to push for tobacco licensing control.
The Solano County Tobacco Prevention and Education Program and the Solano Tobacco Education Coalition are stepping up efforts to urge Vallejo leaders to require licensing of local tobacco vendors.
The point of local ordinances aimed at tobacco sellers would be to cut down on illegal sales to minors, agency officials said.
Working locally with Fighting Back Partnership and the Vallejo Alcohol and Tobacco Policy Coalition in recent years, the education programs recommend that tobacco retailers be licensed, be subject to zoning restrictions and to fund enforcement. . . .
The city moratorium on new smoke shops came several years ago when there was a "particular sentiment that there were too many smoke shops" in Vallejo and a desire to enact an ordinance concerning the perceived nuisance, Assistant City Attorney Claudia Quintana said.
City attorneys have been working with local agencies on an ordinance proposal, though there is some disagreement on how feasible the coalition's proposals are, Quintana said.
The use of smokeless tobacco in Jackson County has steadily risen in recent years among teens and adults -- and now, officials fear the introduction earlier this year of new, candy-flavored "dissolvable tobacco" lozenges will make matters worse.
Called Orbs, the pellets, which look and taste like breath mints, contain as much nicotine as a cigarette and could cause cancer of the mouth and throat, said Jane Stevenson, tobacco program coordinator for the county.
Among eighth-grade males in Jackson County, use of smokeless tobacco jumped from 2 percent in 2001 to 7 percent in 2006, reported Stevenson. Among 11th-grade males, it rose from 10 percent in 2001 to 16 percent in 2006. Among adults here, 3 percent use smokeless tobacco. These figures are 1 to 4 percent higher than the state rates.
"The increase of smokeless tobacco use here among teens is significant and alarming -- and dissolvable tobacco is just as addictive as smoking," said Stevenson. "They are packaged to look hip and trendy and they carry the Camel logo. Usually, people are very loyal to their tobacco brand."
The introduction of dissolvable tobacco pellets is in response to new laws prohibiting smoking in bars, restaurants and the workplace, said Mike Welch, owner of Puff's Magazine & Fine Tobacco, an Ashland smoke shop.
The target market for dissolvable pellets, Welch added, is people who buy low-end generic cigarettes. His store won't be selling them, he said, because too many of his customers are concerned about throat cancer.
Ron Russell, a high-energy, outgoing machinist at Hav-A-Tampa cigar factory, isn't an activist, but every so often the outrage wells up. . . . Now 43, Russell is speaking out again on what he considers another outrage: the upcoming closure of the Hav-A-Tampa factory near Seffner, where he's worked for about four years.
Russell crafted a letter he plans to send to congressional supporters of an increased federal cigar tax, chastising them for "short-sightedness" in taxing a 102-year-old local factory out of existence. He got more than 90 co-workers to sign it.
Local radio talk-show hosts have seized on the issue and read Russell's letter on the air, singling out U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor for criticism.
Cigar-makers supported expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program. We believe everyone should have access to quality health care.
What we opposed was Congress' decision to fund the expansion of this government program by taxing a single industry. Health care should be a shared responsibility.
We pleaded with the leaders of Congress not to tax us out of business. We explained how a 700 percent tax increase would cost jobs and force some cigar companies to close their doors.
Sadly, our pleas fell on deaf ears and what we feared has become reality.
When will Congress understand that it cannot dramatically raise taxes on businesses without costing jobs?
How ironic it is that many former Hav-A-Tampa employees could soon need assistance from the very government program whose expansion cost them their jobs and health insurance in the first place.
-- Eric M. Newman is president of the J.C. Newman Cigar Co., which was founded by his grandfather in 1895, and president of the Cigar Manufacturers Association of Tampa
Smokers are holding their collective breath to find out what happens next in the saga over the statewide smoking ban. The petition drive calling for a statewide vote has given them extra time to light up past the July 1 deadline. But with thousands of suspect signatures soon to be reviewed by the Secretary of State, smokers are wondering just how much longer they'll be able to legally puff away inside businesses.
The fate of the statewide smoking ban vote is as much in the air as the smoke that lingers inside Marlin's Roadhouse Grill.
"I guess if they ban it, I'll quit smoking," Chris Bergh said.
A smoking ban would likely affect business at places like Marlin's.
Opponents of South Dakota's new state law banning smoking in bars, casinos and restaurants that serve alcohol might not get the chance to put the issue to a statewide vote after all.
That's because the leader of South Dakota's anti-tobacco movement filed a last-hour challenge to their referendum petitions Thursday.
The referendum petitions had prevented the ban from taking effect July 1 at the same time as most other new South Dakota laws passed by the Legislature last session.
If the petitions survive the challenge, a statewide vote would be held as part of the November 2010 general election. But if Jennifer Stalley of the American Cancer Society is right, there won't be a vote at all, and the ban would kick in when the legal dust settles.
Stalley delivered a thick binder to the office of Secretary of State Chris Nelson, whose staff oversees election compliance, challenging the petitions at about 4 p.m. Thursday. The challenge deadline was 5 p.m.
Proponents of a public vote on South Dakota's smoking ban say the push to remove the issue from next year's ballot isn't surprising; the petition's organizer is still confident the final decision will lie in the hands of South Dakota citizens.
Petition organizers say Thursday's challenge to keep the South Dakota smoking ban from reaching a public vote was to be expected.
"I knew that they would come up with some number that would invalidate or attempt to invalidate the petition," petition organizer Larry Mann said.
Mann says the argument can only challenge the legality of how the Secretary of State's office validated the petition once it received it, steps he believes the election office took properly. . . .
Mann says ban supporters could be doing themselves more harm than good by trying to take the option to vote off the table.
"I think there is a chance for a certain backlash. I think people protect that right to vote," Mann said.
Backlash that serves as a foundation for those who are trying to get the ban on the ballot.
Michigan smokers may feel themselves working at it a little harder next year when only "slow burn" cigarettes can be sold in the state. But the bill signed into law last week by Gov. Jennifer Granholm should cut down on fires due to smokers falling asleep, which is the cause of up to 800 deaths in the United States each year. Slow-burn cigarettes are designed to go out if no one is puffing on them.
The states have taken the lead on requiring them since federal legislation bogged down again in 2000. A national requirement for safer cigarettes has actually been kicking around in Congress since the 1930s; the late U.S. Sen. Phil Hart of Michigan almost got it enacted in 1974 before the tobacco lobby beat it back again. The major cigarette makers have had slow-burn products widely available for a few years, ever since New York in 2004 became the first state to require them.
Michigan is actually one of the last states to move on this. ...
Cigarettes in Vermont cost a quarter more a pack and $2.50 more a carton, and the 6 percent state sales tax applies for the first time to liquor, all the result of legislation that took effect Wednesday. Liquor? No big deal, beverage store proprietors said. Cigarettes? That's another story. . . .
"They're trying to out-price it," she said of the extra 25 cents a pack, "but if everyone stopped smoking, they'd have to find something else to go after."
Would the extra charge persuade her to stop?
"Probably not," she said.
Maher said the state's intent was to "isolate a certain group." The price increases would at some point lead to bootlegging, she said. "It'll be what the Prohibition was."
Frantz Ozanic, a 20-year smoker, also standing in front of the library, said Vermont was moving in steps to make cigarettes "unobtainable."
The annual health care costs in New Jersey directly caused by smoking amount to $3.17 billion. Residents' state and federal tax burden from smoking-caused government expenditures is $664 per household. Regardless of the state of the economy, no one wants any of his or her hard-earned money going toward these costs, let alone $664. Finances aside, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act will save something much more precious than money: It will save lives. The law "gives us hope," as President Obama said, adding that, "It will help protect the next generation of Americans from growing up with a deadly habit."
To learn more about cessation resources on how to quit smoking, visit lungusa.org or call 1-800-LUNG-USA, ext. 2.
BRUNSWICK - Good health is as important as a quality education.
Following that philosophy, the College of Coastal Georgia is nudging its students toward good habits and away from bad ones.
As part of a healthy campus initiative, the college banned the use of tobacco effective Wednesday and has overhauled a couple of exercise facilities in hopes of attracting students and faculty.
"As a college, we are focusing on health and wellness without the hazard of tobacco use on campus," said college President Valerie Hepburn.
Throughout the roll-out of the tobacco-free campus, the college has focused on raising awareness through signage, information on its Web site and a partnership with local health agencies to offer smoking cessation classes to faculty and staff, she said.
The signs are up at campus entrances announcing the tobacco ban.