http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/state/MT.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/article/economy_smoking_ban_hurt_montana_liquor_sales/16419/ http://tobacco.org/news/297997.html Growth in liquor sales was tempered in 2009, likely due to the economy and the indoor smoking ban that took effect for bars and casinos in October, state officials said. Figures from the Department of Revenue's Liquor Control Division show liquor sales grew 1.9 percent in 2009 after growing at least 5 percent a year over the past decade. The worst month was October, when liquor sales were down $1.5 million compared with the same month in 2008. "It's undeniable across the board that the smoking ban had a negative impact on licensed premises," said Mark Staples of the Montana Tavern Association. Flathead Beacon Fri, 05 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://leaderadvertiser.com/articles/2010/02/17/columns/doc4b7c368f6ebc1090243834.txt http://tobacco.org/news/297164.html Through With Chew Week is Feb. 14 - 20. It began in Wyoming and has spread across the nation as a time for youth and adults to bring to light the effects of spit tobacco use and why it is not a safe alternative to smoking, as corporate tobacco companies would like you to believe. With half the states in this country passing clean indoor air laws, tobacco companies are promoting smokeless tobacco products more vigorously than ever. Lake County Leader Advertiser webmaster@dailyinterlake.com (Diana Schwab, LCHD tobacco prevention program) Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://montanastandard.com/articles/2010/02/17/state/hjijjhidhgfahc.txt http://tobacco.org/news/297128.html More than four months after a smoking ban in Montana's bars went into effect, on any good night a cloud of cigarette smoke wafts through the Turah Pines Bar. Sometimes, said Peggy Bjornberg, a bar owner has to do what a bar owner has to do. "We've been in business here for 37 years," Bjornberg said. "We've always abided by the law. I have great respect for the law. It really goes against my beliefs and my grain to do what we're forced to do in order to stay in business." Montana's Clean Indoor Act of 2005 went into full effect last Oct. 1, banning smoking from all enclosed public and work places, including bars that hadn't already kicked the habit on their own. Since then, there have been just nine valid complaints filed with the Missoula County Health department. Seven concerned Bjornberg's bar east of Missoula n the first on Nov. 4, the most recent on Jan. 26. "Turah Pines right now is our only establishment that is blatantly disregarding the law," said Erica Rollins, who heads Tobacco Free Missoula County. Montana Standard kbriggeman@missoulian.com (Kim Briggeman - 02/16/2010) Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.kbzk.com/news/bartender-smoking-ban-snuffs-out-super-bowl-business/ http://tobacco.org/news/296859.html "Last year's Super Bowl was very full. The bar was full, and as you can see now, it's not even a quarter full. Ever since October 1 came about, we've lost a lot of revenue in gambling and also in sales too," Sannes said. Sannes did say that business is still steady, and they are hoping for a return to normal within the next six months. Z-7/KBZK - Bozeman Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2010/02/11/news/500tobacco.txt http://tobacco.org/news/296787.html Rick Bender started using spit tobacco when he was 12 years old because he wanted to fit in with his friends and he thought it was safer than cigarettes. "It turned out to be the biggest lie I was ever told," Bender, 47, told an audience of about 30 Wednesday night at Montana State University. Copenhagen snuff was "my brand of poison," Bender said. He remembered TV ads featuring a star football player and the slogan, "Take a pinch instead of a puff." It nearly killed him. . . . Today Bender speaks all over the nation, to middle school and college students, baseball players and American Indians, spreading the message that spit tobacco kills. At his talks, Bender said, "I'll literally have kids give me packs of cigarettes and cans of snuff, and say, 'I'm done.'" One unforeseen consequence of anti-indoor smoking laws is that now tobacco companies are pushing "smokeless tobacco," a name that Bender said he hates. Bozeman Chronicle gails@dailychronicle.com ( GAIL SCHONTZLER Chronicle Staff Writer) Thu, 11 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.billingsgazette.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_17910c92-1063-11df-a340-001cc4c03286.html http://tobacco.org/news/296415.html I am writing this letter in regards to Lovetta Lee’s Jan. 26 letter and to the rest of the crybabies. I disagree with her when she says the smoking ban is hurting business, big time. I have been in a lot of casinos since the smoking ban has started and haven’t seen any decline in business. . . . Business owners do have a choice. They can allow smoking in their place and pay a fine or tell their customers no smoking. Billings Gazette Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.billingsgazette.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/article_9f088a0a-0afb-11df-931c-001cc4c03286.html http://tobacco.org/news/296029.html Rick Bender, a former spit tobacco user and oral cancer survivor, will tell his story at a one-hour presentation on from 7 to 8 p.m. Feb. 9 at the MSU Billings Petro Theatre. The presentation is free and open to the public. This program is designed for anyone, but is especially targeted for young adults and teenagers who think that tobacco only causes cancer in older adults. The event is part of “Through with Chew Week” promoted by the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. Bender’s appearance at MSU Billings is sponsored by the university’s Student Health Services and MSU Billings HEROES. Billings Gazette Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.billingsgazette.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_925a77e6-0a24-11df-8234-001cc4c002e0.html http://tobacco.org/news/295948.html The smoking ban is hurting all businesses, big time. I’ve been a casino cashier 16 years, so I have seen the decline firsthand. Business owners should have been given a choice. Billings Gazette Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.kfbb.com/news/local/82561842.html http://tobacco.org/news/295910.html Gambling in Montana has fallen dramatically over the last few months and it has a lot to do with the Clean Indoor Air Act. But one casino in our area has actually seen a sales increase since the smoking ban passed last October. . . . When it comes to gambling, she spends her time at Northern Winz. It's one casino in Montana that still allows people to light up because tribally owned casinos are exempt from the smoking ban. Jacobs says, "I'm a smoker and I can enjoy myself here. I can play where I want to play. I can smoke where I want to smoke." She is like many people who have ditched their usual gambling spot for Northern Winz ever since the smoking ban went into effect last October. The casino is actually seeing people from all over the state come here to use the machines. That is because gamblers say the gambling machines go hand in hand with cigarettes. KFBB-TV Sun, 24 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_0e6131d8-058c-11df-81e6-001cc4c002e0.html http://tobacco.org/news/295730.html State video gambling tax receipts plummeted by nearly 18 percent in the last quarter of 2009, buffeted by the beginning of a statewide indoor smoking on bars and casinos and a recession that hit Montana hard. The gross video gambling-machine taxes will be about $12.5 million for the quarter that ran from October through December 2009, said Rick Ask, administrator of the Gambling Control Division in the state Justice Department. That’s about $2.7 million, or 17.8 percent, less than what the tax revenues were the previous three months, from July through September 2009. . . . The revenue drop came as no surprise to industry officials, who were braced for the drop when the state’s 2005 indoor smoking ban took effect for casinos and taverns Oct. 1. The effective date of the law had been delayed by four years to give bars and casinos time to prepare. “Those numbers would certainly match what we’ve been hearing from the field,” said Mark Staples, a Helena attorney who represents the Montana Tavern Association. “The downturn has been ranging from 15 percent and 20 percent in most licensees that have any significant gaming property.” Neil Peterson, executive director of the Gaming Industry Association of Montana, said he had expected about a 17 percent drop, based on conservations with casino operators around the state. “It was not a surprise,” Peterson said. “In addition to the smoking ban and the economy, we had a very cold December. So with the combination of the three, you’re definitely going to get that kind of a result. It’s definitely going to impact business.” Billings Gazette Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.kfbb.com/news/local/82170522.html http://tobacco.org/news/295719.html A report released Wednesday shows revenue from video gambling in Montana has fallen dramatically over the last few months, and state officials say it has a lot to do with the Clean Indoor Air Act. We spoke to local bars about the changes they've seen since the smoking ban went into effect last October. KFBB-TV Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9614624 http://tobacco.org/news/295718.html Montana video gambling tax receipts fell by nearly 18 percent in the final three months of 2009, with the new indoor smoking ban adding to the effects of the recession. Gross video gambling taxes will be about $12.5 million for October-December 2009, down by about $2.7 million, or 17.8 percent from the previous three months, said Rick Ask, administrator of the Gambling Control Division of the state Justice Department. . . . Staples said it's difficult to say how much of the decline can be attributed to the smoking ban and how much to the recession, but he believes most of it is due to the smoking ban because the recession had already hit the state. "But obviously the recession has certainly played a factor and is probably hampering a quicker recovery" from the effects of the smoking ban, Staples said. AP Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2010/01/15/news/100tobacco.txt http://tobacco.org/news/295481.html Other Montana universities are moving to ban cigarettes and chewing tobacco from their campuses, but at Montana State University the proposed tobacco-free policy is stalled. "It's really come down to a debate between public health and personal rights," said Jenny Haubenreiser, of the MSU Student Health Service's health promotions office. She and other tobacco-free advocates went to MSU's elected student leaders last fall, hoping they would embrace the idea and take the initiative. But the issue proved controversial, with some students protesting that it should be their right to decide whether to use tobacco and others asserting their right to be free of secondhand smoke. Bozeman Chronicle gails@dailychronicle.com (GAIL SCHONTZLER Chronicle Staff Writer) Fri, 15 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2009/12/26/news/100cigarettes.txt http://tobacco.org/news/294611.html Robyn DeMasi, manager of the tobacco shop chain Smoker Friendly in Bozeman, said there has been an uptick in sales of the product since the ban went into effect. "There definitely has been," she said. "People are looking for an alternative way to 'smoke' where they can't now. "A lot of that has been in the last three months." State health officials have backed down from their initial stance that e-cigarettes are illegal to use inside any public building under the Montana Clean Indoor Air Act that went into effect Oct. 1. But the state is far from endorsing the products that the Food and Drug Administration says deliver at least one carcinogen to users, and hopes the federal government prevails in a lawsuit that would bring e-cigarettes under stricter regulation nationwide. "This could be a public health problem, so we're going to keep an eye on it and do what we can to discourage folks from using it," said Linda Lee, Montana Tobacco Use Prevention Program supervisor at the Department of Health and Human Services. Bozeman Chronicle dperson@dailychronicle.com (DANIEL PERSON Chronicle Staff Writer) Fri, 25 Dec 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2009/12/23/news/300jerlaplea.txt http://tobacco.org/news/294553.html A 25-year-old man admitted in a Gallatin County court Tuesday that he pushed a woman out the window of his Bozeman apartment in April but said it was unintentional. Jeremy Jerla told District Judge Holly Brown that the victim's fall was the result of a scuffle the two got into over her smoking in Jerla's Main Street apartment on April 18. . . . The woman "was smoking a cigarette while sitting in the windowsill," he said. "I went over to get her to put out the cigarette because it was not allowed in my apartment. I was grabbing for the cigarette. She was pulling away. There was some pushing, pulling and she fell out of the window." Bozeman Chronicle jhausen@dailychronicle.com (JODI HAUSEN Chronicle Staff Writer) Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:00:00 GMT