Free Republic

A number of current and former top-ranking law enforcement officials from the tobacco-producing South have blasted a potential menthol cigarette ban as the Food and Drug Administration weighs restrictions on those products, contending that prohibition will spur smuggling, counterfeit cigs and other organized crime.

Over the past two years, the use of electronic cigarettes amongst middle school and high school students has doubled. Health authorities are worried that the young people using them will end up being hooked on the regular and more dangerous regular cigarette. One out of every 10 high school students in the U.S. used an e-cigarette during 2012 as did close to 3% of the students in middle school, showed data from a new report. That rate is nearly double the rate in 2011 for e-cigarettes and equals 1.78 million children or teens who have tried the devices. The spike...

Cigarette taxes turn a frowned-upon habit into a popular revenue source. But a recent study found that cigarette taxes often lead to other tax hikes later. The National Taxpayers Union found a 70 percent chance that the so-called sin taxes will not produce the expected revenue, as people buy fewer packs. The taxpayer advocate organization reported that from 2007 to 2011, 25 of 37 cigarette tax increases were joined by other new tax hikes within two years.

Teen smokers who rationalize their use of cigarettes by saying, “At least, I’m not doing drugs,” may not always be able to use that line. New research to be presented Sunday, May 5, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Washington, DC, supports the theory that cigarettes are a gateway drug to marijuana. “Contrary to what we would expect, we also found that students who smoked both tobacco and marijuana were more likely to smoke more tobacco than those who smoked only tobacco,” said study author Megan Moreno, MD, MSEd, MPH, FAAP, an investigator at Seattle Children’s Research...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. June 21 — Two brothers were convicted Friday of helping run a North Carolina-based support cell that funneled cigarette-smuggling profits to the militant group Hezbollah. Mohamad Hammoud, 28, accused of being the leader of the cell, was convicted of 16 counts that included providing material support to Hezbollah. Chawki Hammoud, 37, was found guilty of charges including cigarette smuggling, credit card fraud, money laundering and racketeering. Jurors deliberated 21 hours over three days. On Friday afternoon, they told the judge they were deadlocked on one count, a charge that Mohammad Hammoud conspired with others to provide material support...

The profit margin for organized crime from contraband tobacco has surpassed the drug trade according to a new report by the Virginia State Crime Commission as reported by Frank Green for the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "drug dealers are switching to cigarettes because there is plenty of money to be made, less violence and the penalties if caught are much lighter." Last year CNBC ran the documentary Cigarette Wars which claimed the United States "loses $5 billion in tax revenue every year from the trafficking of illegal cigarettes" as reported by Brian A. Shactman: "The crime has several variations, but it's extremely...

Man Sentenced For Cigarette Smuggling Suspect Must Repay State More Than $2 Million POSTED: 10:57 PM EST January 8, 2004 UPDATED: 11:06 PM EST January 8, 2004 DETROIT -- A Dearborn man convicted of taking part in a multi-state cigarette-smuggling ring was sentenced Thursday to 70 months in prison without the possibility of parole, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins said. Elias Mohamad Akhdar, 31, pleaded guilty in July to a charge of conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. He could have received up to 78 months in prison for the crime under federal sentencing guidelines. Akhdar...

@mrubin1971Two news stories from recent weeks, if true, should raise a red flag in the United States that Iran is preparing to use Hezbollah to strike at U.S. interests in Latin America, if not in the United States itself.First, this story from the Lebanese news portal Naharnet and sourced in part to Israeli radio. The Naharnet story was taken down shortly after it appeared: Hezbollah is using a training base established by Iran in northern Nicaragua near the border with Honduras, the Israeli radio reported on Thursday [September 6]. “The area is cordoned off and there are around 30 members...

DETROIT -- Two men pleaded guilty Friday to charges of conspiracy to violate the "Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act" (RICO), U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Murphy announced today. Imad Majed Hamadeh, 51, of Dearborn Heights, and Theodore Schenk, 73, of Miami Beach, Fla., pleaded guilty here before U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen to the following charges: operating a criminal enterprise to traffic in contraband cigarettes, counterfeit Zig Zag rolling papers and counterfeit Viagra; producing counterfeit cigarette tax stamps; transporting stolen property; and money laundering. Sixteen other defendants faced the same charges. Some of the profits derived from the illegal...

www.fbi.gov/boston/press-releases/2013/federal-indictment-unsealed-as-rhode-island-state-police-and-federal-agents-arrest-seven-search-ten-businesses-and-residences-and-seize-cash-vehicles-and-business-records-in-alleged-cigarette-trafficking-conspiracy Federal Indictment Unsealed as Rhode Island State Police and Federal Agents Arrest Seven; Search Ten Businesses and Residences; and Seize Cash, Vehicles, and Business Records in Alleged Cigarette Trafficking Conspiracy Investigation and Indictment Alleges Complex Interstate Conspiracy That Allegedly Defrauded Rhode Island of More Than $1 Million in Tax Revenue U.S. Attorney’s Office May 08, 2013 District of Rhode Island PROVIDENCE, RI—A federal grand jury indictment that names seven individuals and alleges a complex interstate contraband cigarette trafficking conspiracy responsible for the sale of more than $1.2 million dollars of contraband cigarettes in Rhode Island and the loss of...

I remember many years ago there was a machine on the market that (I think) was designed to reduce second-hand smoke. You inserted a real cigarette into the small device, and the device burned the cigarette for you and caught all the smoke that didn't come through the filter. Again, I think--I never used one. Does anyone recall the name of this product? Thanks in advance, FA

Oh, good grief. It's no wonder at least some gun-control advocates were probably less-than-thrilled with Bloomberg's recent foray into gun-control advertising campaigns; his particular brand of loathsome nanny-statism run amok hardly lends credibility to the cause, because of course, once nanny-staters get on a top-down regulatory roll, they’re difficult to deter: The age to legally buy cigarettes in New York City would rise to 21 from 18 under a proposal that officials unveiled on Monday, a measure that would give New York the strictest limits of any major American city.The proposal would make the age for buying cigarettes and other...

It's Passover and for the first time, Israeli smokers can puff away on rabbi-approved cigarettes, the AP reports. The group that certifies foods and other items as kosher for the week-long holiday approved three brands of cigarettes after determining that their ingredients had not come into contact with grains or other forbidden items. Israel's chief rabbinate, however, criticized the move and said rabbis should not be giving smokes the seal of approval. "Poison is not kosher. For all days of the year, not just Passover," a spokesman said.

California Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, has introduced a bill to make it illegal for people to smoke in their own homes -- if they live in an apartment or a condo or a multifamily home. When last I wrote about Levine, he was pushing a statewide law to require grocers to charge for bags. Now he's after cigarettes -- but only the legal kind. With his new AB 746, Levine is following a trail blazed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who pushed a law prohibiting the restaurant sale of large sugary drinks, which a New York judge overturned....

The Natural American Spirit is produced by the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, which sprang up in left-wing Santa Fe, New Mexico in the early 1980s with a new innovative approach to cigarette-making. The American Spirit consists of “100 % Additive-Free Tobacco,” without the nuanced chemical combinations that give most mass-marketed cigarettes their savory taste and potent impact. As such, the Spirit satisfies a growing niche market of left-leaning types who want smoking’s well-documented coolness without earning it through hard respiratory work. This brand’s very existence is a response to the cancer research conducted by various academic elites in the...

SALEM, OR (KPTV) - If you're a regular smoker, you may want to keep an eye on a new bill in the Oregon Legislature. Rep. Mitch Greenlick, from Portland, is sponsoring a bill that makes cigarettes a Schedule III controlled substance, meaning it would be illegal to possess or distribute cigarettes without a doctor's prescription. Under the proposal, offenders would face maximum punishments of one year in prison, a $6,250 fine or both. Other drugs and substances that are considered Schedule III controlled substances are ketamine, lysergic acid and anabolic steroids. "The State Board of Pharmacy may adopt rules placing...

With all the nonsense that’s been going on in the Empire State of late – especially the Governor’s successful gun rantings - I’d begun to worry that New York was doomed for mediocrity. But for better or worse, you just can’t keep the government of this state down. If we can’t lead in freedom, prosperity or employment, we can at least be the capital of piracy. (Cigarette smuggling piracy, that is.) The Midland, Mich.-based Mackinac Center has released smuggling reports in 2006 and 2009, in addition to its most recent report covering 2011. In 2006, the Mackinac Center estimated that...

With all the chatter about firearms from the Entertainment World,I was struck by this. Smoking is verboten in TV and movies now. But firearms are not. In one episode of Strike Back, a Brit spy series on CineMax, I counted 23 bodies in 60 minutes. If the Elites are so convinced of their position, let them ban smoking firearms from TV and movies first. My guess is that script writers will have to produce real stories rather than a linked stream of shot'em ups.

The hot new video at MRCTV.org is 1995 footage of Attorney General Eric Holder, when he was the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. In his remarks before the Woman’s National Democratic Club, broadcast by CSPAN 2, Holder said people should be ashamed to own guns, just the way that cigarette smokes now “cower outside of buildings” to smoke. “What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns, especially young people, and make it something that’s not cool, that it’s not acceptable, it’s not hip to carry a gun anymore, in the way...

Former FBI agent missing in Iran photographed in Guantánamo jumpsuit By Barney Henderson 8:44PM GMT 08 Jan 2013 The family of retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, who went missing in Iran in 2007, have released pictures of him dressed in an orange jumpsuit like a Guantánamo Bay prisoner, as they continue to hold hope that he is still alive.