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Keyword: cigarettes

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  • Phillip Morris Introduces Marlboro Marijuana Cigarettes (Satire)

    01/24/2014 4:25:46 PM PST · by EveningStar · 45 replies
    Abril Uno ^ | January 21, 2014 | Akoy Ciraulo
    Phillip Morris, the world's biggest cigarette producer, announced today that they will join the marijuana legalization bandwagon and start producing marijuana cigarettes. Marketed under the brand "Marlboro M", the cigarettes will be made available for sale through marijuana-licensed outlets in the state of Colorado, and the state of Washington when it becomes commercially legal there later this year.
  • Surgeon general urges new resolve to end smoking

    01/17/2014 7:10:52 AM PST · by DJ MacWoW · 73 replies
    Associated Press ^ | Jan 17, 2014 3:43 AM (ET) | LAURAN NEERGAARD
    It's no secret that smoking causes lung cancer. But what about diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, erectile dysfunction? Fifty years into the war on smoking, scientists still are adding diseases to the long list of cigarettes' harms - even as the government struggles to get more people to kick the habit. A new report from the U.S. Surgeon General's office says the nation is at a crossroads, celebrating decades of progress against the chief preventable killer but not yet poised to finish the job.
  • High Tobacco Taxes Spark Huge Black Market in Northeast

    01/07/2014 6:18:03 AM PST · by Hoodat · 79 replies
    Breitbart ^ | 6 Jan 2014 | Mike Flynn
    High-cigarette tax jurisdictions are losing out on up to $729 million in tax revenue each year due to illicit trade in tobacco products.That is according to a new study from the nonprofit research organization RTI International. The figure represents an upper-end estimate of aggregate revenue foregone by the cities of Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Providence and Washington, DC. All five are top destinations for cigarette smugglers seeking to take advantage of high cigarette tax rates that push economy-minded buyers, including underage smokers seeking to avoid high, legal prices, to the black market. In New York, which boasts the highest cigarette...
  • ‘Germany should raise smoking age to 21’

    11/10/2013 1:29:54 AM PST · by Olog-hai · 2 replies
    TheLocal.de ^ | 05 Nov 2013 13:19 GMT+01:00 | Jessica Ware
    Calls were made this week for Berlin to follow New York state in raising the legal smoking age to 21. Johannes Spatz of anti-smoking campaign group Forum Rauchfrei told The Local why this will not be easy. Berlin Christian Democrat (CDU) politician Cornelia Seibeld told regional newspaper the BZ this week that Germany should follow New York’s lead and increase the minimum smoking age from 18 to 21. … Spatz agreed, and told The Local that Germany should indeed “look to New York for a positive role model” for dissuading young smokers. “If a person starts under the age of...
  • Father's Heartache After Police Shoot Dead Son, 19 [Truncated]

    11/07/2013 10:59:30 PM PST · by Lmo56 · 38 replies
    Mail Online ^ | 11/06/13 | Louise Boyle
    A 19-year-old has been shot dead by police after his father dialed 911 to report his truck stolen in order to teach his son a lesson for driving off to buy cigarettes. Father James Comstock has been left devastated after a police officer shot and killed his teenage son Tyler. Ames police say the teenager, from Boone, drove a stolen truck onto the Iowa State University campus on Monday, where student pedestrians dodged it to avoid being run over.
  • NYC council votes to raise cigarette-buying age to 21

    Smokers younger than 21 in the nation's biggest city will soon be barred from buying cigarettes after the New York City Council voted overwhelming Wednesday to raise the tobacco-purchasing age to higher than all but a few other places in the United States. City lawmakers approved the bill — which raises from 18 to 21 the purchasing age for cigarettes, certain tobacco products and even electronic-vapor smokes — and another that sets minimum prices for tobacco cigarettes and steps up law enforcement on illegal tobacco sales. "This will literally save many, many lives," said an emotional City Councilman James Gennaro,...
  • Blind Sheik Supporter Charged in Murder-for-Hire Plot

    10/19/2013 3:39:48 AM PDT · by Cindy · 3 replies
    INVESTIGATIVEPROJECT.org - For The Record - The IPT Blog ^ | Oct 18, 2013 at 10:52 am | by Abha Shankar
    Two men being held in jail while awaiting trial for cigarette trafficking are accused of plotting to kill witnesses against them. In an indictment unsealed in Brooklyn Supreme Court Thursday, Basel Ramadan and Yousseff Odeh are charged with conspiracy to murder witnesses and with soliciting a potential hit man. The murder-for-hire plot was hatched from New York City's Rikers Island jail where the two have been held since their May arrest on the initial cigarette-trafficking and money laundering charges. The Staten Island Advance reports that Odeh was a supporter of blind sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the spiritual guide for the...
  • PHOTOS: Cigarettes Save Life! - WWI Cravan "A" Cigarette Tin With The Shot It Stopped Still Inside

    10/17/2013 6:53:44 PM PDT · by DogByte6RER · 19 replies
    Retronaut ^ | circa WWI | Retronaut
    “Arthur Mann joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1914. His daughter-in-law says he was shot down by the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen – Arthur’s parachute caught in a tree. He also fought in the trenches – when Arthur was shot, the bullet bounced off this tin and saved his life. He also survived gassing, but this experience badly affected his long-term health. He died in 1953″ Explore Europeana 1914 – 1918
  • 15 Years Later, Where Did All The Cigarette Money Go?

    10/14/2013 10:32:10 AM PDT · by nickcarraway · 48 replies
    NPR ^ | October 13, 2013
    Fifteen years after tobacco companies agreed to pay billions of dollars in fines in what is still the largest civil litigation settlement in U.S. history, it's unclear how state governments are using much of that money. So far tobacco companies have paid more than $100 billion to state governments as part of the 25-year, $246 billion settlement. Among many state governments receiving money, Orange County, Calif., is an outlier. Voters mandated that 80 percent of money from tobacco companies be spent on smoking-related programs, like a cessation class taught in the basement of Anaheim Regional Medical Center. "So go ahead...
  • EU lawmakers to push ahead with anti-tobacco plans

    10/07/2013 10:25:38 PM PDT · by Olog-hai · 4 replies
    Associated Press ^ | Oct 8, 2013 1:00 AM EDT
    European lawmakers are trying to tighten rules governing the multi-billion dollar tobacco market by imposing bigger and bolder warnings on cigarette packs, banning most flavorings like menthol and beefing up regulation of electronic cigarettes. … Treatment of smoke-related diseases costs about €25 billion ($34 billion) a year, and the EU estimates that there are around 700,000 smoking-related deaths annually across the 28-nation bloc. …
  • High Taxes Make Cigarettes 'Gold Bars' For Thieves

    10/01/2013 9:08:27 AM PDT · by MichCapCon · 20 replies
    Capitol Confidential ^ | 9/29/2013 | Tom Gantert
    Early Sept. 13, three men involved in a robbery tried to run over a Warren police officer in a minivan that, according to police, had an estimated $10,000 worth of merchandise. Two of the men were shot trying to flee. However, the loot wasn't cash or jewelry. Instead, police said they were after cigarettes, which Michael LaFaive, fiscal policy analyst at the Mackinac Center For Public Policy calls "gold bars." "It happens all the time," said Lt. Heidi Metz of the Warren Police Department. "Almost all tobacco stores have security systems. They've been targeted." They have been targeted, LaFaive said,...
  • "Tolerant" MA Liberals Will Throw Low-Income Minority Smokers Out Of Public Housing

    09/27/2013 4:12:43 AM PDT · by suspects · 18 replies
    Boston Herald ^ | September 27, 2013 | Michael Graham
    This week, low-income minority residents of Cambridge public housing learned a cold, hard truth about their “homes.” These apartments aren’t their homes at all. They belong to the government. And because the liberals who run Cambridge government don’t like smoking, the citizen-residents of Cambridge’s housing projects must learn to not like it, too. Smoking has been banned. The new policy takes effect next August. Massachusetts software businesses just learned a similar lesson. For years, these businesses overwhelmingly gave their political contributions to Democrats. Those same liberal pols turned around and hit these Obama-supporting, Prius-driving computer geek friends with the “tech...
  • Cops fear menthol ban will spark black market boom

    09/12/2013 3:28:57 PM PDT · by oxcart · 50 replies
    CNBC ^ | 09/12/13 | Dan Mangan
    Stop—a ban on menthol cigarettes—in the name of the law! 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. Their comments to the FDA mirror arguments being made by Big Tobacco companies that have cited the specter of a menthol black market. But tobacco critics and a former top New York state tax official scoffed at those claims, and accused tobacco companies of scare tactics...
  • Why Southern cops fear a menthol cigarette ban

    09/12/2013 10:12:29 AM PDT · by AtlasStalled · 28 replies
    Yahoo ^ | 09/12/13 | Dan Mangan
    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.
  • Popularity Increasing Amongst Teens for Electronic Cigarettes

    09/07/2013 11:49:37 AM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 17 replies
    WKRB13 ^ | 09/07/2013
    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...
  • Report: Tobacco tax hikes don’t pay

    08/05/2013 8:48:34 AM PDT · by rktman · 14 replies
    The Daily Caller ^ | 8/4/2013 | Sarah Hurtubise
    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.
  • Study Adds to Evidence that Cigarettes are Gateway to Marijuana

    05/13/2013 11:59:56 PM PDT · by Olog-hai · 5 replies
    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...
  • Two Convicted in Hezbollah Smuggling

    06/21/2002 3:42:58 PM PDT · by swarthyguy · 6 replies · 335+ views
    AP/ABC ^ | 6.21.02
    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...
  • Crime Groups Make Higher Profits In Cigarette Smuggling Than Drug Trade

    09/06/2012 7:40:48 AM PDT · by AtlasStalled · 12 replies
    Friends of Ours ^ | 09/06/12 | Friends of Ours
    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-transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars to Hezbollah

    01/09/2004 9:35:48 AM PST · by chance33_98 · 7 replies · 106+ views
    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...