Free Republic

Sheriff's deputies in York County, Neb., stopped a pickup truck on Tuesday when they noticed it driving over the center line and the driver failing to signal. During the traffic stop, deputies noticed a strong smell of raw marijuana, the sheriff's department says. Patrick Jiron, 80, and Barbara Jiron, 83, said they were from northern California and were en route to Boston and Vermont. Deputies asked the driver, Patrick Jiron, about the odor, and he admitted to having contraband in the truck and consented to a search of the vehicle. With the help of the county's canine unit, deputies searched...

Nobody mentioned tobacco last week when the U.S. Senate adopted an amendment to the $109 billion federal highway bill. But tucked into the 5,600-word amendment to provide aid for rural schools was a single paragraph that would settle a two-year-old fight between Big Tobacco and a small Ohio company that builds a do-it-yourself machine that allows smokers to get their cigarettes a lot cheaper. The amendment would reclassify tobacco shops that offer the machines as “tobacco manufacturers,” imposing on them new regulations and higher taxes, and it opens a window into the ways of Washington, where the powerful and the...

RICHMOND The nation’s largest cigarette maker today secured a key victory when a Senate panel voted to classify as manufacturers Virginia retailers with machines that let customers roll their own cigarettes. Backed by several powerful lobbying allies, Philip Morris USA persuaded the Senate Finance Committee to approve a bill supporters claim will require shops with roll-your-own machines to pay some federal and state tobacco taxes they’re now avoiding. Imposing such standards will create a level playing field, industry officials have said. Opponents argue the measure, SB 74 [1] from Powhatan County Republican Sen. John Watkins, actually is an attempt by...

The modest one-liners of the dangers of smoking, now featured on cigarette packs, may soon turn into gory images and messages that will cover nearly half the pack. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration unveiled 36 jarring labels Wednesday aimed at escalating efforts to warn smokers of the fatal consequences of cigarette smoking. These labels represent the agency's exercise of its new authority over tobacco products and the most significant change in cigarette warnings since companies were forced to add the mandatory Surgeon General's warning in 1965. Some of the proposed images include a man smoking from a tracheotomy hole,...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) _ No tie-dye was on display at a standing-room only hearing held by a California lawmaker on Wednesday in a bid to get his marijuana legalization bill taken seriously. Instead, suits and sober discussion were the rule at the state Capitol as Assemblyman Tom Ammiano presided over what his office said was the first legislative consideration of the issue since California banned the drug in 1913.

Paying for the S-CHIP will be up to smokers. Yes, a pack of cigarettes will be federally taxed $1.00. Small cigars $12.50 per 1,000 this year and $50 per 1,000 in 2015. Large cigars will be taxed .50 (8x the current tax). Roll your own is $24.00 more per 1 pound of tobacco. ROLL YOUR OWN!! The tubes for roll your own cigarettes will also be taxed substantially.

Voters have been losing their taste for the war on drugs lately; in the past few years, states from Arizona and Alaska to California and Hawaii have moved toward making marijuana, in particular, a low priority for law enforcement, with first-offense possession cases often dismissed with small-time fines and medical-marijuana measures on the books in several states. But the initiative voters in Nevada will be considering this fall goes much further: The “tax and regulate” measure, whose supporters got it on the ballot by collecting 86,000 signatures, would allow anyone over 21 to possess up to one ounce for personal...

Well, it's been a week and I have to say that I'm really enjoying these homemade cigarettes. It's so easy to do and it's saving tons of $$$. With the cigarette cartons skyrocketing at the first of the year (At least in Colorado), we'll need alternatives. So, I'm starting this thread for FReepers who are thinking about going into this little venture for themselves. I got these items when I started up: Premier Supermatic II Injector Machine $36.99 1 x Sixty1 100mm Tubes $2.39 1 x Farmers Gold Additive Free Tobacco 16oz. $12.99 I got them from http://www.rollyourown.com Now, the...