Free Republic

   Year  Output  Type  Cigarette Use (Adults) – BRFSS2007 State Current Cigarette Use (%) Alabama 22.5 Alaska 22.2 Arizona 19.8 Arkansas 22.4 California 14.3 Colorado 18.7 Connecticut 15.5 Delaware 19.0 District of Columbia 17.3 Florida 19.3 Georgia 19.3 Hawaii 17.0 Idaho 19.2 Illinois 20.2 Indiana 24.1 Iowa 19.8 Kansas 17.9 Kentucky 28.3 Louisiana 22.6 Maine 20.1 Maryland 17.1 Massachusetts 16.4 Michigan 21.2 Minnesota 16.5 Mississippi 24.0 Missouri 24.6 Montana 19.5 Nebraska 19.9 Nevada 21.5 New Hampshire 19.4 New Jersey 17.2 New Mexico 20.8 New York 18.9 North Carolina 22.9 North Dakota 21.0 Ohio 23.1 Oklahoma 25.8 Oregon 16.9 Pennsylvania 20.9...

This is still a free country, right? Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to more closely regulate the wages that firms pay workers and to more strictly regulate tobacco products by putting them under FDA supervision. The Los Angeles City Council also approved a one-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in a 32-square-mile low-income area in the city; the poor, after all, have “above-average rates of obesity” and must be protected from themselves. Perhaps the government may just want to ask people if they are poor before we let them enter certain restaurants. Barack Obama promises a...

Reactions from smokers ranged from stunned to furious -- and often unprintable. "Outside?" gasped Isaac Kim, who's about to start pre-pharmacy classes at the Silver Spring/Takoma Park campus. "Do they have the right to do that?" Welcome to the land of tolerance and freedom Mr. Kim. Your rights will be dictated to you in the Citizens Manual. Should you stray, they have a special police force to enforce your right not to smoke or chew tobacco. See if you can pick out the innocent-sounding, Stalinist name for the anti-smoking cops. And yes, employees could ultimately be fired or students kicked...

The House approved legislation yesterday that would for the first time empower the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the tobacco industry, a measure long sought by anti-smoking advocates. After about 40 minutes of sometimes passionate debate, the House voted 326 to 102 to approve the measure, which would give the agency broad authority over cigarette makers, including the power to ban marketing of cigarettes to children, require disclosure of tobacco ingredients and mandate larger, more specific health warnings. It would also enable the agency to require tobacco companies to reduce or eliminate harmful ingredients and ban candy- and fruit-flavored...

San Francisco lawmakers voted Tuesday to make the city the first in the nation to ban the sale of tobacco products at most pharmacies, a move that backers hope will lead to similar laws across the country. The ban has already attracted the attention of Marin County leaders, who may push forward with their own proposal. The ban passed the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on an 8-3 vote, with some supervisors predicting it would be a "first step" toward additional bans on the sale of tobacco in the city. "Whatever we can do to make this country a smoke-free...

Researchers say industry manipulates the ingredient to recruit new generation of users Tobacco companies are manipulating menthol levels in cigarettes to appeal to newer, younger smokers, part of a deliberate strategy to get younger people, particularly African-Americans, hooked, a new study contends. Menthol makes cigarettes more palatable to the novice smoker. "If anything, menthol is being used as a candy to help the toxin go down," said Dr. Gregory Connolly, senior author of a paper being published in the September issue of the American Journal of Public Health. "If we let the industry go ahead and willy-nilly design the product...

I can hear it coming already: faux outrage, MSM feeding frenzy, Worst Person in the World designation, and a 24-hour cycle of cable TV teeth-gnashing over McCain’s off-handed joke about cigarette exports to Iran. Here we go. In 5, 4, 3, 2… “McCain jokes about killing Iranians with cigarettes” Presidential candidate John McCain, who once sang in jest about bombing Iran, on Tuesday reacted to a report of rising U.S. cigarette exports to the country by saying it may be “a way of killing ‘em.” McCain, known for acerbic comments and for sometimes firing verbally from the hip, was responding...

You can still light up in a Dutch cafe after July 1, but only if you're smoking marijuana, not tobacco. Bloomberg reported June 20 that the Netherlands' new indoor-smoking ban allows patrons to smoke inside marijuana "coffee shops" as long as the joint is pure cannabis. But cutting joints with tobacco will be illegal. Tobacco smoking also will be banned in other public places except in separate, unstaffed rooms. "Every customer will have to learn how to smoke pure,'' said Robert Kempen, co-owner of The NooN and Mellow Yellow Amsterdam coffee shops. "Sales will definitely fall," said Rida Oulad, a...

ITHACA — Legislation further restricting smoking in the City of Ithaca should reduce exposure to secondhand smoke while not creating unintended consequences, according to members of the Smoke-free Zone Legislation Subcommittee. The smoking ban legislation Common Council is exploring includes ... a huge variety of outdoor, public spaces, including parks, natural areas, outdoor concerts and festivals, trails and walkways, parking garages and lots, transit shelters, Newman Golf Course, and city cemeteries. This would include outdoor dining areas at all times, and entire parks or the entire Commons during festivals like Ithaca Festival or the Chili Cook-Off.... It could also include...

Nearly 10 years after the tobacco industry was sued, the same lawyer has brought suit against the energy industry for “conspiring to cover up the threat of man-made climate change.” “As scientific evidence accumulates on the destructive impact of carbon-dioxide emissions, a handful of lawyers are beginning to bring suits against the major contributors to climate change,” Stephan Faris wrote in the June 2008 Atlantic Monthly. According to the article, a lawsuit was filed in February that named several companies it claimed were responsible for global warming and accused them of plotting to cover it up. “More important, the suit...

Today's article on smoking restrictions and the "wellness" movement makes no mention of a politically incorrect truth: some people smoke because they find net positive benefits in it. Nicotine is not just an addictive drug, it is a powerful drug which affects the mind in ways that are often positive. Now let me add that I do note advocate people taking up smoking. I have no financial interest in tobacco, have never owned a tobacco stock, and if tobacco companies have advertised on American Thinker, I have not noticed it. (I would not get rid of their ads if they...

No puffing allowed at pipe convention The United States' largest gathering of pipe smokers is being held near Chicago but none are lighting up inside the convention center, aficionados lament. Illinois law requires pipe smokers attending the Chicagoland International Pipe & Tobacciana Show to retreat to a tent 15 feet away from the St. Charles convention center if they want to enjoy a puff or two, the Chicago Tribune reported Saturday. How would you like it if you went to a wine tasting and you couldn't taste the wine? asked Al Shinogle, 53, of Denver, who was smoking a hand-carved...

Cigarette smuggling is generating millions of dollars every year that can be reaching terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda, according to law enforcement sources. In a single case, $100,000 was sent to Hezbollah. A 15-page report congressional report includes intelligence from law enforcement as well as New York State’s Department of Taxation and Finance. Cigarette smuggling is generating millions of dollars every year that can be reaching terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda, according to law enforcement sources. In a single case, $100,000 was sent to Hezbollah. One of the key issues... is a potential flaw...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal appeals court tossed out an $800 billion class-action lawsuit against tobacco companies on Thursday brought by smokers who said they were deceived into believing "light" cigarettes were healthier. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said the smokers could not sue collectively. The decision means each individual smoker must prove that she or he had selected the product for perceived health benefits. The smokers had sued the tobacco companies under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act, contending they were misled by the industry's marketing and branding efforts into believing "light" cigarettes...

Ten years ago, Senator John McCain took on the tobacco industry, saying he would never back down from legislation to regulate the industry. He also supported a $1.10-per-pack tax on cigarettes to fund programs to cut underage smoking. "I still regret we did not succeed," he said as recently as last October. Now, McCain's longtime effort to crack down on tobacco is being put to a new test. Within weeks, the Senate is expected to vote on legislation to allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco. McCain agreed months ago to cosponsor the current bill with Senator Edward...

A plan by Gov. Jim Doyle to get cash upfront to help fix the state's broken budget will cost the state $94 million in payments from tobacco companies over the long haul, an independent analysis has found. The Democratic governor is also asking lawmakers to use more of the money generated by the plan to pay for maintaining state health programs for the poor. Doyle has long criticized a decision by his predecessor, Scott McCallum, and a past Legislature to borrow against future payments by tobacco companies to help solve budget crises in 2001 and 2002. The analysis released by...

New 'snus' taking on smoking ban Monday, March 17, 2008 3:07 AM By James Nash THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH It might have a funny-sounding name, but snus is no laughing matter to activists who led the 2006 campaign to ban smoking from public places across Ohio. Snus, a nugget of tobacco wrapped in a porous tissue, will be under the lips of thousands of people in central Ohio this year if product launches by three tobacco companies are successful. The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. started selling Camel Snus in central Ohio in July. Lorillard Tobacco Co. introduced its lower-cost Triumph brand...

If it is indeed true, as George Bernard Shaw commented, that democracy ensures we get the government we deserve, then I have little sympathy for my neighbors who whine about the smoking ban as they puff their Camel filters in the parking lot outside the bowling alley in the freezing February rain. Besides -- I like to point out -- we voted for the shysters and party hacks who passed the ban. Or -- more likely -- we failed to vote at all. I then call attention to the fact that right next door in Missouri, where the Republican Party...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday tossed out Maine's law taxing the Internet sales of tobacco products, a statute intended to keep cigarettes out of minors' hands by regulating transportation companies. In a unanimous ruling, the justices concluded the federal government's overall interstate commerce authority trumped the state's public health policing powers. A federal appeals court earlier had found the law unconstitutional. "Despite the importance of the public health objective, we cannot agree with Maine," said Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the majority. Federal law says "nothing about a public health exception," he noted. Maine's Legislature passed the law four...

Residents of a tony, high-rise condominium along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis are among the first to vote to make their building smoke-free, taking Minnesota's battle over smoking bans into private homes. The rule, at La Rive Condominiums near St. Anthony Main, covers individual units, common areas, garages and private balconies. Current owners who want to smoke will be grandfathered in, but future buyers will have to abide by the rule. Opponents say the ban is an intrusion into private property rights that could hurt resale prospects at a time when the market is already soft. Supporters counter that, not...

A little more than a decade after instituting a limited-use tobacco policy on campus, East Tennessee State University will go tobacco free this fall. ETSU President Paul Stanton announced the policy change Monday morning, stating in a news release that tobacco usage will only be permitted in private vehicles. Tobacco use is already prohibited in state vehicles. “We set an example for the rest of the state in 1997 by banning the use of tobacco in all university buildings,” Stanton said in the release. “Revising our policy to reflect increasing health concerns about smoking and the use of other tobacco...

COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) - A police survey says panhandlers outside a Wal-Mart here can make $300 a day. Inside, it takes a clerk a week to make that much. Police say people who have a problem with that needn't look to the law--asking for money is considered protected free speech. "We are not going to target panhandlers," said Coos Bay Police Capt. Rodger Craddock, who spoke a recent gathering of business owners about panhandling. "We can't do that. But if they aren't getting money from us, they aren't going to stand on that corner." He said most panhandlers are...

As one smoker said at the Detroit Auto Show, "Do you know what smokers have to go through today just to smoke? It's like they're trying to erase us from history." More and more carmakers are making it harder to smoke in one's own vehicle by replacing lighters and ashtrays with storage spaces and power outlets. The trend is driven by "pressure from anti-smoking groups, fewer smokers and the need for the extra storage space." According to the United Health Foundation, about 20.8% of the population smokes, which means about 60 million people. According to Apple, 100 million people have...

Even if he weren't Connecticut's authority on embarrassment, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal still would be right in calling the state's record in fighting tobacco addiction embarrassing. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids put Connecticut last in its annual rankings for government support for anti-smoking programs because the state set aside nary a penny from the 1998 National Tobacco Extortion for smoking prevention this year. Instead, it plowed this year's $140 million allotment into the general fund to finance raises for state employees, social services for illegal aliens, political patronage and so forth. Since 2000, the state has received nearly $1 billion...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has scrapped his proposal to lease the state lottery to help finance a universal health care plan and instead agreed to Speaker Fabian Núñez's proposal to raise taxes on tobacco products, officials disclosed Friday. The governor also has agreed to establish a higher sliding scale fee on employers than he previously had to help finance the $14 billion plan. The new proposal calls for requiring businesses, depending on their size, to spend 1 percent to 6.5 percent of their payroll on health care or pay into a state fund. Schwarzenegger had proposed that employers pay zero to...

We progressives have made great strides this year in preventing thousands of shoelace-related deaths among children here in the United States and around the world. As you know earlier this year Al Gore won his second Nobel Peace Prize for his award-winning documentary "Shoelaces Knock Our Kids Off-Balance". George Soros donated one hundred million dollars to found his new SHoelace Alliance For Teenagers to prevent these needless injuries caused by untied and mistied shoelaces. Elementary, Middle and Secondary schools now require Shoelace Injury Training for at least one hundred hours per semester as part of the National Education Association endorsed...

According to three doctors at the KS Hegde Medical Academy in Mangalore, India, writing in the journal Medical Hypotheses, giving up smoking can kill you. Arunachalam Kumar, Kasaragod Mallya, and Jairaj Kumar were "struck by the more than casual relationship between the appearance of lung cancer and an abrupt and recent cessation of the smoking habit in many, if not most, cases." In 182 of the 312 cases they had treated, an habitual smoker of at least a pack a day, for at least a quarter-century, had developed lung cancer shortly after he gave up smoking. They surmised a biological...

On June 19, 1987, Ben & Jerry’s introduced Cherry Garcia, in honor of the man who played lead guitar for the Grateful Dead. The Food and Drug Administration struck back three months later, when it approved the first of a new family of statin drugs that curb cholesterol production in the human liver. A synthetic statin licensed a decade later would become the most lucrative drug in history. At its peak, Lipitor was streaming $14 billion a year into Pfizer’s coffers. Let’s not blame the victim: we don’t choose Cherry Garcia; it chooses us. Lipitor is a lifesaver for 600,000...

During Prohibition, making and selling liquor was illegal, but drinking it was not. With tobacco, we are moving toward the opposite situation, where it will be legal to make and sell cigarettes but not to smoke them. A smoking ban recently approved by the city council of Belmont, Calif., a town halfway between San Jose and San Francisco, is so sweeping that saying where it does not apply is easier than saying where it does. Smoking will still be allowed in tobacco shops, in automobiles, in some hotel rooms, in private residences that do not share a floor or ceiling...

If you live in Washington or just visit for a few days, you may run into the entitlement people. Some of them are former senators, cabinet officers or other previously powerful folks. Others are maverick members of Congress or agency heads, who are not in a position to set policy but are prominent enough to get noticed. They bombard you with alarming statistics about unsustainable entitlements. The U.S. government has $43 trillion in unfunded liabilities, or $350,000 for every taxpayer. Standard & Poor’s projects that in 2012, the U.S. will lose its AAA bond rating. Everyone listens and puts on...

Motorists bringing large numbers of smokes into state will be charged — NASHVILLE — Starting today, state Department of Revenue agents will begin stopping Tennessee motorists spotted buying large quantities of cigarettes in border states, then charging them with a crime and, in some cases, seizing their cars. Critics say the new “cigarette surveillance program” amounts to the use of “police state” tactics and wrongfully interferes with interstate commerce. But state Revenue Commissioner Reagan Farr says his department is simply doing its job, enforcing a valid state law while protecting Tennessee retailers who properly pay state taxes. Agents have already...

Tobacco is back in the American farm belt. Three years after the federal government stopped subsidizing it, the leafy crop is gaining new popularity among U.S. farmers. Cheaper U.S. tobacco has become competitive as an export, and China, Russia and Mexico, where cigarette sales continue to grow, are eager to buy. Since 2005, U.S. tobacco acreage has risen 20 percent. Fields are now filled with it in places like southern Illinois, which hasn't grown any substantial amounts since the end of World War I. For decades, Martin Ray Barbre, who farms the lush rolling hills here, was not eligible for...

CARMI, Ill. --Tobacco is back in the American farm belt. Three years after the federal government stopped subsidizing it, the leafy crop is gaining new popularity among U.S. farmers. Cheaper U.S. tobacco has become competitive as an export, and China, Russia and Mexico, where cigarette sales continue to grow, are eager to buy. Since 2005, U.S. tobacco acreage has risen 20 percent. Fields are now filled with it in places like southern Illinois, which hasn't grown any substantial amounts since the end of World War I. For decades, Martin Ray Barbre, who farms the lush rolling hills here, was not...

Odor of Cigarette Smoke Causes School Employee to Lose Job The Denton Independent School District has removed an employee from her position because she smells like cigarette smoke. Suzanne Lidster was thrilled when she was recently hired to assist a student with disabilities at L.A. Nelson Elementary. "It's something that God sent me here to do with this child," Lidster told FOX 4. "It's like OK, this fell in my lap." But after less than two weeks on the job, Lidster said she received a voicemail informing her that she had lost her position. The school's principal left a message...

Indonesia: Prostitutes offered factory work during Ramadan Malang, 14 Sept. (AKI/Jakarta Post) - The public order officers in Malang regency in the Indonesian province of East Jave have banned prostitutes from operating during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and are making efforts to secure them jobs in cigarette factories as an alternative means of income. The initiative was aimed at minimizing the number of sex workers in Malang regency in East Java, according to Ihnawul Muslimin, the investigation and disciplinary division head of the public order police unit in Malang. It would also equip them with the necessary skills...

The Belmont City Council has passed an ordinance prohibiting smoking in multiunit housing, a measure hailed by supporters as a landmark ban that will give residents relief from second-hand smoke drifting into their apartments and condominiums. "It's to give people who are intolerant of second-hand smoke a chance to say, 'Please stop - you're violating the city's ordinance,' in the same way that if your neighbor has a loud rock band, you can say, 'Please stop,' " City Councilman Dave Warden said today. The council passed the measure Tuesday night by a vote of 3-2. The ordinance also bans smoking...

I was willing to entertain the thought of you as a refreshing, charming, surprising second-tier candidate whose eloquence and wit would serve the party well (although trashing the Club for Growth was really pushing it). But a national smoking ban? You're not running a health spa; it's a country, and you will never win friends in North Carolina talking like that. These big-time pound-shedders cum health nuts. You applaud them as they get healthy, but be careful putting them in power-- they'll take your food and other vices away from you quick as look at you. Because they know what's...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Some Arkansas lawmakers are spitting mad — over chaw. Representative Pam Adcock says she'll introduce legislation that would bar chewing tobacco from the state House floor. She says she's tried of seeing her spitting colleagues, adding that it's gross. But some in the House say use of chewing tobacco is a personal decision. Smoking is already banned in the Arkansas Capitol.

Clinton: FDA should regulate tobacco CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton called for U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulation of tobacco and a national war on cancer. The New York Democrat and presidential candidate made the remarks Monday at the Livestrong Presidential Cancer Form in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Clinton urged "a much more aggressive outreach. That's why I favor the FDA being able to regulate advertising about nicotine and tobacco products. And we're going to push through, I hope, a bill to get that done." Such regulation would require an amendment to an old law....

Politicians have long imposed sin taxes on tobacco, alcohol and gambling. Now, in their never-ending quest for revenue, they are redefining what constitutes a sin. The sinners are not taking this lying down. Virginia officials are facing a popular revolt and lawsuits challenging steep fees they imposed this year on residents convicted of traffic crimes. Here are some newly taxed vices. "Abusive" Driving, VirginiaSurcharges of $750 to $3,000 on excessive speeding and other driving offenses. Raises $65 million a year for road maintenance. Going to a Strip Joint , TexasAdmission tax of $5 at joints with nude or seminude entertainers...

Smokers have already been banned from New York bars and restaurants, and soon they could be prohibited from lighting up in cars carrying minors, an idea giving added fuel to critics who say the city has become a nanny state. A City Council member of Queens who is chairman of the council's Environmental Protection Committee, James Gennaro, said he is planning to introduce the smoking bill next week. "I am just seeking every opportunity I can to denormalize smoking and to try to put it out of the reach of kids," Mr. Gennaro said. "I've lost family members to lung...

New York would become the first state requiring all addiction treatment programs to help their clients quit smoking under a proposed rule to be announced today. Pointing to the high number of tobacco-related deaths among former addicts, the state’s Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Service said that by July 24 of next year, all facilities treating drug or alcohol addiction would have to have programs in place to encourage clients to stop smoking. Under the plan, all treatment centers would have to be smoke-free, and staff members would also have to abide by the ban. Treatment for nicotine addiction,...

Federal tobacco taxes would increase by 61 cents per pack to pay for a major expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) under a bipartisan deal in Congress, USA Today reported July 10. Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee endorsed a plan to raise the federal tobacco tax from 39 cents per pack to $1 to expand SCHIP to some of the more than 6 million children who are eligible for the program but currently have no coverage. The tax hike is expected to raise $35 billion for SCHIP over the next five years. "It really...

(Farms sprout again, with demand for less-carcinogenic crop) When Rick Sime walks through a field of burley tobacco, he sees opportunities and a way to remain connected with his rural heritage. The Vernon County high school teacher, baseball coach and tobacco farmer grew up on a family farm that raised a few acres of tobacco every year, partly as a way to generate some extra cash. For decades, farm families such as Sime's in south-central and southwestern Wisconsin raised a few acres of tobacco to generate extra cash. The leaves grown here were used in chewing tobacco or to wrap...

A British millionaire who has reportedly hired outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife, Cherie, to fight the New Labour Government's ban on smoking, described Tony Blair as an "a***hole" on peak-time radio on Sunday. Sixty-three-year-old Dave West, a lapdance boss, resorted to the use of unparliamentary language after claiming that human rights lawyer Cherie Blair, 52, thought his club should be exempted from new cigarette laws. Interviewed onj BBC Radio Five, West was quoted by The Sun a saying that Tony Blair was an a***hole for introducing the smoking ban. When Nicky Campbell, the show's host, said that there was...

CONCORD --This could hurt worse than even the largest of the textile layoffs. The parent company of Philip Morris USA -- Cabarrus County's biggest taxpayer, a top charitable supporter and one of the highest-paying manufacturers in the Charlotte region -- said Tuesday that it would close its Concord cigarette plant, where about 2,500 people work. It's the latest old-line industry to desert a region of North Carolina that already has been pummeled by several years of textile and furniture plant shutdowns. The pain from the latest closing will be felt for years, Concord Mayor Scott Padgett said. Philip Morris represents...

A Dutch smoking ban will come into force in July next year for all restaurants and cafes -- including coffee shops where cannabis is the top attraction, the government decided on Friday. "Coffee shops will be treated in the same manner as other catering businesses. They will be smoke-free," Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende told NOS television.

If nothing else, this should worry smokers: the radiation dose from radium and polonium found naturally in tobacco can be a thousand times more than that from the caesium-137 taken up by the leaves from the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Constantin Papastefanou from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece measured radioactivity in tobacco leaves from across the country and calculated the average radiation dose that would be received by people smoking 30 cigarettes a day. He found that the dose from natural radionuclides was 251 microsieverts a year, compared with 0.199 from Chernobyl fallout in the leaves (Radiation Protection Dosimetry,...

CHINA / Odd News Bad habits key to man's longevity (China Daily) Updated: 2007-05-21 14:52 Zhang Shuqing, a centenarian in Pixian, Sichuan, has his own secret for long life - smoking every day and drinking liquor after every meal. Zhang, whose daughter died eight years ago, turned 100 on May 7. He lives with his nephew Zhang Chenggui. Zhang senior said he started smoking and drinking strong liquor when he was in his early 20s. Since then, he has smoked every day and taken a drink with every meal. According to his grandson Xu, Zhang has consumed 15 tons of...

LOS ANGELES -- Smoking will be a bigger factor in determining film ratings, the Motion Picture Association of America said Thursday, but critics said the move does not go far enough to discourage teens from taking up the habit. MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman said his group's ratings board, which previously had considered underage smoking in assigning film ratings, now will take into account smoking by adults, as well. as in movies set in the past when smoking was more common. Some critics of Hollywood's depictions of tobacco in films have urged that movies that show smoking be assigned an R...