Free Republic

A Brookline business that lets customers roll their own cigarettes has banned "pipe tobacco" from its rolling machines in response to a judge's order, the shop's lawyers said yesterday. The court order takes away only a portion of the business Tobacco Haven has been doing, but it is a portion that is of particular concern to the state. The state Attorney General's Office, which sued the retailer in August, alleges it is illegal for Tobacco Haven to stuff "pipe tobacco" into cigarettes unless the company pays taxes on it. The state has also argued that "pipe tobacco" is singularly

With a simple marketing twist, tobacco companies are avoiding hundreds of millions of dollars a year in taxes by exploiting a loophole in President Barack Obama's child health law. Obama and Congress increased taxes on tobacco products earlier this year to pay for expanded children's health insurance, but tobacco for roll-your-own cigarettes saw a disproportionate leap, from $1.10 to $24.78 per pound. Some predicted the tax would kill the roll-your-own industry, which had offered a cheaper alternative to packaged cigarettes.

OAKLAND — Former state Senate President Pro Tem and 2010 Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata joined cancer research and health advocates Monday to launch a ballot measure that would hike cigarette taxes by a dollar a pack. "This is the right measure for the right time," Corey Goodman, a UC San Francisco professor and former biotech entrepreneur, said at a news conference in the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute, adding the half-billion dollars per year this measure could raise would help move scientific breakthroughs "from the bench to the bedside" to save lives. Perata said he conceived of the measure...

More than £1 million worth of counterfeit cigarettes filled with rabbit droppings instead of tobacco have been confiscated by customs officials in Spain. The fake cigarettes - due to be sold on the black market as famous brands - were discovered after British holidaymakers in the Canary Islands smelled a rat whenever they lit up. "They stunk. They smell just as you'd imagine burning poo to smell," said one customs official in Tenerife. Police and customs staff arrested 12 smugglers in an undercover operation to intercept the cigarettes as they landed on a boat from China. "They not only smell...

One topic that has only recently begun to attract attention is the Nazi anti-tobacco movement. Germany had the world's strongest anti smoking movement in the 1930s and early 1940s,supported by Nazi medical and military leaders worried that tobacco might prove a hazard to the race. Many Nazi leaders were vocal opponents of smoking. Anti-tobacco activists pointed out that whereas Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt were all fond of tobacco, the three major fascist leaders of Europe-Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco-were all non-smokers. Hitler was the most adamant,characterising tobacco as "the wrath of the Red Man against the White Man for having been...

All Michael Jordan wants to do is come to the City by the Bay and play, but San Francisco's laws have officials telling an American icon to butt out. Jordan is in town for the Presidents Cup golf tournament. He has more recognition than most of the players, but he is also getting attention for his habit of smoking cigars on the links. That is against the law in San Francisco and, famous or not, city officials are asking him to put out the cigar while on their property. "I've already sent an e-mail to the PGA Tour director," Recreation...

WASHINGTON – Federal health officials Tuesday banned the sale of flavored cigarettes and hinted that they may soon take action against the far-larger market of flavored little cigars and cigarillos, the first major crackdown on cigarettes since the Food and Drug Administration was given authority to regulate tobacco. The ban is intended to end the sale of tobacco products with chocolate, vanilla, clove and other flavorings that lure children and teenagers into smoking. Menthol products are as yet unaffected. The ban comes three months after President Obama signed legislation giving the F.D.A. the authority for the first time to regulate...

Indian smoke shops are feeling the heat NEW YORK - After doing time for possession and an accidental killing, crack dealer Rodney Morrison decided he was finished with drugs. He threw himself a "retirement" party in 1993 and got into a new line of work: tax-free cigarettes. It was a business operating in a gray area of the law, and the riches were enormous. Within a decade, the smoke shop Morrison opened on Long Island's little Poospatuck Indian Reservation had become one of the state's biggest dealers in untaxed cigarettes. Other drug dealers soon took note and followed him into...

Put down that coffee, and come out with your hands up! The owner of a Financial District tobacco shop was amazed to learn he was violating the law by offering his customers a free cup of joe while they legally puffed away on his cigars. Vince Nastri III, the third-generation owner of Barclay Rex -- where bankers, City Hall staffers, lawyers and detectives smoke while sitting in plush leather chairs or browsing in the walk-in humidor -- complained that the city is "trying to take away my livelihood over a cop of coffee." Health officials had no problem with all...

San Diego Chargers fans who smoke say they are fuming over a new smoking ban sprung on them without notice. Fans can no longer light up in formerly designated smoking areas inside Qualcomm Stadium, the Chargers' home, which is owned by the city, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Tuesday. The only public notice of the new rule came at the end of a long news release posted on the team's Web site before its first pre-season game, the newspaper said. Chargers officials will provide more information about the ban at a news conference before the Chargers' next home pre-season game...

RICHMOND, Va. -- Something unusual is cropping up alongside the tomatoes, eggplant and okra in Scott Byars' vegetable garden - the elephantine leaves of 30 tobacco plants. Driven largely by ever-rising tobacco prices, he's among a growing number of smokers who have turned to their green thumbs to cultivate tobacco plants to blend their own cigarettes, cigars and chew. Byars normally pays $5 for a five-pack of cigars and $3 for a tin of snuff; the seed cost him $9. "I want to get to where I don't have to go to the store and buy tobacco, but I'll just...

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration tapped a Veterans Affairs official with a long history of public-health experience to head the agency's new tobacco division. Lawrence Deyton was the chief public-health officer at the VA and initiated smoking-cessation programs that lowered smoking rates among veterans. He has served in the National Institutes of Health, started a community-based AIDS service organization in Washington, D.C., and was a legislative aide with the House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment in the 1970s. His experience at building public-health initiatives should come in handy as the FDA grapples with how to regulate the...

*[EXCERPTED]* "...The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act allows the FDA to...control an industry ... Opponents from...N. Carolina argued that the FDA had proved through a series of food safety failures that it was not up to the job of regulation..."

In the grand scheme of things, Donny Deutsch's radical prescription for health care might not count for much. Just a former-ad-man-turned-pundit spouting off. But let's consider. Deutsch is well-off and presumably harbors no electoral ambitions. He is free to say whatever's on his mind. And he is immersed in the liberal media-political culture. Is Deutsch giving voice to the radicalism that Obama/Pelosi/Waxman harbor but dare not fully express? Appearing on Morning Joe today, Deutsch offered a two-part plan for health care: 1. Make the rich pay for it: "I'm an extremist. I'm for redistribution of wealth." 2. "Outlaw tobacco." View...

"ANY USE OF TOBACCO WHILE IN UNIFORM SHOULD BE PROHIBITED!" Thats what the medical institute report to the Pentagon concludes. Brian Wise, executive director of Military Families United, decried even the discussion of such a ban. "With all the issues facing our military today and the risks our troops take to protect our freedom, banning smoking should not even be on the radar screen," Wise said in a written statement Wednesday. "Nobody doubts the effects of smoking, but it is not an illegal substance and should not be banned," he said. "Our troops make enough sacrifices to serve our nation....

As taxes on cigarettes have climbed in some jurisdictions, the shipping of untaxed smokes has become big business, authorities say. For example, New York City slaps $1.50 onto the state's $2.75 cigarette tax, and in Fairfax County the state and local tax combined is 80 cents. Meanwhile, Chinese counterfeiters have seized the opportunity for profit and have been flooding the market with hundreds of millions of fake cigarettes, according to U.S. Customs estimates.

Mail Order Tobacco And the Global War On Terror The good news is that the Democrat-controlled Congress is finally taking the fight to Hamas, Hezballah and Al Qaeda! In a blow sure to bring these terrorist groups to their knees, the House overwhelmingly, yet quietly, passed H.R. 1676 on the 21st of May. This bill was sent to the Senate, where it is also likely to pass. There it is known as the “Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009” – that’s ‘PACT’ for short. The .pdf for this bill is here It’s a relatively small bill, at only 74...

Wow. And I thought we were supposed to smoke for the children. I can't believe this isn't some type of joke, but there it is in USA Today. Pentagon health experts are urging Defense Secretary Robert Gates to ban the use of tobacco by troops and end its sale on military property, a change that could dramatically alter a culture intertwined with smoking. Jack Smith, head of the Pentagon's office of clinical and program policy, says he will recommend that Gates adopt proposals by a federal study that cites rising tobacco use and higher costs for the Pentagon and Department...

Currently running: Should the U.S. military ban tobacco use? Yes 31% 21697 No 69% 47193 Total Votes: 68890

Link only: Ban on tobacco urged in military

WASHINGTON — Did you know that the Pentagon is urging Defense Secretary Robert Gates to ban tobacco use by troops? A quick google news search for "Smoking" and "Military" will give you the skinny.

On Monday, President Barack Obama signed into law the nation’s strongest ever anti-smoking law. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act will ban flavored forms of tobacco — with the exception of menthol-flavored cigarettes. Now, some observers are asking whether the Congressional Black Caucus’s close ties to the cigarette industry may have played a role in the menthol exemption. Menthol-flavored cigarettes are by far the most popular form of flavored tobacco in the United States. Menthol cigarettes account for some 30 percent of the U.S. cigarette market and are preferred by almost 75 percent of black smokers.

PRINCETON, N.J., June 22 (UPI) -- A majority of Americans, especially smokers, said they disapprove of new laws expanding the government's regulatory power over tobacco, a poll indicated. By 52 percent to 46 percent, more respondents said they don't like the idea of government having greater authority over tobacco products, a Gallup Poll released Monday indicated. Congress last week passed such a measure last week. The poll indicated 69 percent of smokers said they disapproved, while 28 percent said they favored the broader government oversight. Views among non-smokers were closer, with 50 percent indicating approval and 48 percent indicating disapproval,...

President Obama signed landmark legislation Monday giving the Food and Drug Administration new power to regulate the manufacturing, marketing and sale of tobacco. President Obama says the new law "represents change that's been decades in the making." The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act gives the FDA power to ban candy-flavored and fruit-flavored cigarettes, widely considered appealing to first-time smokers, including youths. It also prohibits tobacco companies from using terms such as "low tar," "light" or "mild," requires larger warning labels on packages, and restricts advertising of tobacco products. It also requires tobacco companies to reduce levels of nicotine...

“Whether the issue is health care, the financial sector, groceries, or gasoline, our focus must be to create more appropriate rules, not just more rules. Time spent dotting I’s and crossing T’s on forms in triplicate is time that isn’t spent treating patients or brainstorming the innovations of tomorrow.” Congressman Tom Price, M. D. (R-Georgia) and Chair of the Republican Study Committee on the new tobacco regulations and their impact on so-called health-care reform. Late last week, the Congress showed how easily they can be swayed to vote against our best interests. As expected, the House of Representatives voted 307-97...

Several states and the District of Columbia are tracking down smokers who buy cheaper cigarettes out of their jurisdictions and have even begun tax-collection procedures that can end in liens put against the offender's property. Ohio and Pennsylvania have been particularly aggressive in trying to collect money from smokers who dodge local tobacco taxes by purchasing cigarettes online, from Indian reservations or from states with lower taxes. In the District, the Office of Tax and Revenue has mailed notices demanding that cigarette buyers pay the D.C. sales tax on their past purchases via the Consumer Use tax return - an...

The jobs are risky, but very lucrative for those willing to take the risks, and require no previous experience or special training. Almost anyone with a driver's license (or at least the ability to drive) can do this job. How did Obama do it? What People Who Don't Smoke Look Like A recent Senate vote brought tobacco under the regulation of the FDA. The effort, spearheaded by Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., in the Senate and Calif. Democrat Henry Waxman in the House (no doubt because of their medical expertise—Kennedy, for example, is considered the government's chief expert on alcohol consumption)....

Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN) compares smoking tobacco with smoking lettuce.

Last week, another bill was passed and signed into law that takes more of our freedoms and violates the Constitution of the United States. It was, of course, done for the sake of the children, and in the name of the health of the citizenry. It’s always the case that when your liberty is seized, it is seized for your own good. Such is the condescension of Washington. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act will give sweeping new powers over tobacco to the FDA. It will require everyone engaged in manufacturing, preparing, compounding, or processing tobacco to register...

One of the simple pleasures of life I enjoy is to watch the sunrise with a cup of coffee and a smoke. For me, it’s a time of reflection and thanks giving as I enjoy the view of the small lake and surrounding woods from my apartment balcony. Even on those days when the rain is pouring or the snow falling I thank the Lord for His awesome and marvelous creation I am allowed to imbibe with my coffee and cigar. The sunshine, the rain, the snow, the coffee bean and the tobacco leaf are all part of God’s creation...

Asked if the president still smoked, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama has "a struggle with nicotine addiction" every day. Obama has a long history of smoking and a photo emerged of him during the campaign trail smoking as far back as college. During the presidential campaign, he chewed nicorette chewing gum in an effort to kick the habit. Gibbs said he "assumed" the president still chewed the nicorette. The president dodged questions at the start of his administration about whether he was still lighting up. The struggle to quit is one millions of Americans face, and Obama praised...

WASHINGTON -- A bill allowing the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco is on the way to the White House for President Barack Obama's signature. A day after the Senate overwhelmingly approved the measure, the House passed it Friday on a 307-97 vote. (See related article.) Mr. Obama said the legislation gives the government much greater power to regulate tobacco "truly defines change in Washington." The president spoke in the Rose Garden Friday and promised to sign the bill. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Thursday that her agency looked forward to implementing it.

Associated Press-June 12, 2009 "Today Congress sent legislation to the Whte House which woul give the Federal Government vast new powers to regulate and restrict cigarettes..."

The FDA to the Rescue; You're Children are now Safe! The Senate approved legislation Thursday that would give the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco for the first time." Feel any better now? I am quite confident that when this bill is passed and the FDIC has authority over "big Tobacco" - this endeavor will be hugely successful. That is if you define success by the number of billions of dollars that will be siphoned off into the back pockets of the elected imbeciles and their cronies over a period of years. How?..."

Senate moves forward with government tobacco takeover By Michelle Malkin  •  June 11, 2009 05:33 PM Photoshop credit: Mike On June 2, I called attention to the Democrats’ plans to complete a government tobacco takeover.The next step took place today while America slept. Another day, another industry grab: Congress struck the government’s strongest anti-smoking blow in decades Thursday with a Senate vote to give regulators new power to limit nicotine in cigarettes, drastically curtail ads and ban candied tobacco products aimed at young people.Cigarette foes say the changes could cut into the 400,000 deaths every year caused by smoking and reduce the...

The Senate approved landmark legislation today that would give the government sweeping new power to oversee tobacco, a centuries-old product used by 20 percent of Americans yet largely unregulated in this country.

Arizona Sen. John McCain voted for a bill Thursday allowing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco, while fellow Sen. Jon Kyl said no. The bill would give the FDA the power to regulate tobacco and cigarettes for the first time. The Senate voted 79 to 17 Thursday for the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. President Barack Obama supports the bill. Obama and Congress approved a large increase to the federal tobacco tax earlier this year to fund expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides health coverage to uninsured minors.

The American Spectator has a good roundup of all the recent legislative activity to extend tobacco regulations. Another regulation possibly on its way concerns a completely tobacco-less product: the so-called "electronic cigarettes." I was not familiar with e-cigarettes, but the basic idea is this: it looks like a cigarette, delivers nicotine like a cigarette, and even puffs "smoke" like a cigarette (actually water vapor.) But an e-cigarette doesn't have any of the tobacco or additives of a cigarette. It's just a battery-charged cartridge. That's why it's promoted as a safer alternative for people addicted to smoking. But some people aren't...

Years in the Making, Senate Votes to Give FDA Power to Regulate TobaccoTimes have changed now that even tobacco states have smoking bans. Today, after two weeks of wrangling and a decade of considering the change, the U.S. Senate endorsed increased regulation of tobacco. Senators voted 79-17 to regulate tobacco in the same way the government regulates everything else you put in your body -- from Froot Loops to aspirin. Watch "World News With Charles Gibson" tonight at 6:30 ET for the full report. At Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, organization president Matthew L. Myers called the vote "a truly historic...

After 11 years, three presidents and millions of dollars in lobbying by worried cigarette makers, Congress is poised to put the tobacco industry under the regulation of the Food and Drug Administration. Passage of the tobacco legislation will mark a big victory for Altria Inc., parent of Philip Morris USA, because it includes new restrictions on advertising and packaging that will make it difficult for other companies to gain attention for their brands. Smaller companies such as Lorillard Inc. and Reynolds American Inc. contend that the legislation will create a new barrier of FDA red tape and make it difficult...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Major US, Canadian and British life and health insurance companies have billions of dollars invested in tobacco companies, a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine said. Wesley Boyd, the study's lead author, found that at least 4.4 billion dollars in insurance company funds are invested in companies whose affiliates produce cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco. "Despite calls upon the insurance industry to get out of the tobacco business by physicians and others, insurers continue to put their profits above people's health," said Boyd, a faculty member of Harvard Medical School. "It's clear their...

Sen. Tom Coburn, who is also a medical doctor, is calling for an outright ban on the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products. "What we should be doing is banning tobacco," the Oklahoma Republican declared on the Senate floor during a debate on a tobacco regulation bill. "Nobody up here has the courage to do that. It is a big business. There are millions of Americans who are addicted to nicotine." The battle against tobacco use has been ongoing. Earlier this year Congress passed legislation that included an increase in the federal tax on cigarettes of more than 60...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) expressed his frustration with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) Thursday evening for holding up a wide-ranging tobacco regulation bill. McCain has delayed action by insisting on a vote on an amendment to ease the re-importation of prescription drugs from foreign countries such as Canada. Reid claims the amendment is not germane and has resisted giving in to McCain, creating a logjam on the Senate floor. “One senator has held this up and that's the way things can happen around here,” said Reid. “It's unfortunate, but it does happen. “We've worked for a couple of days...

Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) to provide for the regulation of tobacco products by the Secretary of Health and Human Services through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Tacked onto this bill: Subtitle B - Other Retirement-Related Provisions Special Survivor Indemnity Allowance for Surviving Spouses of Armed Forces Members

Earlier today, the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions fell short on passing an amendment offered by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) that would have placed medical marijuana under the same restrictions that the Senate is attempting to place on tobacco through the FDA. In a release from Americans for Limited Government, President Bill Wilson said the following: “This vote proves out and out that Senate Democrats are not concerned about health at all. Both tobacco and marijuana are weeds, both are smoked, both are carcinogenic, and yet the Senate Committee on Health has seen fit to...

Pakistan should implement already existing anti-tobacco laws to protect people from the tobacco epidemic, especially as the country has signed the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control — requiring signatories to post ‘health warnings describing the harmful effects of tobacco use’ on cigarette packets and recommending that pictures form part of the warnings. This is what experts recommended at a seminar organised by Aga Khan University (AKU) in collaboration with the Pakistan Chest Society, the National Alliance for Tobacco Control and Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) to commemorate World No Tobacco Day and its 2009 theme ‘Tobacco Health Warnings,’ APP...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Friday largely agreed with a landmark ruling that found cigarette makers deceived the public for decades about the heath hazards of smoking. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington upheld the major elements of a 2006 ruling that found the nation's top tobacco companies guilty of fraud and violating racketeering laws. The ruling said manufacturers must change the way they market cigarettes. It bans labels such as "low tar,""light,""ultra light" or "mild," since such cigarettes have been found to be no safer than others because of how people smoke them. It also...

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- A bill giving the Food and Drug Administration power to regulate tobacco products won approval from a key U.S. Senate panel Wednesday, clearing the way for a full Senate vote.

Gov. Charlie Crist said Tuesday he's ready to hit smokers up for a buck a pack more. Get ready to pay more for smoking cigarettes in Florida. Gov. Charlie Crist unequivocally stated Tuesday that he will allow a $1-a-pack tax to become law. ''The cigarette tax is appropriate and I really view it more as a health issue than I do as a tax issue,'' Crist said. Crist had signaled weeks ago that he would accept the so-called ''tobacco surcharge,'' but then he signed a no-new-taxes pledge last week that renewed the prospect that he might veto the increase. A...

For the first time, consumers can actually take a look at how electronic cigarettes are produced in China. New Smoke has published pictures of it's production in Shenzhen. Will this be the future alternative to tobacco?