Tobacco News

The City Council is set to consider new regulations in city parks that include banning smoking and could require permits for “any games” played in the city’s 73 parks.
The smoking law would forbid smoking within 100 feet of parks and beaches and also ban the disposal of tobacco products. Groups could apply for smoking permits for their activities.

The law would also require trainers and instructors using parks for commercial classes to get permits. Ream more »

Illinois officials say the recession, which hit in December 2007 — and not just a statewide smoking ban implemented in 2008 — played a significant role in the decline of revenue that state’s gaming facilities.

But still, risking a decline in gaming revenues by enacting a comprehensive smoking ban that includes Casino Aztar may cause the Evansville City Council to shy away from including the riverboat in a proposed expansion of the city’s smoking ordinance.
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A hookah bar may run as a nightclub but shouldn’t sell alcohol on site, the planning commission recommended Tuesday.

Owners of Ali Baba Hookah Bar, 923 Berryville Ave., sought a conditional use permit for a nightclub to allow live music and karaoke.

The owners also sought to revise the original permit, approved in May, to remove a restriction on the sale of alcoholic beverages.
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A multi-agency fraud investigation resulted in arrests at two Daytona Beach shops on Tuesday, where authorities say clerks allowed customers to buy alcohol and cigarettes with food stamps.

Investigators say the fraud involved the improper use of plastic EBT cards issued as part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program. The cards are supposed to be used for food and non-alcoholic beverages, but when authorities sent an informant into two Daytona Beach convenience stores, they were able to buy other goods. Ream more »

Government regulators and their enablers in Congress, always on the prowl to target industries for ever-more oppressive regulations and higher taxes, are now focusing on the venerable “good cigar” eloquently extolled by Rudyard Kipling and many other connoisseurs of a “good smoke.”

Since the mid-1960s, tobacco has been one of the big-government nannies’ favorite targets. While anti-tobacconists have scored only sporadic victories in the courts over the past few decades, that is partly due to the fact that until 2009, when Congress passed the “Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act,” tobacco was not lawfully regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents seized more than 300 pounds of abandoned marijuana, which had an estimated value in excess $155,000, on Saturday afternoon.

According to Agent Spencer Tippets, of the Yuma Sector Public Affairs Office, Wellton Station agents assigned to Camp Desert Grip, Yuma Sector’s forward operating base, discovered the 14 bundles of abandoned marijuana near the Sierra Pinta Mountains. Ream more »

A bill that would have banned public use of e-cigarettes and hookah pipes hit a snag Monday, as House members balked at a bill that would have shut down a Utah hookah bar without compelling data.

“I really hate to make a state policy based upon — even the sponsor of the bill’s own statement — that we really don’t have good data,” said Rep. Richard Greenwood, R-Roy.

Under current law, individuals can use a hookah pipe or electronic cigarettes anywhere because the Utah Indoor Clean Air Act bans combustion of tobacco, and hookahs and e-cigarettes don’t burn the material.
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The emergency legislation proposed by D.C. Council member Vincent B. Orange (D-at large) to limit the number of marijuana cultivation sites and dispensaries, as well as adult entertainment venues, in each ward is a fine example of lazy politicking trumping good policy. Mr. Orange seems to be playing on perceived Ward 5 fears that such establishments will turn Northeast into a sort of red-light quadrant riven with criminal activity. Ream more »

When Virginia and a number of other states reached a legal settlement with the cigarette industry more than a decade ago, part of the deal was at least to put some of that money into tobacco-prevention programs. Those programs included efforts to expose young people — and adults — to the health hazards of smoking and using other tobacco products.

Virginia, in fact, has a statewide youth tobacco-prevention program managed by a foundation that received a portion of the state’s share of the 1998 national tobacco settlement.
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A proposed city-wide smoking ban took center stage at the Evansville City Council meeting Monday evening.

Supporters say it will save in health insurance costs, but Casino Aztar representatives say a ban could mean millions is lost revenue and nearly 300 jobs lost.

It was a sea of red at Monday’s city council meeting. Riverboat workers like Gordon Jones asked council members to exempt Casino Aztar from a proposed city-wide smoking ban. Ream more »