Tobacco News

The Wisconsin Department of Revenue has put roll-your-own cigarette businesses – including one in Mauston – on notice that they are manufacturers and distributors and must pay appropriate excise taxes.
Paying those taxes, and meeting a requirement that they sell at least half the cigarettes they produce to other vendors, would obliterate the business model of RYO stores operating in Mauston, Reedsburg, Portage, Baraboo and Wisconsin Dells.
RYO stores – the department estimates there are 50 to 100 in Wisconsin – operate on the rationale that they are not selling manufactured cigarettes, but rather are selling components such as tobacco and tubes and then renting time on jukebox-sized machines that put all the pieces together to create “smokes.” Ream more »

The Cass County Board held a second reading and approved amendments to the county tobacco ordinance Tuesday. The revised ordinance takes effect Nov. 15.

The board also set a fee schedule for violations of the ordinance, which for the first time will hold employees selling tobacco products to underage people liable as well as the license holder.

Clerks and employees will now be charged $50 per violation if they sell to minors.
Ream more »

Faced with a proposal to ban tobacco from all school district property, the School Board opted to butt out.

The comprehensive tobacco-free policy, advocated by the state Department of Health, would forbid smoking and other forms of tobacco use on all district property, including athletic fields and parking lots.

That would have meant snuffing out all tobacco use not just on school campuses but also on other property where students rarely or never go, such as the maintenance office and the district administration headquarters in Brooksville. Ream more »

Palo Alto voters will face several weighty questions in November 2012. Does President Barack Obama deserve another term? How about the four city council members who will be up for re-election?
Add to that list whether medical marijuana dispensaries should be allowed to set up shop in Palo Alto.
With little discussion, the council decided 7-0 early Tuesday morning to put the issue in front of voters, after a citizens’ initiative to open three cannabis clubs received enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. Ream more »

BRIMBANK Council has no plans to impose smoking bans in public outdoor spaces, but it has not ruled out changes in future.
The Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) is calling on the state government to adopt a statewide approach to smoking in outdoor public places, including bans in alfresco dining areas and children’s playgrounds.

Cancer Council Victoria research shows 63 per cent of people want smoking banned on beaches and 77 per cent believe smoking shouldn’t be allowed in outdoor areas around children.
Ream more »

The Department of Corrections is congratulating itself on the success of its new smoke free policy in prisons.
But officers enforcing the policy say that is partly because prisoners kicking the habit are being treated to personal trainers, new gym equipment, games and yoga lessons.
For some people, going to the gym is comparable to going to jail but now going to jail is getting more like the gym. Ream more »

The Indian tobacco industry is eyeing China as a potential importer of Flue Cured Virginia (FCV) grown in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. A delegation of Tobacco Board officials and traders, led by Board Chairman G. Kamala Vardhana Rao, recently visited China to study the farming, curing and trading patterns of tobacco.

Sharing the details of the four-day trip with journalists here on Monday, Mr. Rao said the China Tobacco Monopoly Administration (CTMA), the nodal agency, has expressed its willingness to resume tobacco trading with India.
Ream more »

E cigarette smoking has allowed several smoking enthusiasts from across the globe to relish a tobacco free smoking experience. Nonetheless, the fact remains that a certain section of the society, which apparently is ruled by the tobacco lobby have been trying to put a shop to these seemingly unstoppable smoke free devices.

In a bizarre turn of events, it was ascertained that despite having official and financial support, tobacco lobbyists failed to put electronic cigarettes in shackles. Apparently, the clean and fair nature of e cigs always came to their rescue in the time of crisis. Ream more »

A startling revelation seems to have hit the smoking front. Recently, the UCLA analysts have disclosed that companies were apparently aware that cigarette smoke comprised radioactive alpha particles for almost more than 4 decades and its cancerous attributes but chose to keep mum.

An extensive analysis of the documents from the tobacco industry since 1998 showed that the industry knew the presence of radioactive materials in cigarettes 5 years earlier than initially assumed. Also, investigations to gauge its lung cancer risk had begun right from the 1960s.
Ream more »

Of late, smokers are being exposed to a variety of methods to help quit their habit, one of them being electronic cigarettes. Now, a study conducted by experts from the Cancer Research U.K has disclosed that the nicotine substitute cytisine which is commercially sold as Tabex could raise the chances of a person giving up the habit of smoking by 3 folds for a minimum of 1 year.
Ream more »