Three Sioux Falls tobacco shops raided Wednesday were among the more than 100 targets of a massive, nationwide synthetic drug sweep, federal prosecutors have confirmed.
Local officers assisted the Drug Enforcement Administration with the raids, as agents seized cash, property and product from Roll With It stores at 5213 W. 12th St., 700 S. Minnesota Ave. and 1205 E. Benson Road. Ream more »
Like a sugar-starved child standing before a candy dispenser, a customer at V & K Smoke Shop in Quincy marvels at the 5-foot-tall, square machine churning out sticks of tobacco. The machine spits out a cigarette every 3 seconds.
“You can’t beat it,” Keith Morrison of West Roxbury said while watching the cigarettes fall from a chute into a white, plastic bucket. “I mean, they’re perfectly packed all the way to the filter.” Ream more »
A common complaint of smokers is the seemingly rocketing price of a pack of smokes. The habit is expensive, made more so by mounting taxes on tobacco products.
In response to consistent price increases on product, the market’s responded with a relatively new business model for tobacco shops. You might think of it as the Build-A-Bear model: stores that provide the materials and means to create a carton of smokes, but do not sell manufactured cigarettes. The result is a cost savings of roughly half what a consumer might normally pay for a pack or carton. Ream more »
Certain legislators are huffing and puffing about a bill, currently matriculating through the Legislature that would regulate and enforce taxes on roll-your-own cigarette retailers.
Rep. Ross Hunter (D – 48th District, Bellevue) proposed the second substitute to House Bill 2565 that was recommended out of the Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 27 with a 19-8 vote.
The measure that passed out of committee requires roll-your-own cigarette retailers to become certified and pay an annual certification fee of $100. Retailers must also purchase tax stamps to enforce the collection of taxes on tobacco products. Ream more »
One Stop Shop, at 237 Main St., was shut down after the end of a long-term multiagency police investigation into the illegal sale and distribution of untaxed tobacco, the Johnson City Police Department said Friday.
The Johnson City police and New York State Department of Taxation and Finance’s Petroleum, Alcohol and Tobacco Bureau seized a “large quantity” of untaxed tobacco and cigars from the business.
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The Tooele City Planning Commission gave an affirmative nod to a new ordinance that restricts the location of smoke shops in Tooele at their meeting Wednesday evening.
After a brief public hearing, the planning commission voted 6-1 to advance the ordinance to the city council with a favorable recommendation. The 30-page zoning ordinance bans any new tobacco shops within 1,500 feet of any school, park, recreational facility, youth center, library, church, other tobacco store, residential area or area zoned for residential use. The ordinance also forbids any such shops on Vine Street.
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Earlier this year, a new corner store opened directly across the street from Tahoe Elementary School in Sacramento, its prominent sign clearly visible from the school’s playground and athletic fields.
The sign leaves no doubt as to the store’s primary product. Cigarettes and More on Broadway is one of 104 shops in the city with a tobacco license that is within 1,000 feet of a school, according to a city analysis. Two blocks down Broadway, another shop, Cigarettes and Cigars, opened in 2010, across the street from a 7-Eleven that also sells tobacco products. Ream more »
In a survey conducted by an NGO in city schools found that 82% of schools have tobacco and tobacco product selling shops in the radius of 100 yards. The sale of tobacco products in the radius of 100 yards is prohibited and punishable. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hasplanned adrive to stop this menace.
Minister of state of FDA Satej Patil held a review meeting on Wednesday to take stock of the implementation of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Regulation Act (COTPA) under which action is taken against the shopkeepers selling tobacco products in the vicinity of the schools. Ream more »
A BAN on the sale of cigarettes from vending machines will come into force on February 1 in Wales. A similar ban was introduced in England this month.
The Welsh Government last night said the ban would cut off a source of tobacco teenagers.
One in 10 regular smokers aged 11 to 15, say they buy their cigarettes from vending machines.
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Pittsburgh police said a Steubenville Pike cigarette shop was robbed Sunday for the second time in less than three months.
About 5 p.m., Robinson Township police said a man wearing a ski mask went inside the Smoker Friendly store with a gun and demanded cash and two cartons of cigarettes.
“My employee called me about five minutes after closing time to let me know she was robbed,” Smoker Friendly manager Tami Schuck said. Ream more »