Postal Service set to enforce tobacco ban

The U. S. Postal Service will institute its ban on the mailing of almost all tobacco products June 29, the agency said in a set of rules that appear to leave Seneca Nation businesses with no loopholes for mailing their tax-free cigarettes.

“Nonmailable cigarettes and smokeless tobacco deposited in the mail are subject to seizure and forfeiture,” the rules say. “Senders of nonmailable cigarettes or smokeless tobacco are subject to criminal fines, imprisonment and civil penalties.”

Under the Prevent All Cigarette

“It’s going to cost us a lot of jobs and a lot of revenue, not only on the reservation but in the surrounding communities.” J. C. Seneca, Seneca tribal councillor

Trafficking Act, which Congress passed and President Obama signed earlier this year, the mailing of almost all tobacco products must be banned.

The rules spelled out by the Postal Service, based on that legislation and released last week, provide for only narrow exceptions.

Tobacco companies can ship products to each other “for business purposes,” or to state or federal agen-

cies “for regulatory purposes.”

Adults can infrequently send lightweight tobacco packages to each other, and intrastate shipments within Alaska and Hawaii are allowed.

Tobacco companies can send cigarettes to adults for consumer testing purposes, and federal agencies can ship tobacco products for public health purposes.

The Senecas, who have built big businesses on the sale of tax-free cigarettes through the U. S. mail, do not believe there is any wiggle room in the regulations that would allow them to continue mailing cigarettes.

“Certainly anybody in this business has to be very aware” of the regulations, said J. C. Seneca, a Seneca tribal councillor and co-chairman of the Seneca Nation’s Foreign Relations Committee. “You don’t want to be held to penalties or charges.”

Opponents of the Senecas’ tax-free cigarette sales are happy with the rules.

“The Postal Service is taking this seriously and trying to do what the law says,” said Eric Lindblom, director of policy research at the Campaign for Tobacco- Free Kids.

Lindblom said he was particularly encouraged that rules allow only a very narrow loophole allowing individuals to mail small quantities of tobacco to each other.

Under the rules, anyone receiving such a package will have to go to a post office to pick it up—meaning postal officials will be able to tell if that person is old enough to buy cigarettes.

In addition to banning the mailing of most tobacco products, the new law requires online cigarette sellers to:

• Pay all federal, state, local or tribal tobacco taxes and affix tax stamps before delivering any tobacco products to any customer.

• Register with the state where they are based and make periodic reports to state tax-collection officials.

• Check the age and ID of customers when they purchase tobacco and when the tobacco products are delivered.

Seneca said the Postal Service regulations are one of several steps that have to take place as the law is implemented. The Department of Justice and its Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also are involved.

Meanwhile, the Seneca Nation Council has authorized $250,000 in funding to the Seneca Free Trade Association to pursue legal action aimed at stopping the law from being implemented, Seneca said.

With any legal action in its formative stages, the Senecas are bracing for a radical change to an industry that has made some of its tribal entrepreneurs wealthy, while providing jobs to many others. The tribe at first said its tobacco entrepreneurs employed 1,000, but later, without explanation, boosted that figure to 3,000.

“It’s going to cost us a lot of jobs and a lot of revenue, not only on the reservation but in the surrounding communities,” Seneca said of the new law.

Crack down on stores selling tobacco to minors

By Shirley Manzo

I lost my dear dad to lung cancer due to cigarettes. He became addicted at age 12. It breaks my heart to know that in 2010, there are stores in my city that are making cigarettes and other tobacco products readily available for youth.

Earlier this year our coalition, the Azusa Youth Against Smoking, targeted 48 tobacco retailers in Azusa to identify how many were willing to sell to minors without asking for proper identification. Guess what? Twenty retailers out of 48 were willing to sell smokes to minors. That's an alarming rate of 41.7 percent.

I don't think 5 percent, 10 percent or even 15 percent is an acceptable number, but almost half of our city's tobacco retailers are illegally selling tobacco products to our kids. This is shocking!

Our coalition has been encouraging the city to adopt a tough ordinance that would crack down on tobacco retailers selling to minors. In response, the City Council passed a toothless, unenforceable law that won't keep one child in Azusa from becoming addicted to cigarettes.

That ordinance includes fines for those retailers who willfully sell to minors, but it does not require enforcement or compliance checks. Without compliance checks retailers are free to continue selling to children.

Our coalition wants the city to require an annual permit that requires tobacco retailers to obtain a license to sell tobacco, and include an annual fee that would raise funds to pay for an enforcement officer.

Financial deterrents through fines and penalties, including the suspension and revocation of the license, are what make retailers pay attention and follow the law. Using this approach, as dozens of other cities in Los Angeles county already do, really works.

Apparently the city staff doesn't think keeping kids from buying cigarettes is important. One staffer said, "the PD doesn't have time." Another staffer said the city wants to "avoid imposing another fee" on business. These statements don't stand up under examination.

Azusa businesses have not come out in opposition to a strong ordinance, and the Azusa PD does have time if funds are available to pay the officers. A license fee could be that funding source.

Clearly, we believe something more should be done. And so do 500 petition signers.

Two hundred children become addicted to tobacco in our state every day, joining the nearly 4 million current smokers in California. How many more kids have to become addicted before our city leaders step up and do their job?

Shirley Manzo has lived in Azusa for 45 years and is the chair of Azusa Youth Against Smoking, a local coalition of residents, parents, volunteers, students and community organizations committed to protecting the youth of Azusa from the dangers of tobacco use.

New limits on mailing tobacco to take effect soon

New restrictions on mailing tobacco products are about to take effect.
Under a law signed by President Barack Obama in March, limits will be placed on individuals mailing cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco and smokeless tobacco.
The rules take effect June 29, the Postal Service announced on Thursday.
Mailing these products entirely within the states of Alaska and Hawaii will still be permitted and cigars will still be allowed in the mail.
In addition, the law will still allow mail shipments of tobacco products between businesses in the tobacco industry and mailings to individuals will be permitted for testing or public health purposes.
Individuals will be allowed to send small shipments of tobacco products occasionally, but only via Express Mail and the age of the recipient must be verified, meaning that — other than APO and FPO destinations — they will have to collect the shipment at a postal facility.

Walgreen Suit Over San Francisco Tobacco Ban Revived

Walgreen Co., the largest U.S. drugstore chain, can proceed with a lawsuit challenging San Francisco’s first-in-the-nation law banning sales of tobacco products in some pharmacies, a California appeals court ruled.

The ordinance, passed in 2008 on the premise that drugstore cigarette sales convey tacit approval of smoking, barred tobacco sales at drugstores. The law doesn’t apply to grocery and warehouse stores, including Safeway Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp., that also have pharmacies.

Today’s ruling reversed a San Francisco judge’s decision to dismiss Walgreen’s case. A state appeals court in San Francisco said there’s no rational basis to believe that the message conveyed to consumers by tobacco sales at Walgreen is any different than that from sales at supermarkets or big-box stores.

“We’ve always felt that in order for us to compete on a level playing field, any regulation like that should apply to all pharmacies and retailers with pharmacies equally,” Michael Polzin, a Walgreen spokesman, said in a phone interview.

Walgreen, which claims the city’s law is anticompetitive, can challenge whether the rule violates equal protection rights under the law, the appeals court said in today’s ruling.

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera “will continue to defend efforts by city officials to protect public health,” Matt Dorsey, Herrera’s spokesman, said in an e-mail. “San Francisco has a legitimate and compelling policy rationale to restrict drugstores from selling cigarettes, which are by far our leading cause of preventable death.”

The law, the first such city ordinance in the country, went into effect in October 2008. Walgreen expected to lose about 9 percent of its non-pharmacy sales in San Francisco to competitors as a result of losing customers because of the rule, said Daniel Kolkey, a Walgreen’s attorney, said at the time.

Cigarette To Blame For Fatal Fire

Smoking in bed was the cause of a fire that claimed the life of a Taunton woman early Monday morning, according to State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan and Taunton Fire Chief Ronald Nastri.The fire at 1205 Burt St. was discovered at about 4 a.m. when a resident came home from work. The victim, a woman, was found in the kitchen.

Officials said the fire started in a bedroom, and the said the battery had been removed from the smoke alarm in the home."While the number of fire deaths in Massachusetts has been steadily declining, smoking remains the leading cause of fire deaths here and across the nation.

Fire standard compliant cigarettes are helping to reduce fire deaths, but cannot prevent every smoking-ignited fire," Coan said."I urge each and every resident to test their smoke alarms today, and if you can’t recall the last time you changed the batteries, today might be a good time to do so," Nastri said.The victim's name has not been released.

Study Looks at Test Marketing of New Tobacco Products in Indianapolis

A study of the promotion in the Indianapolis area of R.J. Reynolds' new dissolvable tobacco products found that they are being marketed to current smokers who continue to puff away, but may be looking for an alternative source of nicotine when they can’t light up.

Current smokers who also use dissolvable tobacco may be in effect “doubling up,” said Dr. Laura Romito¸ Clinical Associate Professor of Oral Biology in the IU School of Dentistry’s Department of Oral Biology. They appear to be smoking the same number of cigarettes they smoked in the past and using the new dissolvable products when they are in situations where they can’t smoke.

Given the health risks associated with tobacco, that raises concerns, Romito said.

Tobacco companies view Indianapolis as a good test market for new tobacco products, Romito noted, because of Indiana’s high rate of tobacco use and differing tobacco tastes among Hoosiers.

Dissolvable tobacco products aren’t just new products, they are – as their manufacturer, R.J. Reynolds Co. put it – an evolution in tobacco, Romito said. The dissolvable tobacco simply dissolves in the mouth so that tobacco users no longer have to contend with odor, smoke, spit, or litter.

The dissolvable products are branded as Camel Sticks, Camel Orbs and Camel Strips to denote their three different forms: a toothpick-like stick, a lozenge and an edible strip.
The candy-like appearance of Camel Orbs has led to concerns among health experts who are concerned the products may be attractive to youngsters and lead to early experimentation with tobacco or accidental poisoning among children.

In a field study conducted last January, five undergraduate IUPUI students surveyed how the products were being marketed and where they were being sold in Marion and surrounding counties. They audited a wide variety of advertising media and point-of-purchase displays.
Most of the Camel dissolvable products were being sold in gas stations and convenience stores, with smaller amounts sold in grocery stores, drug stores, tobacco shops and liquor stores.

The students also surveyed about 300 people, including 100 dental hygiene patients, 100 School of Dentistry dental hygiene students, and 100 business school students at IUPUI.
According to the results, few had heard of the new products or knew anything about them, while only three percent had tried them. Most of the respondents didn’t believe the products would be safer to use than cigarettes and only 17 percent thought they would help people quit smoking.
Advertising used to promote the products appeared relatively low-key and not particularly attractive to young people, Romito said.

“What we gleaned from the field study was that so far the new products are not well known to consumers, even when they are smokers,” she said, and sales of the products appeared slow.

Altria to pay $971 million in taxes, interest to IRS

Reuters) - Altria Group Inc (MO.N) said it will pay $971 million in taxes and interests to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to settle a dispute over the company's tax returns for the years 2000 through 2003.

About $946 million of the payment is related to certain leveraged leasing transactions entered into by Altria's wholly owned unit, Philip Morris Capital Corp, in the 1996 through 2003 taxable years.

The maker of Marlboro cigarettes and Skoal smokeless tobacco will make the payment in the third quarter, it said in a regulatory filing.

The largest U.S. tobacco company said will not revise its 2010 earnings outlook as a result of these matters, it said.

Shares of the company closed at $20.12 in regular session on the New York Stock Exchange.

Ban underage smoking

World No Tobacco Day is observed every year on May 31, but Pakistan has a long way to go to end the fight against smoking. Currently, 25 million people in Pakistan are smokers according to the Ministry of Health. In an interview to a local daily, the Director-General, Tobacco Control Cell Yusuf Khan stated that over 1,200 children under the age of 18 begin smoking every day in Pakistan.

Although a new ad campaign has been launched which discourages the sale of cigarettes to underage smokers, but whether or not this campaign makes an impact is yet to be seen. One such ad campaign was posted outside a paan khoka/cabin, but when I spoke to the paan wala, he obviously didn’t know much about it. When asked if he does sell cigarettes to underage smokers, he reponded by saying that he hasn’t come across such a case but he would certainly think about it in the future. It is a known fact that children can easily purchase tobacco products from anywhere without any repercussions.

The onus isn’t on the Pakistan Tobacco Company, it lies with the government. By just putting up stickers and posters asking people to not sell tobacco products to underage children is not the solution, the campaign has to be pursued aggressively, with large fines on anyone who does so otherwise.