Tobacco registration renewals approaching

Licensed tobacco dealers in the Cayman Islands have until Tuesday, 1 November, to renew their registration to sell the product in 2012.

Annual renewal fees are $500 for a retailer; $750 for a cigar bar and $5,000 for a wholesale distributor or importer.

Applications submitted after 1 November will draw late fees. If no application is received by 31 January, a dealer will forfeit its licence for 12 months before submitting a new application.

“Everyone dealing with tobacco must register annually and display the Certificate of Registration,” said Dr. Kiran Kumar, Medical Officer of Health.

The documents needed for renewal of registration include a renewal application form; a current Trade and Business License Certificate; and, if there were any changes in dealership since the last registration, such as contact information, location, ownership or trade of products, an application for registration as a tobacco dealer.

Applications submitted after 1 November, but before 31 December will bring a penalty of an extra 50 per cent of the registration cost. Applications submitted between 1 and 31 January will draw a late fee of 100 per cent the registration cost.

Last year, the Cayman Islands government registered 138 tobacco dealers.

“Business owners have been very accommodating of the changes and we hope to see this trend continue,” said Mark Scotland, Minister of Health. “If anyone has any doubts about the legislation, or if anyone is still selling tobacco products without a registration certificate, please contact the Public Health Department to avoid prosecution.”

New tobacco ordinance further limits youth access

to limit youths' access to tobacco in Oakdale are increasing due to requirements of the Tobacco Modernization and Compliance Act passed last year by the Minnesota Legislature.

The city council unanimously approved an amendment to its ordinance that regulates businesses with tobacco licenses last week.

Changes to the ordinance include prohibiting indoor smoking at any business with a tobacco license, including for the purpose of sampling products.

In the past the city has found it difficult to enforce if people at the businesses were sampling products or just smoking indoors, so the ordinance prohibits both practices, said Oakdale police officer Karen Haines.

There are 18 businesses that have licenses to sell tobacco in Oakdale, with three that only sell tobacco and tobacco-related products, Haines said. The others are liquor stores, gas stations, pharmacies and grocery stores, she said.

The three stores, which collect at least 90 percent of their revenue from the sale of tobacco and tobacco products, are required to display a visible sign prohibiting anyone under 18 from shopping there, according to the amended ordinance.

The ordinance also prohibits self-service by customers to access any products without the assistance of an employee. But, Haines said, the businesses with at least 90 percent of their revenue from tobacco and tobacco-product sales are an exception to that rule, as long as minors are not allowed in the business.

Haines said most of the businesses with a tobacco license already comply with the ordinance changes, and received a copy before the council vote last Tuesday. .

The police department will have inspections of the businesses to ensure compliance and notified each license holder of the process, Haines said.

"I don't think it is going to affect any usual course of business for these license holders," she said.

Overall, she added, the state law changes are beneficial in Oakdale.

"It is a benefit to the community and does assist with the concerns that the community may have as far as youth access so the city does have that interest in complying with the state law," Haines said.

National Study Will Track Tobacco Use in U.S.

Findings will guide FDA in creating programs, policies to eliminate smoking
A large, national study on how new government regulations affect smoking and other tobacco use and people's understanding about the risks was announced Thursday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Researchers will follow more than 40,000 people, aged 12 and older, who use cigarettes and other tobacco products or are at risk.

Tobacco prevention efforts paying off

No one is declaring victory in the battle to keep tobacco products out of the hands of teenagers.

But the trend is unmistakably clear: Young people are smoking less and efforts to limit their access to cigarettes are making headway.

The latest indication that strides are being made in the fight against teen smoking is a recent report from re:TH!NK, the Lakeshore Tobacco Prevention Network.

The multi-jurisdictional coalition comprised of Winnebago, Door, Kewaunee, Manitowoc and Sheboygan counties, said the level of non-compliance by tobacco retailers during an investigation from January to July of 2011 was 8.1 percent. That compared to a non-compliance rate of 9.6 percent during the same months in 2010.

Tobacco retailers in Winnebago County were overwhelmingly compliant with the law that forbids the sale of tobacco products to minors. Out of 67 attempts by underage teens to buy tobacco, there were only two sales — a non-compliance rate of 3 percent. The 2010 non-compliance rate was 4.8 percent.

"We want to make sure teenagers can't purchase tobacco by themselves," said Emily Dieringer, coordinator of re:TH!NK. "It feels like our efforts are helping."

As part of the compliance process, two youths between the ages of 15 and 17 and an adult investigator made stops at various tobacco retailers. The minors attempted to purchase cigarettes or cigars. If they were asked for identification, they provided their driver's license to clerks. On the few occasions in which they made a purchase, a police officer was summoned and a citation was issued to the seller.

Dieringer said the tobacco prevention network has stressed to retailers the importance of keeping tobacco from minors, and the outlets have been making positive strides. She said the non-compliance rate was as high as 25 percent years ago.

"Now, it's 3 percent," Dieringer said. "That's great.

"We can't control what parents do, but this is something we can definitely make a difference on."

The report on tobacco sales compliance comes on the heels of an August 2010 Wisconsin Youth Tobacco Survey showing that smoking rates dropped by 15 percent among high school students and 9 percent among middle school students since 2008.

Uzbekistan to limit alcohol and tobacco consumption from April

Uzbek President signed the law on "Restriction of distribution and consumption of alcohol and tobacco products".

The legislative chamber of Oliy Majlis adopted the law in June 2011. The Senate approved it in August. The law will come into force from April 2012.

According to the law, alcoholic beverages include products with ethyl alcohol of more than 1.5 percent, while tobacco refers to all products of tobacco and tobacco substitutes.

The new law defines the main directions of state policy and state guarantees in limiting the proliferation and use of alcohol and tobacco products, the powers of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Health and public bodies.

The law defines the concepts of alcohol and tobacco dependence, as well as preventing the negative impact of using alcohol and tobacco products.

It includes a set of social, legal, medical, and other measures aimed at preventing and reducing threats to public health, especially among young people.

T he state regulates the production and sale, as well as bans imports of alcohol and tobacco products containing substances harmful for human life and health exceeding the permissible limits set by the Health Ministry.

Moreover, the s tate provides health care to people affected by alcohol and tobacco in accordance with legislative requirements.

Clumsy thief makes off with $1,300 in cigarettes

Police are looking for a clumsy burglar caught on video stealing $1,300 worth of cigarettes from a Walgreens on South Federal Highway.
Boynton Beach police report that store surveillance video shows a man and woman walking toward the store around 3:13 a.m. The woman distracts the clerk in a conversation about wart medicine.
As the woman and clerk walked to the back of the store, the man jumped over the front counter and put 25 cartons of cigarettes into a large bag. He then jumped back over the counter and dropped the bag, scattering cigarette cartons across the floor right in front of a surveillance camera. He picked them all up and fled.
The male suspect is described as a black male about 30 years old wearing a long white T-shirt and brown or black Dickie’s work shorts. The woman is a black female who was wearing all white medical scrubs. They fled in a newer model white or silver Ford.

24-Year-Old Charged with Selling Loose Cigarettes

Newark police arrested and charged a 24-year-old store clerk Friday for selling loose cigarettes and possessing almost 200 Oxycodone pills, according to police.

Detective Hubert Henderson said Vianelly Gavilan, of Newark, was charged with "multiple violations" of the state's narcotics laws and with the illegal sale of cigarettes.

The arrest came after an undercover operation around 8:30 p.m. Friday when a plain-clothed officer walked into Del Nitis Grocery Store on Park Avenue in the city and asked Gavilan for "loosies" — a street term used to refer to individual cigarettes removed from the pack and sold, according to Henderson. He said Gavilan then sold the officer "loosies."

Henderson said the officer then left the store and vice detectives re-entered the store and placed Gavilan under arrest.

Detectives recovered almost five cartons of cigarettes and several loose cigarettes, according to Henderson. He said they also discovered three bottles of Oxycodone.

Authorities did not say if Gavilan was released or is in jail.