Brooklyn, Staten Island tobacco shops defy governments in roll-your-own cigarettes battle

A federal judge has ordered defiant tobacco shops in Brooklyn and Staten Island to stop selling controversial roll-your-own cigarettes — siding with the city and state as they sue the stores for hawking the untaxed smokes. U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Forrest bolstered the positions of the city Law Department and State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman by issuing the injunction. BB’s Corner on 18th Ave. in Bensonhurst and Nitecap on Gulf Ave. in Staten Island’s Bloomfield neighborhood are the targets of a federal lawsuit filed in March intended to tax machine-rolled tobacco “joints” the same way packaged cigarettes are throughout the state.

The shops “have chosen to stand their ground and fight,” Forrest wrote in last week’s decision slamming them for selling the smokes for about $4.50 a pack. A pack of popular commercial brands, such as Newport or Marlboro, sell for around $12-$13.50 in city stores, prices that include $7.47 in federal, state, and city taxes tacked onto the cost. “These stores were challenging the complaint,” said Tobacco Compliance Bureau Chief Dana Biberman who works under Schneiderman. “We are delighted with the court’s ruling.”

The judge’s order is expected to go into effect by mid-July. Meanwhile, Biberman said she is finding other stores in the city to target by subpoenaing records from roll-your-own machine companies. “We know about several more. And we will continue to investigate them,” Biberman said. Roll-your-own shops allow customers to pour loose tobacco into the devices, which can push out a rolled cigarette in just a few seconds. City tax investigators started cracking down last fall, warning offending shop owners to stop the sales or face hefty fines. About a half dozen shops heeded the warning and voluntarily shut down.

When questioned by the News, employees at BB’s Corner and Nitecap declined comment on why they continued working. On Thursday, a News reporter was offered a $47.50 carton of smokes at BB’s that had been produced by pouring a bag of Top Tobacco into a boxy, four-foot-tall boxy contraption owned by RYO, a Ohio-based company lobbying the public to join their battle against tax laws. BB’s walls were covered with flyers asking customers to call local politicians and advocate for legislation that will protect them from the authorities.

“We are doing our best to follow the law,” said a man seen outside BB’s taking down signs advertising “200 counts of smokes in just 8 minutes.” “They can’t tax us,” he said. Earlier last week, a bill designed to change tax requirements for roll-your-own smokes failed to make it to the state Senate floor. “They have to get taxed,” said State Sen. Marty Golden (R-Bensonhurt) whose name was listed on BB’s wall as a politician to call. “We need more regulations. We need to stop people from doing this.” But a BB’s customer, Chris Figurora, 59, disagreed, as he inquired about the shop’s low cigarette prices. “If you can’t get cheap cigarettes here, you will get them somewhere else,” said Figurora, a clerical worker from Borough Park. “Overtaxing won’t solve these issues. People will find another alternative.”

Altria, Reynolds American to increase cigarette prices

Winston-Salem-based Reynolds American Inc. will match a price increase by competing cigarette maker Altria Group Inc. , with both companies raising prices by 6 cents a pack on June 18 in the first hike of the year. The move follows two rounds of increases in 2011, and comes as state excise taxes have leveled off, according to the Wall Street Journal. Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) announced its price move yesterday.

Greensboro-based Lorillard (NYSE: LO), which was among the cigarette makers who boosted prices last year, has yet to announce an increase this year, but analysts speculate such a hike could be coming. According to the Wall Street Journal, analysts have been pushing for price increases to help boost profitability as sales volumes decline. In April, both Lorillard and Reynolds American (NYSE: RAI) announced that profits were down for the first quarter, with Reynolds American reporting a 29 percent drop and Lorillard announcing profits were down 10 percent. Both cited declines in sales and smoking rates as reasons.

The best price on cigarettes only at: http://www.shop-smoke.com/ , online ordering and cheap mail delivery.

Tewkesbury MP denies conflict of interest over cigarettes

LINKS between receiving hospitality from a major tobacco company and opposing plans to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes have been denied by Tewkesbury's MP. Laurence Robertson has pointed out he had always been 'pro-choice' when it came to smoking. He argued targeting plain packaging was a "cop out", and failed to tackle the more complex causes of people taking up the habit such as peer pressure and parents smoking.

Mr Robertson was one of six MPs calling for the policy to be dropped, who had accepted tickets and hospitality at the Chelsea Flower Show worth more than £1,100 from Japan Tobacco International (JIT), which owns the Silk Cut, Mayfair and Benson & Hedges brands. This was declared in the register of members' interests by Mr Robertson. The six were among a total of 51 MPs to sign an open letter warning that a cigarette branding ban "threatens more than 5,500 jobs directly employed by the UK tobacco sector".

 Mr Robertson denied there was a conflict of interest. He said: "I have always been pro-choice. "Too much has been made of this plain packaging. It's a cop out. "I don't believe children start to smoke because it says Embassy or Rothmans on a packet. It's to do with peer pressure and parents smoking. "I have always taken the view if people want to smoke that's up to them." Mr Robertson said he had visited a JIT-owned factory in Northern Ireland in his capacity as select committee chairman. "It's a legitimate business," he said.

"The product is a legal product." The open letter stated: "There is no reliable evidence that plain packaging will have any public health benefit," adding that a standardised packet design could make tobacco smuggling easier." A public consultation is currently under way on whether branded cigarette packaging should disappear from the shelves. Health campaigners have welcomed the proposal, but opponents claimed it would lead to increased smuggling and job losses.

Councillors butt heads on smoking

THE lack of proposed designated smoking areas in Lismore's city centre is concerning business owners who employ smokers. Under a draft Lismore City Council outdoor smoke-free area plan that has been placed on public exhibition for 28 days, the smoking areas in the CBD would be relegated to the outskirts of the CBD. This would be outside the main block bordered by Magellan, Keen, Woodlark and Molesworth streets. Cr Neil Marks, addressing council on Tuesday night, said business owners feared smokers' productivity would fall because it could take them longer to walk to smoking areas.

 Cr Marks said businesses had told him they would no longer employ smokers as, "that way they'll at least get a full day's work out of them". Cr Peter Graham questioned whether the smoke-free area policy would work, given the lack of smoking areas in the city centre. Cr Graham Meineke said it would be a difficult policy to enforce. Cr Simon Clough argued it was a very balanced policy that would be phased in over a year.

 Cr Vanessa Ekins expressed concern that many of the smoking areas were near the river, raising the prospect of more butts going into it. Cr Isaac Smith said the plan would make the city centre cleaner and research showed the more you inconvenienced smokers the more quit. David Martin of Lismore Chamber of Commerce confirmed the lack of smoking areas in the city heart was a concern among business owners.

British American Tobacco seeks digital shop for new luxury range

The group, which owns brands including Dunhill, Kent, Lucky Strike and Pall Mall, has been in direct contact with digital agencies to invite them to pitch for the business, which involves testing the market with a new pilot range. British American Tobacco, along with other tobacco companies, is fighting a government consultation into stripping cigarette packets of all branding.

 Previous digital marketing by the company was slammed by the anti-smoking group Action on Smoking and Health, which claimed British American Tobacco was promoting a "school of cool" among young smokers. Action on Smoking and Health has accused the company of using sponsorship of music festivals, sporting events, celebrity endorsements and viral marketing campaigns on youth-oriented social media sites such as YouTube and Flickr to "recruit" around 750,000 young smokers each year.

 Tobacco advertising was banned in 2003, followed by promotions, direct marketing and sponsorship one year later. British American Tobacco is the second-largest quoted tobacco company in the world by market share and has operations in more than 180 countries.

Smokers should get graphic warnings of their risks

It’s one of the most addictive and lethal drugs that humans abuse, killing far more Americans every year – 440,000-plus – than all illegal drugs combined.

Tobacco – specifically in its most popular delivery system, cigarettes – also plays a major role in rising health costs. Lawmakers and health officials know they can’t outlaw tobacco; about 20 percent of American adults are addicted to it. So they’re trying to do the next best thing: Prevent as many young people from getting hooked and persuade as many smokers as they can to stop.

The best way to do that is to make cigarettes expensive; smoking rates drop a little every time cigarette taxes go up. But another strategy has been found effective in more than 20 countries: graphic health warnings on cigarette packages – ones so big, colorful and disturbing that smokers can’t miss them.

The Food and Drug Administration has proposed nine such graphic warning labels to be placed on cigarette packages beginning this fall, along with a stop-smoking hotline number.

But the tobacco industry is fighting that requirement in a federal appeals court, saying it goes beyond factual information into anti-smoking advocacy. An earlier court had ruled in Big Tobacco’s favor.

As the federal agency tasked with regulating tobacco products, the FDA should advocate for less smoking. Even nonsmokers pay for smoking, through higher health care costs and lost economic productivity – an estimated $193 billion per year. It’s the leading preventable cause of disease, disability and death, and this addictive, lethal drug certainly would not be legal if it were just coming on the market today.

The images on graphic warning labels vary from country to country, but the result is the same: They work. Take Thailand, for instance. After it started running the labels, the percentage of smokers who said that the warnings made them more likely to quit rose from 31 percent to 46 percent.

During that same period in Malaysia, which ran small labels similar to ones that appear in the United States, smokers reported they were actually less likely to quit. The FDA estimates the new labels would discourage more than 200,000 U.S. smokers in the first few years after they appear.

Some critics say that the labels don’t tell people anything they don’t already know, that smokers are aware that they risk lung cancer and as consenting adults don’t need the government playing nanny.

But studies show that many people aren’t aware of all of smoking’s health risks, which include oral cancer, heart disease, stroke and fetal damage. Graphic labels can provide more information than small written messages and make cigarette packages less attractive. Every time a smoker picks up the package, the health-risk message is reinforced. For at least some smokers, that can lead to reduced smoking or quitting.

Commercial speech has never enjoyed the same level of constitutional protection as individual speech. The court hearing this case should rule in favor of Americans’ health, not Big Tobacco’s profits.

CN helps launch Tobacco Free campaign in Pryor

The Cherokee Nation has joined with the Pryor city and school officials to launch a 24/7 Tobacco Free campaign to prevent students and residents from smoking or dipping.

“It takes communities working together to ensure the next generation will enjoy a health life and Pryor is an examples of what it takes to truly make a difference in the health of our families and communities,” CN Healthy Nation Director Lisa Pivec said.

The campaign coincides with this year’s National Public Health Week theme – “A Healthier American Begins Today: Join the Movement.” Communities all over the country, including Pryor, have take action against tobacco use and other preventable diseases. The public health week is observed as a time to recognize the contributions of public health and highlight issues that are important to improving individual communities.

CN Healthy Nation helped Pryor develop a policy that took the schools and the city to a tobacco-free environment 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The tribe also provided signs, money and technical training to help facilitate the project.

“We have partnered with Cherokee Nation on several projects and they have been great to work with,” said Laura Holloway, Pryor’s health and wellness director. “Both Pryor Schools and Health Nation really work hard to better the overall health of the community and going tobacco free has just been one of the many successes.”

Holloway said smoking and dipping were issues in Pryor schools that needed to be addressed.

“Like other schools in the state, dipping is really a big area of concern because of the sporting aspect,” Holloway said. “Tobacco education has been the key in teaching kids about the health effects of tobacco.”