Tobacco Facts.

George Soros must be thrilled. Two hundred days into the Obama administration, and 16 years after Soros began his advocacy for drug legalization and promoting “medical marijuana,” the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is venturing into the distribution and production of marijuana cigarettes. According to the Aug. 5 solicitation for proposals, the selected organizations [...]

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - At a quick glance, electronic cigarettes look a lot like regular cigarettes. They are about the same size, and users still exhale what looks like smoke. But, the battery-powered device doesn’t have any tobacco in it.
“People are just amazed,” Lisa Lehman, Manager of Tropical Illusions Tanning Salon in Fort Wayne, [...]

GALVESTON — Support among restaurant and bar owners for the smoking ban proposed several months ago was mixed, but opposition to the ordinance adopted three weeks ago was universal Thursday.
All of the business owners who packed city council chambers said the ordinance should be modified, but not everyone could agree on what should to be [...]

Raleigh, N.C. — The state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is considering exporting one of the state’s biggest cash crops to China.
Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said Thursday that, with an increase in the North Carolina’s cigarette tax and a smoking ban set to begin, tobacco farmers are preparing to take a hit in business.
Two [...]

“It’s almost like a jungle when tobacco is this big,” said Jake Sartain, owner of Sunny Slope Farms in Talbott, while walking through his 14 acre tobacco crop.
Sartain planted his first tobacco crop in 1947 at the age of 13. He believes this year’s crop is the healthiest.
“It looked like it was going to be [...]

Despite strict instructions from the Supreme Court of India to have pictorial warnings on tobacco products, a large number of gutkha and bidi
companies here are not going by the rule. According to a study conducted by a voluntary organization, Aparajita Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI), it came to light that 80 per cent of [...]

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The Tribal Council sustained Principal Chief Chad Smith’s veto of an act that would have provided monthly tax rebates to Cherokee Nation-licensed border smoke shops during an Aug. 10 meeting at the Tribal Complex.
By a 9-8 vote, the act didn’t get the required two-thirds majority to override Smith’s veto.
Sponsored by Dist. 9 [...]

Richmond City Council voted to adopt the amendment to city indoor smoking ordinance in order to include residential complexes and condominiums to the list of public places where smoking is prohibited. After implementation of this amendment Richmond would become home to the most rigorous anti-smoking legislations in the state.
Local enforcement agencies would force Richmond [...]

Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, are available in the Minot community and raising some concerns.
The e-cigarette is a battery powered device that looks like a real cigarette, with changeable cartridges, or filter tips, that allow users to inhale a nicotine vapor instead of smoke. The cartridges come in a number of flavors.
“One filter tip is about [...]

Giant kilns once used to dry out tobacco leaves are the new winemaking tools of choice at a Niagara-on-the-Lake winery.
In an upcoming research experiment, Reif Estate Winery will try using these two humidity and temperature-controlled sheds to make unique wines and expand their product lineup.
Winery officials plan to take these used tools from the dying [...]

Abuja — The Senate’s decision to commence public hearing last week on the Nigeria National Tobacco Control (NNTC ) bill, which is aimed at domesticating the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control ( FCTC ) has once again brought to the fore the debate on the societal cost of tobacco production and consumption in Nigeria. Nigeria [...]

WASHINGTON — The military has come a long way from the time when it packaged cigarettes in with rations, but more must be done, according to an Institute of Medicine report.
The report, titled “Combating Tobacco in Military and Veteran Populations,” calls for Defense Department officials to set a timeline to eliminate smoking on military installations.
Officials [...]

MANILA, - Philippine lawmakers are examining proposals to amend an excise tax law on alcohol and tobacco products to generate at least 20 billion pesos ($420 million) more per year and ease pressure on the budget deficit.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo last month asked allies in the lower house of Congress to raise excise taxes [...]

NEW YORK - Charles Norton, manager of the Vice Fund(VICEX Quote), says tobacco stocks are among the best buys because demand has stayed strong despite the recession.
The mutual fund has risen 7.5% this year, trailing the S&P 500 by 5.5 percentage points. Over the past three years, the Vice Fund has returned an annual average [...]

Taxing tobacco is cowardly. When politicians do it, they mostly hit the poor and the powerless.
I’ve written that for a decade and I’m still writing it.
That acknowledged, I believe it’s time to raise the tobacco tax. Raise it by a hefty amount. Be a bully.
It’s cowardly because smokers are sitting ducks — unlike billionaires, big [...]

COLUMBUS — Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland says the state will appeal a county judge’s decision barring the use of tobacco foundation funds to help balance the budget.
“This judge has in my judgment no right to say how the Legislature and the governor should be expending public tax resources,” Strickland said Tuesday shortly after the decision [...]

As the harvesting season begins, West Nile farmers have positioned themselves to reap big from a cash crop that has come under severe criticism from political and civil leaders in the district.
Some farmers in Arua and Maracha-Terego districts rejected calls from local leaders to stop growing tobacco because the latter believes the crop is a [...]

In the first quarter of 2009, global duty free and travel retail tobacco sales slumped by -19.3% compared with the same quarter in 2008 – according to the TREND Tobacco Index which is based on actual audits of retail sales among a panel of locations worldwide.
“This is probably the worst quarter ever recorded for the [...]

The government is set to crack down on sales of electronic cigarettes with tests being carried out to assess their levels of toxicity.
Many pubs and bars sell the products – which release a nicotine vapour - as a way around the smoking ban but health chiefs are concerned they do not comply with safety standards.
A [...]

Residents and business owners can voice their feelings about a proposed smoking ordinance to the Conroe City Council during a public hearing at 4 p.m. today.
Council members will further discuss the topic during their workshop meeting immediately after the hearing. The possibility of an ordinance to prohibit smoking in public places arose last month after [...]

Giant kilns once used to dry out tobacco leaves are the new winemaking tools of choice at a Niagara-on-the-Lake winery.
In an upcoming research experiment, Reif Estate Winery will try using these two humidity and temperature-controlled sheds to make unique wines and expand their product lineup.
Winery officials plan to take these used tools from the dying [...]

Uganda - As the harvesting season begins, West Nile farmers have positioned themselves to reap big from a cash crop that has come under severe criticism from political and civil leaders in the district.
Some farmers in Arua and Maracha-Terego districts rejected calls from local leaders to stop growing tobacco because the latter believes the crop [...]

WARRENSBURG, Mo.-A possible smoking ban ordinance here would likely exempt private clubs, hotel rooms and tobacco shops.
That was the direction the Warrensburg City Council gave City Attorney Doug Harris Monday night.
Councilman Don Nimmer asked for a definition of “public places.” Harris said that meant “any place to which the public is invited or has access.”
Council [...]

Toronti, - Longview Solutions today announced that Imperial Tobacco Group PLC (ITG) has successfully implemented Longview Tax to streamline its global tax reporting process. With 2008 revenues of more than £20 Billion (US$ 27 Billion) and a presence in more than 160 countries, ITG is one of the largest tobacco groups in the world. [...]

Tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the United States.
Each year, cigarette smoking results in an estimated 443,000 premature deaths, of which about 49,400 are in non-smokers, as a result of exposure to secondhand smoke.
Cigarette smoke is a complex mixture of chemicals produced by the burning of tobacco [...]

PETERSBURG, Va., - Star Scientific, Inc. (Nasdaq: STSI) filed its second-quarter report on Form 10-Q today with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company reported net sales of $.2 million for the second quarter, significantly higher when compared with net sales of $.05 million for the same quarter in 2008. Net sales for the [...]

A judge today permanently barred the state from taking more than $250 million in funds designated for anti-smoking programs and using it for Medicaid services and other state functions.
Judge David W. Fais of Franklin County Common Pleas Court dealt a blow to efforts by Gov. Ted Strickland and legislative leaders to balance the state’s budget [...]

PIERRE - The American Cancer Society wants a South Dakota circuit judge to declare the new smoking ban passed by the Legislature “necessary for the immediate preservation of public health” and throw out the request for a statewide vote.
Sioux Falls attorney Richard Casey, representing the American Cancer Society, is claiming in newly filed court papers [...]

Right-thinking health advocates and Pentagon medical staff have teamed up in appeals to the US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates asking him to prohibit tobacco consumption by US military forces and as well ban sales of tobacco products within military property. Well, many state that these appeals are reasonable, and the aims are worth to [...]

All NCH campuses and facilities are going tobacco-free on Nov. 19, 2009. Let me explain why.

First, we’re setting an appropriate example. Our overriding mission as a health-care system is to “promote, maintain and restore health for those we serve.” That’s what this campaign — in which we are joined by neighboring hospitals Physicians Regional Medical [...]