Malawi Tobacco Earnings Decline 57% Since Start of Season, Guardian Says

Malawi’s tobacco earnings declined 57 percent from the start of the selling season to Aug. 22 compared with a year earlier, the Guardian reported, citing Tobacco Control Commission chief executive officer, Bruce Munthali.
The southern African nation has earned $151.4 million from 130 million kilograms (286 million pounds) of tobacco sold, the Blantyre-based newspaper cited Munthali as saying. This compared with $352.9 million from 176.8 million kilograms for the same period in 2010, it said.

Tobacco farmers try to save what's left of crop

“I can bring tears to your eyes,” Wilson County farmer Wiley Boyette said Sunday night as he talked about what’s left behind of this year’s tobacco crop. Boyette along with his brothers, Michael and Robert, planted 600 acres of tobacco this spring. Of those 600 acres, 45 to 50 have been completely harvested. Leaves on stalks on the remaining acres are “twisted, tangled, beat and bruised.”

“The tobacco is in bad shape,” Boyette said. “We’re in salvage mode right now. Battered and beaten tobacco doesn’t last long.”

Boyette and farmers across eastern North Carolina are in a race against time. There is a small window of time, a week or so at the most, where farmers can harvest either by hand or machine what tobacco leaves remain on the stalk. Beyond that, the damaged tobacco will most likely turn yellow and dry up right there on the stalk.

The tobacco will leaves blown to the ground won’t be saved.

“We’ll do the best we can,” Boyette said.

Starting today, the Boyette brothers will have all of their available help in the field setting up the tobacco and cropping it by hand. Boyette hopes they can get the harvesters in the field in a day or two if conditions dry out.

The Boyettes tend tobacco all across Wilson County. They have around 250 acres in Elm City and 250 acres in Stantonsburg. The rest, except for 50 acres around Wedgewood Golf Course, is in Rock Ridge.

The tobacco in Elm City and Stantonsburg has already been set up by hand one time this year due to storms.

“We got it stood back up and it was looking pretty good,” Boyette said. “Here, we go again. It will be a tough go of it. We went from a big crop to a short crop in a hurry.”

Boyette said at peak efficiency they can put in eight or nine barns of tobacco per day. But Boyette said there is no way they can save the tobacco crop under these circumstances.

“We’ll start (Monday) where the most tobacco is left at and try to salvage that first and go from there,” Boyette said. Boyette said damaged tobacco stayed in the field for about a week after Hurricane Fran. Boyette thinks the outcome after Hurricane Irene will be like Fran.

“I hope I’m wrong,” he said. “Everybody is in the same boat. It’s a bad deal.”

Irene’s battering winds damaged other crops. But Boyette thinks some of them can be saved. Corn was knocked down but he hopes it can be picked up without losing a whole lot of it. The cotton is twisted, tangled and beat on the ground.

“Hopefully, it can recover if we get favorable weather here on in,” Boyette said. “We need dry weather now.”

Doug Webb has about 140 acres of tobacco in the Saratoga and Stantonsburg area.

“Whatever they told you is what happened here,” Webb said. “Everybody is in the same boat whether they are farming in Elm City, Saratoga or Kinston. This will be a devastating impact on a lot of farmers who rely on tobacco as one of their main cash crops.”

Like Boyette, the wind and rain beat Webb’s tobacco destroying the quality of the leaf. Sure, he’s got insurance and insurance will help pay on the bills. But the “profit’s in the good crop,” Webb said. “The crop damage of the magnitude we had yesterday (Saturday) is not recoverable.”

Webb spent Sunday cleaning up trying to get his tobacco curing barns up and running. Webb has generators and kept his barns going as much as he could. Their electricity was restored around lunch Sunday. He also continued to assess what’s left of his tobacco crop.

“We may have trouble with some in the barn,” Webb said. “You don’t know until you take it out.”

Webb’s plan of action for today was to take his one-row stripper machine and try to remove what leaves remain. He hopes to be able to bring the tobacco back in line enough on the row that he can get the machine through it. Otherwise, they’ll try to harvest by hand.

He has no plans to try to set the tobacco up by hand.

“Tobacco that is too old, too mature, you can’t set it up,” Webb said. “There may be some people who try to set it up. We think we know what we want to do but it may not be feasible.”

Webb said they’ve had a “bad inning” but in no way is he out of the game of farming. At 58 years old, Webb has been farming all of his life.

“It’s in my blood,” he said. “It’s what I’ve always done. We’re just a family farm. All we’re going to be doing is trying to hold on to what we’ve got here. I wish everybody else the best.”

Starting today, crews will be setting up tobacco by hand on Ron and David Lamm’s farm near Sims. The Lamm Brothers have 200 acres of tobacco this year.

Ron Lamm’s son, Tyler, said he’s not sure how many acres of their tobacco was damaged. His father has done most of the damage assessments. Like other farmers, Tyler said his father was trying to figure out a game plan.

Tyler’s been busy keeping fuel in the generator so they could keep the curing barns running. The Lamms rented a generator prior to Irene’s arrival. Electricity at the Lamm’s farm went out around 6 a.m. Saturday and was restored Sunday afternoon.

Barns with green tobacco in them that was harvested last week had to keep running else the green tobacco would start to rot without air circulating. Barnes with tobacco further along in the curing process could alternate running for periods of time.

“It could have been a whole lot worse,” Tyler said. “With all of this rain it’s going to be hard to hold it (tobacco) and to be able to get it in the barn without it going away in the field or burning up.”

Many Indonesia Hospitals Not Yet Tobacco-Free

Countless hospitals and schools in Jakarta are not yet free of cigarette smoke. According to the Regional Environment Management Agency (BPLHD) of Jakarta, based on a survey between March and May 2011 in seven No Smoking Zones in five regions of Jakarta, a number of hospitals and schools have yet to be deemed smoke-free environment.

The seven surveyed zones included offices, schools, hotels and restaurants, public transport, places of worship, medical facilities and shopping centers.

"As many as six percent of respondents is exposed to cigarette smoke every day in educational facilities, while two percent of respondents in healthcare facilities such as hospitals," said Chairman of BPLHD Jakarta, Peni Susanti on Monday.

Peni said the Gubernatorial Regulation No.88/2010 states that schools and hospitals must be 100% free of cigarette smoke.

The joint survey was conducted by Demographic Institute of University of Indonesia’s Faculty of Economics (LD-UI) and Swisscontact Indonesia Foundation. 210 other facilities were also on the survey list.

"In a total of 30 educational facilities, or 30 percent of the 210 additional buildings, people were still found smoking inside the buildings. Meanwhile, violations of smoking were found in 19 percent of the remaining buildings," he explained.

Jakarta Tourism Office also initiated a separate survey toward 481 respondents on August 22, 2011 at restaurants. Through an online questionnaire, 78 percent of respondents claimed being disturbed by cigarette smoke.

"Even the smokers themselves claimed being disturbed by someone else's smoke," said Head of Jakarta Tourism Office Arie Budiman.

As many as 79 percent of respondents claimed to agree upon smoke-free restaurants. Meanwhile, 71 percent of respondents said they would still frequent their favorite restaurants that ban smoking.

Similar conclusion was found in an additional survey conducted with Indonesian Consumer Foundation (YLKI) in 70 hotels, 70 restaurants and 70 offices. Out of these, 44 hotels still have smoking zones and in 43 percent of these people were still found smoking. As regards restaurants, as many as 47 have smoking zones.

The survey also found that 94 percent of 841 respondents claimed not being comfortable in smoke-polluted room, and 90 percent of smokers claimed the same.

Big tobacco's argument is all smoke and mirrors

Look who’s now casting itself as a First Amendment crusader: Big tobacco.
Yes, cigarette companies are making the case that their advertising may be unpopular, but it’s constitutionally-protected speech. Five of the big-name brands have filed a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration, claiming the 2009 legislation that allows the agency to require graphic warning labels on packs of smokes tramples their First Amendment rights.

Their attorney, Floyd Abrams, maintains it violates the right to free speech to require these makers of a lawful product to essentially urge the public not to buy it. The size of the government warning labels, with images such as a man blowing smoke through a gaping hole in his neck, unfairly chokes out the company’s own message, he argues.

Maybe so. But that doesn’t mean it’s a free speech violation.
A commercial product like cigarettes, after all, doesn’t fall into the same constitutional category as someone with an unpopular religion or belief. Accordingly, it’s not guaranteed as much protection under the First Amendment.
Commercial products and their speech are already regulated differently. With noncommercial speech, the government isn’t allowed to inquire whether it’s true or false: regulation must be content-neutral. But that’s not true for advertising. The government can ban ads that are false, or other types of commercial speech. Regulations on insider trading, for instance, forbid even casual remarks that might lead to abuse.

In the case of cigarettes, the government’s interest in protecting public health is substantial. And tobacco companies’ own advertising is clearly misleading, aimed at making people forget this product is lethal. With all the false imaging of youth and vitality that tobacco companies use to mask the danger of cigarettes and get people hooked, they should be thankful the government hasn’t banned their advertising campaign entirely, as Norway did.

Big tobacco doesn’t have a right to convey whatever messages it chooses. The First Amendment was intended to protect free expression by unpopular minorities — not the right of a powerful industry to sell a deadly, addictive product.

Tobacco giant seeks High Court appeal

Cigarette giant British American Tobacco Australia is seeking an urgent appeal to the High Court for access to legal advice it says will prove proposed plain packaging laws are flawed.

The full bench of the court refused BATA's appeal to order the release of the federal government document on Tuesday.

The company wanted a Department of Health document from 1995 that it claims advises against plain packaging of tobacco products.
Last month the federal government introduced legislation that will make it an offence to sell, supply, purchase, package or manufacture tobacco products for retail sale in anything other than plain packaging.

Under the new laws, tobacco products will be sold in dark brown, drab packaging from mid-2012.

But BATA says that all MPs voting on the Tobacco Plain Packaging Bill and contentious Trademarks Bill in parliament on Wednesday need to see the advice on the legality and constitutionality of the packaging.

Lawyers for BATA will "definitely" appeal the decision in the High Court as soon as possible, spokesman Scott McIntyre said.

He said there was no evidence the world-first introduction of plain packaging for Monte Carlo cigarettes would reduce smoking rates.

Illegal tobacco, which currently occupies around 16 per cent of the Australian market, would increase its dominance if the laws were passed and have an impact of cigarette excise revenues, he said.

"When you make packs look exactly the same with the same colour it's going to make them easier to counterfeit," Mr McIntyre told AAP.

"The retailers won't be able to tell which ones are real and which ones are fakes."

Health Minister Nicola Roxon welcomed the court's decision.

"The government is pleased the Federal Court has recognised the public interest in protecting the confidentiality of legal advice to the government," Ms Roxon said in a statement.

"(But) we've always said that big tobacco will try and fight plain packaging tooth and nail, and we expect them to continue their desperate tactics."

Ms Roxon said while big tobacco companies were fighting to protect profits the commonwealth was fighting to protect lives.

Doctors and health groups have lauded the move to plain packaging, saying it will stand as one of Australia's greatest ever public health achievements.

The maximum penalty for breaching the laws will be $220,000 for an individual and $1.1 million for a body corporate.

By Edwina Scott, Michelle Draper and Julian Drape

Clinton Mom Charged With Providing Alcohol, Marijuana To Daughter, Boy

A 45-year-old woman has been charged with providing marijuana and alcohol to her 20-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old boy her daughter is accused of sexually assaulting.

Kimmy Bouchard, of West Main Street, didn't smoke marijuana with her daughter and the boy, but was present when they smoked and she supplied them with Mike's Hard Lemonade and Twisted Tea, according to an arrest warrant.

She was also aware that the boy and her daughter, Loni Bouchard, who turned 20 in July, were involved in a sexual relationship, the warrant says.
Among the evidence seized by police from the Bouchard home, including computers and cellphones, is a picture of Bouchard at a table with a pipe, a pile of marijuana and a pile of marijuana stems, the warrant says.

She was charged Monday with two counts of risk of injury to a minor, permitting a minor to possess alcohol, and distribution of marijuana.

Bouchard posted $15,000 bail after her arraignment at Superior Court in Middletown on Monday and was released. She was ordered not to have any contact with the 14-year-old boy or his family. She is scheduled to return to court Sept. 12.

She declined to speak with a reporter.

The boy's mother told police that she hired Loni Bouchard in December to baby-sit her children at her home in Southington and often allowed her to spend the night because Loni Bouchard said she had problems at home, an arrest warrant says.

In April, the mother learned that Loni Bouchard and her 14-year-old son were in a sexual relationship and sought a restraining order, according to the warrant.

She said she became concerned after reading Bouchard's Facebook page, where Bouchard wrote "why age does matter" and "people don't understand." The mother believed the comments referred to her son and investigated further by looking through his Facebook account.

There, she found intimate messages between her son and Bouchard, according to the warrant. She looked at her son's cellphone and found text messages from Loni Bouchard's 18-year-old sister, Tenay, asking him if he wanted Kimmy Bouchard to buy him anything from the liquor store, the warrant says.

In a text message to a friend, the boy said he obtained marijuana for free from Kimmy Bouchard, the warrant states.

The boy told his mother, after she confronted him, that he had been in a relationship with Loni Bouchard since January and that they had sex at Bouchard's home in Clinton. He also told her that Loni and Kimmy Bouchard had given him alcohol and marijuana.

Coalition backs plain cigarette packs

But it plans to oppose changes to trademarking.

The Liberal-Nationals joint party room yesterday voted to back the Government's world-first move to put cigarettes in drab-coloured packets from mid-2012 in a bid to cut smoking rates.

But a Coalition spokesman said a second Bill regarding trademarking would be opposed.

"The effect of the Bill will be to declare that regulations made by the minister will prevail over any contrary provision of the Trademark Act," the spokesman said.

Under Labor's plan, manufacturers would have to produce plain packets from May next year, while retailers would be banned from selling any branded stock six weeks later.

British American Tobacco Australia says it's impossible to produce the olive-brown packs devoid of branding by May.
But the Health Department does not believe big tobacco needs extra time to prepare.

BATA plans to challenge the legislation in the courts on the grounds that it unlawfully acquired the company's intellectual property rights.

More smokers avoiding taxes with self-rolled cigarettes and small cigars

Revenue from Kentucky's cigarette tax is in free-fall, but more Kentuckians kicking the unhealthy habit isn't the only reason for the decline. State officials say more and more people are turning to cheaper alternatives — little cigars and roll-your-own cigarettes — that aren't covered by the state's 60-cent-a-pack tax.
The little cigars look much like cigarettes but are wrapped in brown paper. They cost about $1.25 a pack, compared to about $3.25 for the cheapest pack of cigarettes.
The move to small cigars and roll-your-own cigarettes is a national trend. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that states have lost $5 billion a year because people are using alternatives that have no state retail cigarette tax.
In Kentucky, state budget officials are predicting a 17.2 percent decline in revenue from the cigarette tax this fiscal year, which ends June 30. Last fiscal year, the state collected $262.4 million from cigarette taxes, down nearly 6 percent from 2010.
It's difficult to say how much of the decline is related directly to cheaper alternatives, but revenue officials say the loss from self-rolled cigarettes and small cigars is possibly in the millions of dollars.
When the legislature agreed to double the cigarette tax in 2009, the move was applauded by health advocates as a way to encourage more people to quit. It also bolstered the state's cash-strapped budget.
At first, cigarette tax revenue increased. But in June 2010, revenue from the tax began to dip.
At the same time, the state Department of Revenue, which collects tobacco-related taxes, saw retailers devote more shelf space to pipe tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco, said Richard Dobson, director of sales and excise taxes for the revenue department.
"We started looking at inventories," Dobson said. "The amount of product that is used for roll-your-own is increasing."
The department also observed more large, roll-your-own machines in tobacco shops and smoking stores. Dobson said the state estimates there are 20 or 30 commercial-size roll-your-own cigarette machines in the state.
People can buy pipe tobacco, which is taxed even less than roll-your-own tobacco, and put it into a machine at a retailer. The end result is a pack of cigarettes for a fraction of the cost of prepackaged cigarettes, said Greg Harkenrider, deputy director in the Office of the State Budget Director.
Several states have begun putting pressure on the makers of small cigars and roll-your-own cigarette machines.
Arkansas became the first state to outlaw the machines in April. And there are several pending lawsuits regarding roll-your-own cigarettes.
The federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, which oversees federal taxes on tobacco and alcohol, recently ruled that retail establishments with roll-your-own machines must pay the same federal manufacturing tax as cigarette manufacturers. That ruling is being challenged in the courts, Dobson said.
If the ruling is upheld, retailers also would pay into an escrow account that is part of the national tobacco settlement between the states and cigarette manufacturers.
Those who use roll-your-own machines have an unfair commercial advantage over cigarette manufacturers, said Ken Garcia, a spokesman for Phillip Morris USA, one of the nation's largest manufacturers of cigarettes.
"We believe these products should be taxed the same as packaged cigarettes," he said.
Giving people an incentive to switch to lower-cost tobacco has no public policy benefit, he said.
Dale Ferguson, who owns Fayette Cigar Store in downtown Lexington, said he wasn't convinced that roll-your-own cigarettes and small cigars are causing declining revenue.
Before Kentucky raised its cigarette tax, it had one of the lowest cigarette taxes in the Midwest. Stores on Kentucky's borders were selling a lot of cigarettes to people from other states.
It's doubtful those stores are selling as many cigarettes, Ferguson said, which could account for some of the decrease.
"I'm not sure if I agree with their conclusions," he said.
Regardless, financially struggling states probably will take a fresh look soon at revamping their cigarette taxes, said Sujit CanagaRetna, senior fiscal analyst for the Council on State Governments.
Since 2001, 47 states have raised cigarette taxes a combined 105 times. Such "sin taxes" are the easiest type to pass, CanagaRetna said.
"I think by early next year when state legislatures go into session, you'll see more states look at this issue," he said.

Almost half a million pieces of contraband cigarettes seized at Kapitan Andreevo checkpoint

Almost half a million pieces of contraband cigarettes have been found by customs officers at the Kapitan Andreevo customs checkpoint, the press office of the National Customs Agency (NCA) announced.
Last night customs officers at the checkpoint selected for a check under the risk analysis method a Mercedes truck with German registration, travelling from Turkey to Germany. The driver was a 41-year-old Armenian national with initials P.G., with address registration in Germany. Authorities detected some discrepancies in the internal and external size of the vehicle. During a thorough check, customs officers found that the walls of the truck had double insulation. In the double walls and ceiling there were contraband cigarettes. Customs officers found 23,900 boxes or 478,000 pieces of cigarettes. All the cigarettes were with Armenian cigarettes without excise stamps.

Cigarettes stolen from Manchester gas station

MANCHESTER Burglars made off with 250 packs of cigarettes valued at more than $1,700 on Sunday but left other items behind during a break-in at Jersey Gas in Whiting, township police reported.

Police issued a statement that they responded to the burglary report at about 12:45 a.m. at Jersey Gas, 100 Lacey Rd.

Police said the burglars entered the store by removing an air conditioning unit from a window.

Suspects stole approximately 250 packs of various Karelia cigarettes valued at $1,791, but they left other items of value, police said.

Police said they believe the burglars used a sledge hammer to get in the building and then removed the entire clear plastic cigarette case.

Call for cigarette packaging to be changed over risk posed to women

HEALTH experts have made urgent calls to change the way cigarettes are packaged after a study found that women smokers were more at risk of heart disease.

The calls come after a report which analysed previous studies involving more than four million people found the increased risk of developing heart disease from smoking is 25% higher for women compared to men.

It is thought that the physiological differences or cigarette smoke toxins could have a more potent effect on women.

According to the Welsh Health Survey in 2009, 22% of Welsh women over the age of 16 smoke.

Elen De Lacy, chief executive of ASH Wales, said: “The results of this research are quite alarming for the future health of women and for our young girls in Wales. We already know that smoking is highly addictive and that the younger a person starts to smoke, the harder it is for them to quit.

“More needs to be done to protect children and young women in Wales from starting to smoke in the first place and ensure that the very best support, advice and treatment is available to those who want to quit.

“We also need to ensure that the regulations to ban behind-the-counter displays of tobacco and the sale of tobacco from vending machines are implemented in a timely fashion which will be effective in denormalising and reducing the attraction of smoking amongst young girls.”

Women, on average, smoke fewer cigarettes per day than men, and in many countries the smoking epidemic in women has been much shorter in duration.

The British Heart Foundation described the figures as alarming and said tobacco companies were increasingly trying to target slim women with their packaging.

Ellen Mason, Senior Cardiac Nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “It’s alarming to see such a large study confirm that women are so much more at risk of heart disease from smoking than men.

“There is free support widely available on the NHS to help both men and women quit, but more effort needs to be made to encourage women not to smoke in the first place, particularly the many young women who take up this addictive and harmful habit up every day.

“This is particularly timely research as tobacco companies are increasingly targeting women with slim brands and slick packaging. Introducing plain packaging would help to increase the effectiveness of health warnings and reduce the attractiveness and appeal of tobacco products.”

Jane Landon, deputy chief executive of the National Heart Forum, said: “In many countries around the world, women are viewed as a growth market by tobacco companies.

“Government plans for plain packaging of tobacco products are urgently needed to stop the cynical marketing that particularly targets young women with slim cigarettes in small, attractive packs in appealing textures and colours.”

The latest research was a meta-analysis of 86 different studies and was published in the Lancet.

The report, by Dr Rachel Huxley of the University of Minnesota and Dr Mark Woodward of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, says: “The finding that, among smokers, the excess risk of coronary heart disease in women compared with men increases by 2% for every extra year of study follow-up lends support to the idea of a patho-physiological basis for the sex difference.

“For example, women might extract a greater quantity of carcinogens and other toxic agents from the same number of cigarettes than men. This occurrence could explain why women who smoke have double the risk of lung cancer compared with their male counterparts.”

“Physicians and health professionals should be encouraged to increase their efforts at promotion of smoking cessation in all individuals. Present trends in female smoking, and this report, suggest that inclusion of a female perspective in tobacco-control policies is crucial.”

The Welsh Government said it was not within their powers to direct how cigarettes are packaged but would be interested to see the proposals from the Department of Health.

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We are already investing in measures to discourage children from starting smoking and we are providing help and support to smokers who want to quit. The Welsh Government supports a number of services to help people give up smoking such as Stop Smoking Wales and the Smokers Helpline Wales. The introduction of the smoke-free legislation is further helping to protect non-smokers and has acted as a stimulus for many to give up.

“One of the key themes in Our Healthy Future, Wales’ strategic framework for public health, is further reducing smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke. We recently consulted on a Tobacco Control Action Plan to take this forward. We are currently considering the responses to the consultation on the draft Action Plan and will launch the revised Plan in the autumn, making further recommendations to reduce the harm from smoking.”

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “In March we published our plans to help drive down smoking rates and reduce the harms from tobacco over the next five years.

“Our plan is clear that we want local areas to develop and implement evidence-based local tobacco control strategies and work in partnership across their communities to encourage smokers to change their behaviours.”

YES needs to say no to quit-smoking commercials

A simple message to the YES Network: I don’t smoke. Never have. Never will.

Therefore, I should not be subject to those disgusting New York State Department of Health quit-smoking commercials that air far too often during New York Yankees telecasts.

For a smoker or for someone (read: youngster) who is considering smoking, the ads are effective. One shows an aging man struggling with emphysema. Another offers a much-too-graphic look at a human lung damaged by smoking.

Since I don’t see them on other stations, the commercials must have been rejected on other stations. For YES, they’re just inviting viewers to channel-surf between innings.

Smoking Appeals To Higher Court

Don Liebes, the owner of Gate City Billiards Country Club, has been a thorn in the side of the Guilford County Department of Public Health because Liebes has fought a state smoking ban tooth and nail – first through the county's health department and then in the state's court system.

Though Liebes and his attorney, Seth Cohen of Smith, James, Rowlett & Cohen, were on the losing side of the North Carolina Court of Appeals, Cohen said Liebes now plans to appeal to the NC Supreme Court. Liebes said that if he doesn't prevail there, he could appeal the case to the US Supreme Court.

In January 2010, a new anti-smoking law went into effect, banning smoking in bars, clubs and restaurants across the state. However, that law exempted country clubs, and Liebes' first move to fight the law was to add the words "Country Club" to the name of his billiards hall at 6004 Landmark Center Blvd. in Greensboro.

At the time, Liebes argued that, since the term "country club" was nowhere defined in state statutes, his pool hall qualified as a country club and therefore his club wasn't legally required to enforce the ban.

The Guilford County Department of Public Health didn't buy Liebes' argument, and, after the Guilford County Board of Health rejected three of his appeals – and as the fines continued to pile up – Liebes took his battle to court, first making his case in Guilford County District Court in High Point in the summer of last year.

Cohen argued the case and Guilford County Attorney Mark Payne argued for the county, which prevailed.

Cohen also represented Liebes at a Tuesday, Feb. 8, NC Court of Appeals hearing in Raleigh this year – while Payne again made the case for the county and the State of North Carolina.

Cohen and Liebes' arguments have morphed since the fight began with Liebes' initial country club exemption argument, and Cohen said that, in the new appeal to the NC Supreme Court, he may attempt a new legal tack – though he said he didn't wish to reveal the details of that strategy at this time.

Cohen did say he thought that, in the latest decision, issued on July 19, the state's appellate court didn't really address the key arguments and distinctions he had made at the appeals hearing earlier this year.

Cohen said that, instead, the court's ruling focused largely on the notion of sham membership clubs – for instance, the ruling cited a Wisconsin club that was supposedly a members only club but which charged a one-time $1 membership fee in a transparent attempt to get around the law.

Cohen said that wasn't really pertinent to the main issues in this case.

"It's possible to have shams here," Cohen acknowledged. However, he added, that's not the central point in question in the case of Gate City.

Cohen's case rests largely on the fact that the State of North Carolina, when it passed the law, didn't have a rational basis for applying the ban to for-profit clubs while allowing smoking to continue at not-for-profit clubs.

He said he hopes Gate City Billiards' case will fare better in the state's Supreme Court if that court decides to hear it.

Cohen said he has 35 days after the ruling – until August 22 – to ask the state Supreme Court to take the case.

The decision by the appeals court was unanimous. It was handed down by a panel of three judges – Judge Cheri Beasley, Judge Wanda Bryant and Judge Linda McGee.

If there had been a dissenting vote, the case could have been appealed automatically. But when, as in this case, the decision is 3 to 0, the losing side must file a petition with the NC Supreme Court, and those justices decide whether or not to hear the case.

Cohen said he doesn't know whether the state's highest court will take the case or not. "They don't take many cases," Cohen said.

Cohen said he was "disappointed" by the Court of Appeals' ruling, but he added that he was "confident and hopeful" that, in the end, the state's Supreme Court would agree to hear the case and that ultimately Liebes' would prevail.

Cohen stated at the February hearing in Raleigh that he and his client were no longer arguing that smoking Kent should be allowed at Gate City Billiards because of the country club exemption. Instead, he argued that the ban as written is unconstitutional because it doesn't offer "equal protection" under the law for like businesses.

Cohen maintains that the distinction the law makes between for-profit private clubs, which the ban applies to, and not-for-profit private clubs, which it does not, is a distinction that has no justifiable basis – and therefore it fails to pass the "rational basis test" that the new law must meet in order to qualify as constitutional.

At that hearing, Payne argued there was a difference between a bar, like Gate City Billiards, and a country club or, say, a veterans club where veterans join for the purpose of being with other veterans. Payne argued that country clubs, veterans clubs and other private not-for-profit clubs were composed of members with "similar interests."

Cohen replied that a desire to play billiards is a similar interest, but the judges evidently weren't swayed.

Cohen also used an example of two real country clubs in the state – an argument that he said was ignored in the July 19 ruling.

He said there's a for-profit country club in Raleigh and another, nearly identical club, in Charlotte – only the club in Charlotte is a not-for-profit country club. Cohen said both have a golf course, tennis courts, a bar and a restaurant with similar menus, and he added that, though they're alike in almost every respect, different rules apply under the law.

Anti-smoking law comes into force on Aug 7

The much-awaited Tobacco Control and Regulation Act, 2068 is coming into force on August 7.

This Act prohibits smoking and sale and distribution of tobacco-related products at public places and slaps a fine from Rs. 100 to Rs. 100,000 on the offenders.

For the purpose of this Act, public places include the government bodies, offices, corporations, educational institutions, libraries, airports, public lavatories, cinema halls, cultural centres, hotels, restaurants and eateries, student hostels, stadiums, public transport vehicles and waiting stands.

The Legislature-Parliament had passed this Act on April 11, 2011 and the President certified it on April 29.

According to statistics, 44 people are losing lives daily in the country due to diseases related to smoking and tobacco consumption and the State has to spend Rs. 16 billion annually for treatment of patients suffering from these diseases.

The Act also prohibits advertising tobacco products and sponsoring of programmes by tobacco companies in the media. If anyone is found to be issuing advertisements and broadcasting promotional messages in the media, the Act has provisions for imposing fine of up to Rs. 100,000 for that offence.

Similarly, as per this Act, cigarettes and tobacco products cannot be sold to people below 18 years of age and pregnant women.

In this connection, Speaker Subas Nembang today launched a programme organised to raise awareness and provide information about the Act. The programme is organised by the Primary Health Service Resource Centre.

The objective of this awareness-raising programme is to conduct public awareness campaigns in 52 different districts to create public pressure for the effective implementation of the Act and to ensure the people’s right to health.

Tobacco In Connecticut: A Story of Change

Despite the best efforts of the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary, it isn’t often that an exact date can be established for the coining of a new word (or neologism) in the English language. Such is the case, however, with the word "entheogen," which was born in 1979.

Scholars of mythology such as Carl A. P. Ruck – a Boston University professor of classics and native of Connecticut – coined the term "entheogen" to describe psychoactive plants used in a religious context to bring about an altered state of consciousness. The term first appeared in Ruck’s book, The Road To Eleusis: Unveiling The Secret of the Mysteries, and was deliberately chosen to distinguish substances used ritualistically in a religious context from the recreationally used, mind altering plants and substances implied by the terms "hallucinogenic" and "psychedelic," which have strong connections to escapist pop culture of the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Derived from two Greek words – entheos (meaning "full of god") and genesthai (meaning "to bring about") – an entheogen is a substance used in a ritualistic, religious context to bring about a connection to the divine within an individual or group of individuals. Such a substance was tobacco to the aborigines of Connecticut – the Native American Indian tribes who had once lived here in abundance.

But just like other substances such as cannabis and mescaline (which also had their origins rooted in a ritualistic, religious context) tobacco also became more popular for its recreational use than for its spiritual use. In fact, it soon evolved into a cash crop consciously cultivated for recreational use by the European settlers who supplanted the Native Americans.

"Tobacco Valley," a 61-mile stretch of land running from Portland, CT, to the Brattleboro, VT, area (see featured photo) has historically been and still remains an economic force in Connecticut.

Windsor is home to the Connecticut Valley Tobacco Museum on 135 Lang Road in the Northwest Park section of town. Endowed by money from a trust fund established by Windsor resident John E. Luddy, the Connecticut Valley Tobacco Historical Society was founded in 1988 to preserve the history and artifacts of the tobacco industry in Connecticut. The museum itself consists of two buildings: one, a replica of a tobacco barn filled with implements and machinery used over the years; the other, an exhibition center used to exhibit photographs, advertising, and documents relating to the tobacco industry in Connecticut. By viewing the exhibits and reading the accompanying literature, one can arrive at a very good understanding of the history of the tobacco industry in Connecticut.

FDA turning packs into "government billboards"

More extensive, graphic warning labels are going to be required for cigarette packs under the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, and tobacco companies are fighting the issue in court.
On Wednesday, lawyers for the companies, which include Winston-Salem's R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. , offered arguments to a three-judge panel of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals contesting the new requirement. RJR is a subsidiary of Winston-Salem-based Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI).
WFDD News talked with RJR spokesman David Howard on Wednesday, who said that the government has gone too far by expanding warning label requirements that have been in place for four decades.
"Essentially it's the government coming in, seizing our package, basically turning our package into government billboards to deliver their defined messages," Howard told the radio station. "It's taking away one of the few remaining avenues we have with which to responsibly communicate with adult tobacco consumers and doing that without any say from us."
The new warning labels would take up at least half of the package and feature graphic pictures to serve as warnings about tobacco use. Tobacco companies are also limited in where the brand logo can appear on the package.

Seattle company designs medical marijuana patch for pets

A Seattle based company has developed a medical marijuana patch for man's best friend suffering from ailments.

Jim Alekson's Medical Marijuana Delivery Systems LLC has patented a patch called Tetracan that he says could be used on dogs, cats, even horses.

"Dogs suffer from the same maladies that humans do. It's a question of quality of life," said Alekson.

While the patch does conjure visions of pups frolicking in fields of poppies, Alekson said pets suffer from everything from arthritis to cancer. He also pointed to pharmaceutical painkillers that have proven harmful, sometimes fatal in animals.

"I'd much rather they were on something holistic as opposed to something chemical that I know is breaking down some of the organs in their body," Alekson said.

Developers said the patch would be available for use by humans as well.

They hoped to have it ready for market by the end of the year.