Introduced in the United States two years ago, electronic cigarettes are no longer a novelty item but a popular option for many smokers — especially those who want to quit. Inhaling on the cigarette-shaped device activates a built-in battery, which heats up a mixture of water, nicotine and propylene glycol to give the “smoker” a vapor hit of the addictive substance found in cigarettes — but without the smoke. It even lights up at the other end, mimicking the tip of a cigarette.

E-cigarettes are the latest of a wave of nicotine-packing products — including bottled water and lollipops — to face the wrath of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The agency wants sales of the devices halted until, as with other drug products, animal studies and clinical trials determine whether they are indeed safe. We agree. A check of Internet chat sites shows that the devices are regularly used by smokers trying to quit tobacco. Should the courts rule against the FDA, Congress will have to step in. With the ever-expanding peddling of nicotine in the United States, the public needs federal oversight of attempts to advance an addictive drug.

NEW DELHI: The hype surrounding ban on smoking at public places seems to have vanished into thin air. A recent survey shows that the ban has not
been effectively implemented since it came into effect in October last year. The nationwide survey conducted by Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) with 11 partner organisations found that over 60% of the bars and restaurants flouted anti-smoking rules.

At least 211 public places were surveyed of which 127 flouted the law. “Our teams spent close to an hour at these bars and restaurants and measured the air quality using a small device. It highlights the fact that there are places where smoking in closed space is allowed. It is the non-smokers who are at a risk. There is an urgent need to take stringent action against clubs, bars, restaurants etc which flout the law,” said Bhavna Mukhopadhyay, executive director, VHAI.

What’s worrisome is the fact that the level of fine particles at these places was 32 times higher than the permissible limit. “Fine particle PM 2.5 enters the lungs directly and can cause serious damage. Studies have shown that non-smokers are at equal risk of developing complications if they are exposed to passive smoking. Our teams were there only for an hour, but the PM 2.5 levels collected by our device was way too high than the permissible limit. According to WHO, a person should not inhale more than 25 microns of PM 2.5 in a span of 24 hours,” said Dr PC Bhatnagar, member of VHAI.

In Delhi, the PM 2.5 levels were alarmingly high and the survey found the levels 64 times higher than the normal. “In Delhi, of the 12 places visited, violation of the ban was found in only five places,” said Dr Bhatnagar.

Experts say that a large number of public places were found to be violating the smoke-free rules. “Though the rule allows some eateries to have a separate smoking area, there are many violations. The rules have a set of guidelines like the smoking zone should be a separate area and should have an automatic door to separate the smoking and non-smoking area but this is not seen in many places. The waiters still go inside the smoking area to serve food or alcohol,” said Priyanka Dahiya, legal officer, HRIDAY-Shan, an NGO.

30 October 2009, Timesofindia

SIDNEY – School safety officer Curtis Hofrock spoke to fifth-graders at West Elementary in Sidney Wednesday morning about the facts.

Marijuana facts and tobacco facts. Both good subjects for Red Ribbon Week.

This year’s theme at West and Central schools is “Better things to do than drugs.”

According to school guidance counselor Carla Brauer, Hofrock’s philosophy is that students already know how to say no, he just gives them the facts and then lets them use the information to make a choice.

Students were given a 17-question quiz about their knowledge of tobacco and what compounds are found in tobacco products.

The information showed tobacco contains elements such as arsenic, carbon monoxide, lead and other toxins.

He warned students to be mindful of homemade Halloween treats when they go trick-or-treating this weekend.

“Check your candy,” he said. “If it’s homemade then throw it away.”

He discussed the side effects of marijuana and said police officer use drug dugs to detect it in foods, part of why it is a good idea to not eat homemade treats since desserts are usually the food of choice for those using “pot” as an ingredient for treats.

Other slang for the popular teen drug of choice is weed, ganga, reefer, Mary Jane, blunt, joint, roach and nail.

Hofrock said talking to parents is important.

“It’s good for you and your parents to be on the same page,” he said.

Red Ribbon Week will conclude tomorrow with a red balloon release at Central School at 11 a.m. and one at West from 11:45 to 12:15 p.m.

By Jessica Bauerkemper jessicab@suntelegraph.com
October 28, 2009

Take a long drag of your Warm Mocha Mint Cigar – it might be the last you buy in the city. Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed the ban on flavored tobacco into law yesterday. But before you hyperventilate, read the fine print: the ban doesn’t include clove or menthol cigarettes or even flavored hookah.

The city council proposed the ban as a way to “to protect the children of New York City,” Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) said during the vote. The number of high school students who smoke only cigars and cigarillos has tripled since 2001, the council said, and the fruity flavors might be to blame.

And experts agree. Michele Bonan, regional director of advocacy for the American Cancer Society, told the Daily News that flavored tobacco is “Big Tobacco’s version of training wheels.”

By: Rebecca Huval, NYpress

A small group of students at Indiana University Southeast protested the university’s tobacco-free policy by lighting cigarettes and smoking on campus Thursday afternoon.

Three students received referrals after campus police asked them to put out their cigarettes and they refused, but the protest remained peaceful. Another half dozen students joined in the protest or carried signs but chose not to smoke.

Ian Girdley, a sophomore English and journalism major, organized what he called the “act of civil disobedience.”

“We ask the IU Board of Trustees to give us a reasonable place to smoke while still protecting students from unwanted secondhand smoke,” Girdley said.The students walked from the free speech area near the clock tower about 50 yards to a nearby field to smoke. The campus policy is that students can only smoke in vehicles.

“I think most of us would just like a designated area to smoke — maybe one on each end of campus,” said Katelyn Dowell, a junior majoring in psychology.

Tristan Williamson, a junior English major, does not smoke, but marched with the demonstrators. He said it is “ridiculous” that smokers do not have a place to go.

Former IUS music professor Jamey Abersold argued with the protesters, accusing them of distorting the truth about the harmfulness of tobacco. Abersold now does anti-smoking presentations at local schools.

“I don’t think people should be allowed to smoke anywhere,” Abersold said.

University spokeswoman Jenny Johnson Wolf said the students who chose to smoke will be referred to the vice chancellor for Student Affairs, which is university policy for anyone caught smoking.

There is a judicial hearing to determine any discipline. Wolf said there is no minimum or maximum penalty for violating the smoking ban and that each offender is treated on a “case- by-case” basis.

In two years of the restrictions, less than 20 students have received referrals for smoking, Wolf said. Many of the students at the protest say they smoke in the parking lot, and no one has ever told them to stop. Girdley said he has received verbal reprimands for smoking on campus, but was never issued a referral before Thursday.

He said one reason they chose to demonstrate now — two years after the Indiana University Board of Trustees mandated the campus become completely tobacco-free — is because of concern the university was planning to start stricter enforcement of the anti-smoking policy.

Wolf said the university is discussing how to better enforce the rules, but that no formal proposal has been made and no date is set for changes to take place.

“The campus, with feedback from our Executive Council and students, is reviewing options to improve the effectiveness of the tobacco-free compliance, Wolf said. “This includes the possibility of fines and/or community service being assigned to those who break the tobacco-free policy.”

Student Government Association President James Bonsall said he will meet today with administration officials to discuss how to better enforce the tobacco-free policy. He said the university is considering issuing citations that would be similar to parking tickets, rather than having students go before a judicial board.

“Basically, nobody has ever had to enforce the smoking ban so far,” Bonsall said.

He said the problem with the current system is that some students do not have vehicles on campus and therefore cannot smoke. He supports having designated smoking areas away from building.

“I don’t believe nonsmoking students should be subjected at all to smoke,” Bonsall said.

He said it was good to see students out protesting, although he disagrees with them violating university rules to do so.

October 29, 2009
By MATT THACKER, News-tribune

QUEENSLAND has banned smoking in cars carrying children under the age of 16.

Deputy Premier and Health Minister Paul Lucas said the new laws would start from January next year and apply on all public roads.

“These new laws are about reducing the exposure children have to tobacco smoke,” Mr Lucas said yesterday.

The legislation was passed in Queensland parliament yesterday as part of measures contained in the Health and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2009.

The Government described its anti-smoking laws as being the toughest in the country, including smoking bans for indoor and outdoor public places as well as restrictions on retail advertising, display and promotion of tobacco products.

In Queensland alone there are 276,000 smokers with children aged under 16, the Government said.

“The level of tobacco smoke inside a vehicle is very high, and we know young children involuntarily exposed to tobacco smoke in confined environments have significantly increased health risks, including bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma, ear infections and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome,” Mr Lucas said.

Other states are also introducing bans on smoking in cars with children.

October 30, 2009

RONAN – Rick and Vicki Wheeler recently got their first letter from the Lake County Health Department saying someone had complained that people were still lighting up in their Ronan bar, The Club, despite a statewide smoking ban that took effect on Oct. 1.

Rick Wheeler says they demanded to know who had turned them in – the law entitles them to that, he said.

Then he lit a cigarette while tending bar.

Here on the Flathead Indian Reservation, the Montana Clean Indoor Air Act has run into some hazy skies.

Tribally owned bars and casinos are exempt from the state’s smoking ban. That means the Grey Wolf Peak Casino north of Evaro and the Kwa Taq Nuk Resort in Polson, owned by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, still offer both smoking and nonsmoking casino areas.

But here on the Flathead Reservation, some enrolled tribal members who own liquor licenses also allow smoking in their bars.

“The way I understand it, the state and health department won’t pursue it if we allow it, because they have nowhere to take it,” says Lori Peterson, an enrolled member of the tribes and owner of the Pheasant Lounge in Ronan.

Rick Wheeler’s bar sits a block away, on the other side of Ronan’s Main Street.

“Ninety percent of my customers smoke,” says Wheeler, who is not a tribal member. If he enforces the smoking ban, Wheeler says, virtually all of them will simply cross the street to a bar where they can light up inside, and the business he’s owned for 20 years will go belly-up.

“That’s not right,” he says. “This bar is my retirement – do they want to take that away from me, too? It’s racial discrimination.”

The majority of bars on the Flathead Reservation had either already gone smoke-free or did so on Oct. 1 when the ban on smoking in enclosed public places was extended to those that serve liquor.

Even Peterson pressed a “smoke-free establishment” sign on the window of her door and put away the ashtrays for a week, before learning it was up to her whether she would enforce it.

“We did lose customers” when the Pheasant initially went nonsmoking, Peterson says. “I have nowhere for smokers to go, except into the street or the alley. Most of the other bars have a deck or a beer garden where they can smoke outside.”

Her business hasn’t gone up from pre-Oct. 1 levels since the ashtrays returned to the bar and tables, but it did allow her to recoup the business she had lost.

“It just lets us keep our own customers,” Peterson says. “It’s not like Missoula, where if there was just one bar where you could smoke, it’s where all the smokers would be.”

That’s because Peterson isn’t the only tribal member on the reservation who owns a bar and allows smoking.

Neither is Wheeler the only nontribal member who owns a bar on the reservation but is not enforcing the smoking ban.

He’s just not afraid to admit it.

“The next thing they’ll go after is the obese thing,” Wheeler says. “If you’re 10 pounds overweight they won’t be allowed to serve you anything but water and vegetables in a restaurant. They’ll get it to where they won’t let you eat what you want. This country is turning into a dictatorship.”

Wheeler, 65, says he’s smoked since he was 15 years old. His wife smokes, two of his three bartenders smoke, and the third chews smokeless tobacco – also banned under the Clean Indoor Air Act.

Like Peterson, Wheeler says business isn’t up because he still allows smoking – it just hasn’t gone down. Of the 10 percent of his regulars Wheeler says don’t smoke, only one has quit coming into The Club.

Likewise, Peterson says her nonsmoking patrons have remained loyal since she removed the “smoke-free establishment” sign and replaced it with one that says “smoking allowed.”

“If people want to smoke, they should have that right,” Wheeler says. “It’s their choice. We have rights, too. There are plenty of places for nonsmokers to go.”

One of them is the Second Chance Saloon, which sits next door to the Pheasant Lounge and doesn’t allow smoking. The Second Chance has a deck and fire pit out back where customers who smoke can go outside and stay relatively warm in the winter months.

Owner Rod Smart, who has had the Second Chance for nearly 30 years, says the recession has hurt local bars more than the smoking ban. His friend and next-door competitor, Peterson, agrees.

“It isn’t gaming, it isn’t smoking, it’s the recession,” she says. “We lost Plum Creek, which was a big employer here. People don’t have the money for groceries, gas, lights and heat.”

Still, both Peterson and Wheeler say they know bar owners on the reservation who enforce the smoking ban, and who say their businesses are off as much as $1,000 since their smoking patrons were directed outside every time they want to light up.

“It never should have been passed,” Peterson says of the smoking ban in bars. “The state’s not paying our bills, what gives them the right to step in and tell people how to run their businesses? I think if people aren’t allowed to smoke, the state shouldn’t be allowed to sell cigarettes.”

Wheeler says he invested in high-dollar exhaust systems at The Club.

“You can have it full of smokers, and not see much smoke,” he says. “I do what I can to keep secondhand smoke out of here.”

That, Wheeler says, includes the use of high-efficiency particulate air, or HEPA, filters, and he changes the filters each week.

Diana Schwab of the Lake County Tobacco Prevention Program was out of town attending meetings Tuesday and Wednesday and could not be reached for comment. The director of the Lake County Health Department, Emily Colomeda, did not return a phone message Wednesday.

Likewise, Linda Lee, a supervisor with the Montana Tobacco Use Prevention Program, did not return messages left on her phone Tuesday and Wednesday.

But last week, in a Billings Gazette story about smoking being allowed in the Little Bighorn Casino on the Crow Indian Reservation, Lee told reporter Diane Cochran, “Reservations are sovereign governments. Unless they pass their own similar smoke-free laws, native-owned casinos on reservations have the choice whether to be smoke-free.”

Wheeler maintains he should have the same choice.

“Let them fine me, I’m not going to pay it,” he says. “They can appoint me an attorney and I’ll take them to court. Are they going to come in and fine my customers? Maybe they can fill the jail in Hardin up with smokers.

“This is a smoking establishment,” he continues. “Are they going to push me out of business because of that? I don’t know. Is that what they want? How many more taxpayers do they want to put on the street?”

Reporter Vince Devlin can be reached at (406) 319-2117 or at vdevlin@missoulian.com.
October 29, 2009

The New York State Senate hearing on the state’s non-collection of taxes on cigarettes sold to non-Native Americans on Indian Reservations brought representatives from Indian nations from all over New York State into a highly charged arena at the Borough of Manhattan Community College on Tuesday.

The hearing was chaired by state Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington) and had several other senators on the committee in attendance throughout the day. Though the hearing was scheduled to end at 2:30 p.m., the full slate of witnesses and complexity of the testimony being given extended to just after 4:30 p.m., with only two brief breaks in between.

Johnson had to call for order on a couple of occasions during heated exchanges between Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn) and JC Seneca of the Seneca Nation of Indians that prompted mocking rebukes from Indians in the auditorium. Golden implored the Seneca nation to help New York State given the $4 billion budget deficit the state is facing claiming that New York State will soon be in the same position as California and issuing IOU’s to contractors, vendors and employees. This was met with calls from the crowd, many of whom were yelling out “That’s not our problem” and taunting the senator as he walked out midway through the proceedings.

Early on in the testimony, the senators attempted to establish the amount of tax money that New York was theoretically missing by not collecting tax on tobacco sales on Indian territories when sold to non-natives from off reservation land. This proved more difficult than the panel probably hoped as the first three witnesses gave figures that ranged between $95 million annually to $1.6 billion annually. The latter figure being given during spirited testimony given by Steve Rosenthal, a former tobacco distributor turned industry consultant.

The $95 million estimate was proffered by Peter Kiernan, representing Governor Paterson’s office, which represented a portion of the more than $200 million missing tax revenue as reported by William Comiskey, the deputy commission or Taxation and Finance. Kiernan said the reduced figure assumed a high level of “non-compliance in collection” of the tax even if a mechanism was adopted to collect taxes on cigarettes and it was agreed to by the tribes.
The committee pursued Kiernan more aggressively than other witnesses, clearly indicating a fracture between the governor’s office and the state legislature. Kiernan made it clear that the governor’s office is less than hopeful that this money will be collected and cited discussion with the New York State police that efforts to collect taxes from merchants on reservation territory would likely be met with violence. Key to this assumption were the incidents in 1992 and 1997 where New York State troopers attempting to enter Seneca territory upstate New York were met with angry mobs resulting in a standoff on both occasions.

Kiernan represented that the governor was determined to come to a resolution with the tribes but as of now has followed the practice of “forbearance,” which was begun during the Cuomo administration and continued through the Pataki and Spitzer administrations as well. Kiernan noted that the lack of clarity in the law and precedent to collect taxes from Indian nations as well as the likelihood of violent confrontation made the situation more difficult even though the Paterson administration believed it had a right to collect taxes from the tribes.

He went on to explain that the state troopers indicated during their discussions that the cost to close down activity on reservation lands in New York in an attempt to enforce taxation would cost nearly $2 million per day with no clear idea of how long a standoff between the state and the nations would take. Senators Golden and George Winner (R-Elmira) took the greatest exception to Kiernan’s testimony prompting Winner to ask “Doesn’t that send a message that there are rewards for not following the law?”

Other senators, most notably Sen. Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) attempted to lay a foundation that Native Americans enjoy public resources from transportation to healthcare. But there was a noticeable shift in the room when JC Seneca of the Seneca Nation and Seneca counsel Rob Porter were sworn in and took their seats in the witness chairs in the front of the packed room. Johnson took an amicable and cautious approach with Seneca and Porter as the discussion turned toward the key issue of sovereignty. Seneca in turn spoke in measured tones about the definition of sovereignty and cited case law and a Federal treaty between the United States and the Seneca Nation establishing that all commerce conducted on reservation territory is exempt from all local, state and federal taxes.

The senate committee ran into a brick wall with the Seneca and Porter testimony. As counsel to the Seneca Nation, Porter quoted state and federal decisions with efficiency and closed down every angle the committee pursued to further its goal of taxing Indian nations. When Winner remarked that Mr. Seneca appeared to be a non-violent and peaceful person and suggested that conflict could be avoided, Seneca replied to the delight of the Native Americans in the room that “you obviously don’t know me very well.”

He went on to say that neither side wanted conflict but reminded the committee that it was New York State that “invaded Seneca land with a thousand state troopers” and asked what the committee would do if that happened on their land. At the end of the question and answer period, Seneca struck a conciliatory note that the Seneca Nation would continue to pursue all matters in a court of law and try to avoid violent confrontation.

In a brief interview after his testimony, Seneca was upbeat about the hearing saying that “dialogue is beneficial to both sides of our issues” and that he was very concerned for the “success of western New York.” He is one of the largest employers in its region, which has turned the economic tables in the past two decades.

Much of their success has been due to the revenues generated from three gaming operations controlled by the nation and the increased revenues from the sale of tobacco. Seneca Nation and Chief James Ransom, Chief of the St. Regis Mohawk tribe, provided economic reports as part of their testimonies to illustrate the economic benefit that the tribes activities have on the regions they border.

Left unclear is what role the committee will play and whether or not any recommendations they make can be enacted or enforced. As a result of the taxes on cigarettes in New York—and Manhattan in particular—all Indian tribes have seen an explosion in sales on reservation territory.

Part this economic boon to the tribes is a war chest of funds to fight any legal battles that they deem to be en encroachment on their sovereign rights to engage in commerce on their lands. What does seem clear is that New York will have to look elsewhere to close its ever increasing budget gap.

By Jed Morey, Oct 28th, 2009

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg signed legislation on Wednesday to prohibit the sale of most forms of flavored tobacco products in New York City. The new law is more extensive than the federal Food and Drug Administration’s ban on candy- and fruit-flavored cigarettes, which took effect last month.

The City Council approved the bill on Oct. 14. The legislation covers “chocolate, vanilla, honey, candy, cocoa, dessert, alcoholic beverage, herb or spice flavors,” but exempts “tobacco, menthol, mint or wintergreen flavors.”

The city ban includes cigars and smokeless tobacco, while the federal ban is limited to cigarettes. That ban prohibits the sale of cigarettes with “an artificial or natural flavor (other than tobacco or menthol) or an herb or spice, including strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon, pineapple, vanilla, coconut, licorice, cocoa, chocolate, cherry, or coffee.”

While the city’s adult smoking rate has fallen — a development that the mayor has repeatedly trumpeted as a public health success — the Council said that the proportion of public high school students in the city who said they smoked only cigars and cigarillos had tripled since 2001. Flavored tobacco products are often marketed at the young.

Violators of the new city law may be fined up to $2,000 or have their tobacco-vending license suspended.

The mayor signed two other bills into law on Wednesday.

One seeks to improve safety at construction sites where work has been suspended, by encouraging property owners to come forward with faltering or halted projects and craft a plan to increase safety on their sites, and by making it easier for city inspectors to monitor compliance and for work to resume on these sites once the owners get financing in place. In return for the developers’ participation in the program, the Buildings Department will renew a stalled site’s permit for up to four years.

The other new law requires the Department of Education to report on the implementation of Billy’s Law, a state law created to improve the monitoring of students placed in out-of-state residential facilities.

By Sewell Chan, October 28, 2009

NEW YORK -R.J. Reynolds is raising prices on Camel, Kool and other cigarette brands, joining competitor Philip Morris USA in continuing to boost prices to offset volume declines.

R.J. Reynolds is a unit of Reynolds American (RAI). The company is raising wholesale prices on brands such as Camel, Kool, Winston, Salem, Pall Mall and Doral by six cents a pack. Prices on some other brands such as Capri and Lucky Strike will go up by eight cents a pack.

Earlier this week, Altria Group Inc.’s (MO) Philip Morris USA unit announced price hikes on Marlboro and other cigarettes. For years, cigarette makers in the U.S. have faced falling volumes, hurt by smoking bans and higher taxes. They have sought to shore up profits by steadily hiking prices.

-By Anjali Cordeiro, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2200; anjali.cordeiro@dowjones.com

NEW YORK — Less than two weeks after New York Gov. Paterson expressed his desire to collect excise taxes from sales of cigarettes on Native American reservations, J.C. Seneca, co-chairman of the Seneca Nation Foreign Relations Committee, and Robert Odawi Porter, senior policy advisor and counsel, urged the New York Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations this week to honor Indian treaties as they relate to collecting taxes on Native American tobacco sales within the nation’s borders.

Addressing the hearing panel, Seneca said the recurrent question of “‘Why doesn’t the state collect taxes on commerce taking place on Indian lands?” has a simple and definitive answer: It lacks the authority.

“For over 200 years, New York State has tried to steal our lands, assert jurisdiction over what lands we have left and impose its taxes on us and our activities,” Seneca said in a statement during a hearing on the issue. “In response, and in our defense, the United States promised to protect us from any effort by the state to impose its taxes in our territories.

“Your oaths of office require you to uphold American laws and treaties. Whether you do so or not is up to you, but I assure you that we have no intention of compromising any of our treaty rights that have already been bought and paid for through the relinquishment of most of our aboriginal rights.”

The Seneca leader detailed the Seneca Nation’s effort to build its economy across its five Western New York sovereign territories, which the nation says contributed more than $1.1 billion to the statewide economy in the past decade.

The Seneca nation is the fifth-largest employer in Western New York, providing jobs for some 6,300 persons through its government, gaming and hospitality, gasoline and tobacco retailing and emerging private sector ventures, the group said in a statement. Hundreds of those jobs are held by non-Senecas.

Seneca told the panel the nation’s tobacco and motor fuel business segment, which generated an estimated $313 million in 2007, contributed nearly $200 million in spin-off dollars to the state economy.

“Even though the nation’s tobacco trade is not subject to state taxation, the ripple effects of the nation’s trade spill into the state and regional economy as the Seneca government and citizens spend net tobacco profits in the off-territory economy,” Seneca noted.

According to a recent study by Harvard economist Jonathan Taylor, Seneca tobacco sales in 2005 generated $195 million in state gross domestic product. The study concluded that for every $1 of gross profits accrued to the nation’s tobacco businesses, the state economy gained $1.67, the nation said in a statement.

The Seneca leader also detailed the nation’s efforts to oversee and control sales and distribution of tobacco products. In addition to voluntary reviews from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Enforcement, the nation has implemented an anti-counterfeiting stamping program. The nation also established its own tobacco business enforcement commission, which oversees compliance to retailer authorization and minimum pricing regulations, and a ban on sales to minors.

October 28, 2009

Roll-ups are making a comeback, as recession-hit smokers switch from expensive cigarettes to cheaper hand-rolled tobacco.

Customs officials cleared 159,605kg of rolling tobacco for distribution in the first nine months of this year, a 38% increase on 2008. They attributed the surge to a rise in the use of roll-your-own tobacco by smokers striving to cut costs.

A survey published last week found that Irish people are smoking more than ever, with one third of the population still lighting up, the highest rate in 11 years.

Despite hikes in tobacco tax, the ban on smoking in the workplace and a law against shops displaying cigarettes for sale, the number of smokers has risen since 2007, when 29% of the population smoked, the EU’s Help campaign found.

A 25g pack of rolling tobacco costs €8.74 but, according to Vincent Jennings, chief executive of the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association, a thrifty smoker could roll as many as 150 cigarettes from it. Twenty cigarettes cost €8.45, though a preliminary ruling from the European Court of Justice last week found that Ireland’s policy of setting a minimum price for tobacco products distorts competition.

“I always smoked Marlboro Lights and it’s only in the last year that I switched to rollies because I couldn’t keep paying out €8.45 a pop,” said John Murphy, 33, who works in sales and advertising. “I used to spend €100 a week on cigarettes and now I spend €16.

“Ireland’s culture of overcharging is a disgrace and if they continue to rip us off I’m going to buy it on the streets.”

Customs seized 3,144kg of roll-your-own tobacco in the first nine months, double the amount in all of 2007. Illicit tobacco products now account for 30% of consumption, the highest figure in the EU.

Convenience stores say they are losing about €80m a year and are not benefiting from higher rolling-tobacco sales as much as they should be, Jennings says. “One member found that when a local gang got in on the act, his tobacco sales went down to 25% of what they had been,” he said.

Imperial Tobacco, maker of Golden Virginia, is enjoying a 15% increase in sales of the brand leader and has introduced discount brands such as Gold Leaf. Deirdre Healy of John Player & Sons, Imperial’s Irish business, said: “Unlike cigarettes, which are a standard size, roll-your-own gives greater flexibility to control spending by rolling a cigarette as small or as large as you like.

“Rolling tobacco has always been lower in Ireland than in the UK, accounting for about 2% of the market. But because of the times, we have increased our orders month-on-month.”

A recent analysis of smoking in the UK discovered a cultural shift in the use of tobacco, with more than one in four adult smokers using pouch tobacco.

One in five white-collar professionals who smoke now use roll-ups, as do one in five female smokers compared with one in 50 in 1990, suggesting that the roll-up, favoured by actors such as Jeremy Irons and Kate Winslet, is now hip.

“Rolling tobacco has become fashionable in certain quarters,” Jennings said. “I think, though, that for most smokers, it’s an inconvenience and they only go for it because of the value for money.”

Sunday Times
October 25, 2009