Teenagers working with state investigators were able to purchase tobacco at 14.6 percent of the establishments they visited over a year, Attorney General Tom Horne said Wednesday. “Clearly we need to redouble our efforts to get the message to clerks that they must not sell tobacco to kids,” Horne said. Of 1,979 stores visited during fiscal 2011 as part of a program dubbed Counterstrike, 288 sold tobacco to the underage volunteers, he said.

The program is a collaboration of Horne’s office and the Arizona Department of Health Services.

It’s illegal in Arizona to sell tobacco products to those under 18. Store clerks who do so are subject to a fine of up to $300.

“Most of these people knew what they’re doing,” said Bertha Adame, one of three task force volunteers who joined Horne at a news conference. “They weren’t just mom-and-pop shops.”

Adame, who at age 18 is now too old for the task force, said she signed on because she considers smoking a nasty habit that traps people.

“Because I knew it was something that had to be stopped, I thought just by me doing it I would make a difference,” she said.

It was easier for the volunteers to purchase tobacco products in rural areas than metropolitan areas, Horne said, with Apache, Coconino, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, La Paz, Navajo and Pinal garnering failure rates of 25 percent or higher. Maricopa and Pima counties reflect the statewide average.

Horne said the results suggest a need to store employees in rural areas.

“I’m very passionate about making sure at least that if people start smoking they do it as grown-ups and not as kids when they have less discretion and less ability to decide what’s really good for them, he said.

Horne also unveiled a 30-second public service announcement showing store clerks denying tobacco products to minors and warning of the fine clerks could face.

“This is a very important program, and I want to see us do a good job of bringing the failure rate as close to zero as we possibly can,” he said.

Scandinavian Tobacco Group subsidiary General Cigar has hired American Caribbean Gateway (ACG) to serve as its exclusive travel-retail agent representing General Cigar in the US, Latin America and Caribbean. ACG currently represents select Scandinavian Tobacco Group products in those markets. ACG will represent the entire range of General Cigar brands including but not limited to Macanudo, Cohiba, La Gloria Cubana, Punch, Partagas and CAO.

Within the Latin American and Caribbean travel-retail segment, ACG will represent select General Cigar products including top-selling brands such as Macanudo, CAO, El Credito and Don Tomas. These are in addition to Scandinavian Tobacco Group offerings consisting of Café Crème, Colts and Old Port brands which are currently being sold by ACG.

General Cigar director of international sales and marketing Cameron Shaw said: “The travel-retail segment represents an outstanding opportunity for General Cigar to extend its footprint outside of traditional sales channels. In working with American Caribbean Gateway, we are able to leverage the strength of our top-selling brands to drive the sale of our renowned premium cigars, along with Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s best-selling machine-made and pipe tobacco offerings, among an expanded set of affluent, brand-conscious consumers.”

ACG president Nick Tamma added: “American Caribbean Gateway’s extensive knowledge of the travel-retail environment and the consumers it serves makes us the ideal partner to help General Cigar establish a stronghold in this competitive channel. We are prepared to begin implementing a comprehensive mix of training and education programmes customised for both retailers and consumers, to ensure General Cigar exceeds its aggressive travel-retail sales targets.”

Practice administrator Glenn Jennings, M.B.A., lost both his parents to smoking-related illnesses and his father-in-law to lung cancer, so he and his wife, family physician Carrie Burns, M.D., already were advocates of not smoking well before their Baytown, Texas, practice participated in the AAFP’s Office Champions Tobacco Cessation Pilot Project.

“What the project did was raise our level of awareness in our office, give us some tools and make us do some thinking about how we could be more effective,” said Jennings, who served as the practice’s office champion. “We became more effective as an office in identifying people who needed to quit smoking and adding new procedures.”

Jennings’ experience with the pilot is far from unique. Forty-nine participating practices were asked to review patient charts before and after the 13-month pilot, which was based largely on the AAFP’s evidence-based Ask and Act program. The percentage of patient charts with documentation of tobacco use status increased from 82.1 percent to 90.2 percent during that period, while the percentage of charts with documentation that patients were offered cessation assistance increased from 47.8 percent to 72.1 percent.

Each practice was required to name an office champion to lead the project and a physician champion to ensure that the office champion had the support of staff. The office champions were required to complete a training program, identify and implement system changes to better integrate tobacco cessation activities into daily office routines, and create a culture that encourages cessation.

According to the pilot’s final report (19-page PDF; About PDFs), practices successfully implemented 85 percent of the changes identified in their implementation plans, and 98 percent of practices expressed confidence that the changes they did make could be sustained.

Many of the changes were based on a practice toolkit provided by the AAFP that includes the following resources:
quit-smoking posters;
a smoking cessation group visits guide;
billing and coding information for smoking cessation-related services;
patient education materials;
lapel pins; and
“prescription pads” that list helpful information for patients before, during and after they quit smoking.
Jennings said Burns’ office had patient education materials and quitline cards in the waiting room and every exam room. In addition, medical assistants reviewed a stop-smoking booklet with patients and gave copies to patients who indicated they were ready to quit. The medical assistants followed up with those patients a week after their appointments to check their progress.

Shawna Eddy was almost five months pregnant when she walked into the First District Health Unit on May 10, 2010. Not long before, she had found some literature about Baby & Me, a new program for pregnant women, in the break room where she worked. The program would help her to quit smoking, and if she did, she would receive vouchers for diapers, a much needed commodity for a new mother.

The trouble was that Eddy was a pack-a-day smoker. She was beginning to cut back to six to seven cigarettes daily, but it wasn’t enough.

Bonnie Riely, the tobacco cessation coordinator for First District Health Unit, met with Eddy and conducted a test using a carbon monoxide detector that measured Eddy’s carbon monoxide levels, as well as the levels for her fetus. The reality hit Eddy. Her carbon monoxide level was at a 7, or 1.12 percent; for her fetus, that was nearly doubled, to 2.19 percent.

“She became a little emotional, because it’s one thing to damage yourself, but when you’re harming your baby…,” Riely said.

According to Riely, smoking while pregnant could lead to risks of childhood obesity, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

By the second visit, Eddy’s carbon monoxide level was 2. She had used Quitline, a hotline that helps smokers and spit-tobacco users quit.

Generally, if participants aren’t at a zero carbon monoxide level by the fourth visit, they are expelled from the program.

Riely encourages women to come in as soon as possible, as to nip it – “it” being the addiction to smoking while pregnant – in the bud.

“The longer I have them, the more education I can give them,” Riely said.

Even after getting the results following the fourth visit, participants are required to come in monthly for the remainder of their pregnancy. Even after Eddy gave birth to her son, Daiden, on Oct. 20, 2010, she was still required to come in as part of the program. After the baby is born, with each successful month of having a low carbon monoxide level this is tested with the pump, as well as saliva tests to discern from second-hand carbon monoxide inhalation a $25 voucher is given to the mother. This voucher can be used for the purchase of diapers at Walmart. With the voucher, Eddy said she purchases two boxes of her preferred brand. After the voucher, she pays $9 out-of-pocket.

On Monday, Eddy was the first official graduate of the program. Daiden, now 11 months old, is a healthy, vibrant baby boy with piercing eyes who has never been sick a day of his short life, something that Eddy credits the program with.

According to Riely, the reason mothers in the program are required to come in after the fourth visit, as well as after the birth, is that while the expectant mothers want to quit on the behalf of their unborn children, they may have a relapse once they give birth. While Eddy quit smoking cold turkey – without the help of a cessation aid – Riely said that nicotine gum or lozenges to help ween mothers off smoking can be used. If these aids are approved by the mother’s doctor, vouchers for these aids are given to the mother from the First District Health Unit. A grant from the North Dakota Department of Health funds the Baby & Me program, plus the vouchers for cessation aids, said Renae Byre, a tobacco cessation counselor with First District.

So far, about 45 to 50 women have signed up for the program since it started up last year. Currently, there are about 25 enrolled, Riely said. Others come in and they drop out, “because it’s a strong addiction,” she added.

According to statistics from North Dakota Vital Records, 17 percent of pregnant women in North Dakota were smoking in 2009. Riely believes that number might have increased, not only due to the boost in population, but that pregnant women who smoke may lie and say they don’t to avoid the shame or stigma.

Japan’s ruling party proposed selling the government’s majority stake in Japan Tobacco Inc., the world’s third-biggest publicly traded cigarette maker, to help fund rebuilding after the March 11 earthquake. Japan Tobacco fell 0.8 percent to 360,000 as of 1:01 p.m. in Tokyo trading after earlier rising as much as 9.2 percent, the most in six months. The broader Topix index rose 0.5 percent.

The government may raise 1.8 trillion yen ($24 billion) by selling its 50.01 percent stake in Japan Tobacco at the stock’s current price. A sale may help Japan Tobacco operate with fewer constraints as the government looks to impose more taxes, including on cigarettes, to fund recovery from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the nuclear disaster that followed.

“The company will have freedom to manage itself,” said Mikihiko Yamato, a research partner at Japan Invest KK. “If the market turns around and moves the shares up, the government may sell its stake earlier than the original plan.”

On Sept. 20, Japanese Health Minister Yoko Komiyama said tobacco taxes in Japan should be raised until the average price of a pack of cigarettes is about 700 yen, or 75 percent higher than the current level, to cut medical costs, Health Minister Yoko Komiyama said. The Democratic Party of Japan also proposed a 9.2 trillion yen overall tax increase yesterday.

Share-Price Gain

The maker of Mild Seven and Camel cigarettes has gained 20 percent this year in Tokyo trading, compared with a 16 percent decline for the Topix index.

“We are hoping Japan Tobacco will be fully privatized, which has been the government’s policy,” Hideyuki Yamamoto, a spokesman for Japan Tobacco, said by phone today, declining to comment further. Yamamoto had said earlier this month that Japan Tobacco was “seriously considering” buying back some shares if the government were to sell.

Japan plans to spend 19 trillion yen over the next five years to rebuild after the record temblor and tsunami devastated the northeast and prompted world’s worst nuclear disaster 25 years. While the government has already approved two packages totaling about 6 trillion yen, the economy has shrunk for three straight quarters.

Pressure to raise money now may have pushed the government to sell more of its stake faster than planned, Yoshifumi Kikuchi, head of dealing at Nissan Century Securities Co., said today by phone.

“I didn’t expect the government to sell its entire stake,” Kikuchi said. “It’s possible the government will sell its stake much earlier than planned since the country’s finances are tight.”

The Tobacco Free Mountaineers will meet today to discuss the next steps in achieving their ultimate goal – a tobacco-free campus. The group is a student-lead coalition that advocates for tobacco prevention on campus and in the local community. With Monongalia County’s vote on the smoking ban in the near future, the Tobacco Free Mountaineers will be discussing their opportunities to play an integral role.

Alyssa Iannamorelli, president of the Tobacco Free Mountaineers, said this is an opportunity for students to make a change that will not only affect the University, but the Morgantown community and county as a whole.
“We will be discussing our role on campus in getting the county to pass the smoking ban, and be the student voice to promote the smoking ban,” Iannamorelli said.
The Morgantown City Council has already passed an ordinance implementing smoke-free zones around the city, but the ultimate goal now is to make it countywide, Iannamorelli said.
Iannamorelli believes there are many benefits to having a smoke-free campus – even for smokers.
“If you cannot smoke in certain areas, then you are more likely to quit entirely,” she said.
The environmental limitations of the smoking ban would not only benefit the health of smokers, but greatly reduce secondhand smoke for local nonsmokers, too.
Iannamorelli said the WVU student body is integral to the smoking ban efforts.
“Hopefully, we will be using the county’s decision as a stepping stone to refocus the University administration on the importance of the tobacco-free campus. But, we really need to drum up the student support for that,” Iannamorelli said.
Statistics from the National College Health Assessment, a survey given by the American College Health Association in Spring 2011, will be presented at the meeting to address the social norms associated with tobacco.
“Many students think a lot more people smoke than is actually true,” Iannamorelli said. “So, we’re going to be discussing options on how to get that information out there.”
Quitline will also be discussed at the meeting – the campus cessation program to help stop smoking.
The meeting is open to the public and takes place in the Mountain Room of the Mountainlair at 8 p.m.

A labour-intensive bidi-making project that is expected to generate around 40,000 jobs in chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal’s home district – Hamirpur – was cleared on Saturday by a high powered single window authority chaired by the CM. The project proposal of West End Tobacco Pvt Ltd, along with eight other new proposals and 21 expansion plans, was given a clearance today, said a spokesman of the industry department.

The tobacco company will set up 80 bidi manufacturing units across Hamirpur district, he said. People, mainly women, had been earlier trained by the tobacco company for manufacturing of “poor man’s” cigarette.

Along with the tobacco project, all fresh proposals are expected to bring in investments valued at Rs 707 crore, the spokesperson said.

Proposal of Nitin Lifescience Ltd to invest Rs 24 crore for setting up a new unit near Poanta Sahib in Sirmaur district was also given a nod.

A proposal by Eco Polyfibres for making a polyster unit in Una district was approved; Virtue Irrigation’s Rs 17.5-crore project in Baddi was also sanctioned.

Pan Asia Bio-Tech plans to invest Rs 53 crore for a new bio-tech facility, proposals by Council Sciences and Maharaja Whiteline of investing Rs 21.75 crore and Rs 8.76 crore respectively have been cleared.

Thanks to an ongoing undercover sting, in Shasta County it’s gotten a lot harder for teens to buy tobacco from local stores, though they continue to smoke at rates higher than state averages, county officials say. So far this year, just one clerk has sold tobacco to a teen working undercover for the county’s Health and Human Services Agency’s tobacco education program, which is charged by the state with enforcing laws prohibiting tobacco sales to minors.

Clerks who sell tobacco to minors face an infraction, which comes with a minimum $200 fine, said Nathan Read, a spokesman for the agency.

So far this year the undercover sting has targeted around 50 of the 217 Shasta County business that sell tobacco.

The illegal sale happened this weekend, Read said.

He declined to identify the clerk or the store, saying doing so is against his agency’s policies. The case hasn’t yet been filed with the Shasta County district attorney’s office for review, Read said.

In 2009, minor decoys made 12 tobacco buys at the 117 stores they visited. In 2008, there were eight sales out of 40 visits — or some 20 percent of the stores.

No clerks sold to the decoys last year.

“That’s a great trend downward,” Read said of this year’s figures, which appear to mirror statewide sales.

The California Department of Public Health reported just 5.6 percent of stores in California sold tobacco to minors this year — the lowest level on record

Read acknowledged there’s still much to be done to curb underage smoking and tobacco use in Shasta County.

Despite low numbers of retailers selling to minors, Shasta County has a teen smoking rate of 14.4 percent, compared with 13.8 percent of teens that use tobacco elsewhere in California.

Read said that means Shasta County’s teens are getting tobacco from friends and family members, behavior that’s much more difficult to curb.

But Read said the drop in sales is doing some good.

Read said 11 is the average age that a youth will start to experiment with tobacco.

If fewer businesses are selling to teens, “maybe they try that first cigarette later,” he said.

“If there’s a message here it’s that this is a real celebration of what businesses ares are doing,” Read said.

Commissioner Raymond Kelly of the New York Police Department came forthwith too little, too late when he issued a memo directing officers not to arrest people caught with small amounts of marijuana unless the drug is in plain public view. A 1977 law decriminalized minor possession, yet tens of thousands are arrested every year. In 2010, more than 50,000 people were arrested for possession of marijuana; a vast majority of them were racial minorities and male.

Civil rights lawyers say that many of them were stopped as part of the Police Department’s broad stop-and-frisk practice and were arrested after officers told them to empty their pockets, which brought the drugs into open view.

Commissioner Kelly’s memo now makes clear that displaying the drug must be an “activity undertaken of the subject’s own volition” and that individuals may not be charged with violating the law if the marijuana “was disclosed to public view at an officer’s direction.”

While the memo, reported by WNYC last week, is an important step, it does not by itself end the problem. The United States Justice Department and New York lawmakers should investigate the legality of practices that led to the arrests of hundreds of thousands of people since the mid-1990s.

Under New York law, possession of 25 grams or less of marijuana is a violation subject to a $100 fine for the first offense. Possession of any amount that is in public view, however, is a misdemeanor punishable by up to three months in jail and a $500 fine.

This statute was supported by district attorneys in the 1970s because they believed it would free the police to fight serious crimes. That changed in the mid-1990s when the city began emphasizing street stops as an important part of its policing approach. Since 1996, the city has taken more than 536,000 people into custody for the lowest-level marijuana charge, according to Harry Levine, a sociologist at Queens College who has tracked the data closely. From 1981 through 1995, that number was 33,700.

Police have characterized marijuana arrests as important for keeping criminals off the street. But, in testimony submitted to the Legislature this summer, Professor Levine estimated that a significant majority of those arrested in 2010 had never been convicted of any crime, based on an analysis of data reported to the state.

Young African-Americans and Hispanics, who are disproportionately singled-out in street stops, make up a high percentage of people arrested for marijuana possession — despite federal data showing that whites are more likely to consume marijuana. This policing practice has damaged young lives and deserves deeper scrutiny by federal and state monitors.