Harford County government says it plans to impose a complete smoking ban on its properties, owned or leased, though it isn’t clear what specific properties fall into that category. The Harford County Department of Administration will conduct a public hearing on the proposed rule and regulation requiring county government property to be tobacco-free on Dec. 5 at 2 p.m. in the second floor conference room, Harford County Government Administration Building, 220 South Main St. in Bel Air.

“Basically there will be no smoking on county property,” Bob Thomas, the chief spokesman for county government said Monday. The county currently bans smoking in all its buildings, but not on the grounds.

“There’s been an issue at the county office building, where smokers congregate down the handicapped ramp and also at a picnic table on the parking lot,” Thomas said.

The proposed tobacco-free rule and regulation states: “Smoking and use of any tobacco products is prohibited on all property owned, leased or operated by Harford County, Maryland (the ‘County’). This consists of all buildings and grounds, including exterior open spaces, parking lots and garages, driveways and recreational facilities. In addition, smoking is prohibited in any vehicle owned or leased by the County.”

Besides cigarettes, cigars and pipes, “smoking” is defined as the use of other tobacco products such as snuff and chewing tobacco, as well as, e-cigarettes.

The tobacco ban will take effect Jan. 1, 2012; however, the regulation has a provision for the county to provide a designated smoking area outside any leased county facility that is under contract to be used prior to the ban taking place.

Employees who violate this regulation are subject to disciplinary action, according to the regulation. Visitors and/or vendors who are observed violating this regulation will be required to cease the violation, or will be asked to leave the premises.

Thomas could not immediately provide specific details on the properties that will or will not be affected by the ban. He did say he had been told the libraries’ grounds would not be covered by it.

The tobacco-free rule and regulation is expected to be posted on the county’s website sometime on Tuesday.

Some students at the University of North Texas handed out free cigarettes Monday to protest a proposed smoking ban. A group called Young Americans for Liberty is opposed to a proposal that would ban smoking on campus. Leaders of the group said the university shouldn’t be allowed to make those kind of rules.

With the free cigarettes, protesters will also be asking students to sign a petition.

The current UNT policy on smoking prohibits smoking inside buildings and university vehicles. Smokers must also be 25 feet from any building.

South Beach Smoke, a leading provider of electronic cigarettes, is widely considered to be one of the most affordable brands available. However, the company is taking one step further by providing a site-wide 15% off discount for Cyber Monday. The standard electronic cigarette starter kit is priced between $80 and $100. South Beach Smoke offers their Deluxe Electronic Cigarette Starter Kit for as low as $59.99.

Their Cyber Monday offer drops that price by 15% (that’s half the price competitors offer for their starter kits). Of course, this is a one-day offer which explains the incredible deal.

The Coupon Code is: CYBERMONDAY and can be used at checkout for 15% Off all products including the popular Deluxe Electronic Cigarette Starter Kit.

Electronic cigarettes are handheld electronic devices that flash vaporize a liquid nicotine solution producing vapor instead of smoke. They have grown in popularity over the last couple years as more and more people find them to be a better option than smoking traditional cigarettes. They have no tar, no smoke, no ash, and are odorless. They can be used indoors and nearly all public places.

The company offers a variety of products but their most popular is the two-piece Deluxe Electronic Cigarette Starter Kit. This product has been ranked #1 by dozens of electronic cigarette experts and is one of the most popular in the industry. It comes in a variety of flavors including vanilla, cherry, menthol, chocolate, and of course – tobacco. It also has various strength options for heavy, light and medium smokers. The Deluxe Starter Kit has two lithium ion batteries, a portable wall charger, five cartridges (with customer choice of flavor and strength) and more.

South Beach Smoke recently updated their kits with the SuperMax battery. At 4.2 volts and with a high-tech design, this is the strongest – most high-tech battery available. The new batteries are designed to produce as much vapor as possible. They also last longer than the previous model which means they can go days without being charged (depending on frequency of usage).

Getting smokers to quit can be tough, but two studies reporting success with smoking-cessation programs released Monday in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine offer some hope. One study focused on using a practice quit-attempt program and nicotine therapy for smokers who weren’t motivated to quit. Researchers worked with 849 people in a randomized trial; participants were assigned to a six-week practice quit-attempt program or a program that also included sampling nicotine lozenges to increase the impetus to quit.

The favorite cigarettes for cheap price. Buy Kent cigarettes online for discount price, we delivery tax free packs and cartons worldwide.

While attempting to quit, smokers spoke to counselors by phone and received support information designed to make them more motivated and boost their self-assurance and coping skills.

Both groups had success in attempting to quit smoking: 85% of those in the practice program and 82% of those who also had the nicotine therapy made at least one attempt to quit. Four weeks after the program ended, 13% of those in the practice group and 22% of those who also had nicotine therapy attempted to quit for 24 hours. After 12 weeks, those numbers were 23% and 32%. At the six-month mark, 40% of the practice group and 49% of those who also had nicotine therapy had made a quit attempt.

The other study compared an eight-week usual care stop-smoking program with a year-long telephone-based chronic disease management program. In the first part of the study, 443 smokers had five phone calls with counselors and nicotine therapy for four weeks. They were then randomly assigned to the shorter program and received two more phone calls, or to the longer program that included more counseling and nicotine therapy for another 48 weeks.

At 18 months, rates of six-month smoking abstinence were 23.5% in the usual care group and 30.2% in the long-term care group. Those in the long-term group also made many more attempts to quit than those in the usual care group.

And among those who didn’t quit, more people in the long-term group reduced their smoking compared with those in the usual care group at one year.

Two separate traffic stops by troopers with the Nebraska State Patrol on Interstate 80 led to the seizure of 88 pounds of marijuana. Just before 9 p.m. Sunday, a trooper stopped a westbound 2011 Nissan Altima for following too close on I-80 in Hall County. A patrol canine alerted to the odor of drugs coming from rear of the vehicle. A search led to the seizure of 25 pounds of marijuana in a plastic tote in the truck of the vehicle.

The driver of the vehicle, Robert D. Penn Jr., 39, of Omaha was taken to the Hall County Jail. He was charged in Hall County Court Monday with felony possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute.

His bond was set at 10 percent of $50,000 and his preliminary hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Feb. 15.

A traffic stop for speeding on Nov. 22, led to the seizure of 63 pounds of marijuana. Just before 6:30 p.m., a trooper stopped an eastbound 2008 Ford pickup on I-80 near Kearney. A search of the vehicle led to the discovery of the marijuana in the bed of the pickup.

The driver, John A. Ibarra, 32, Willits, Calif., was taken to the Buffalo County Jail for possession of marijuana with intent to deliver.

“What could you do with $15,000?” Susan Chase, dental network coordinator for Delta Dental asks smokers who stop to chat with her at our health fairs for advice on how to kick the habit. The answers she hears include take a trip of a lifetime, save for college or retirement, and a variety of other personal wishes. She quickly points out that amount is about what you would spend if you smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for five years.

She sends a clear and practical message: “Smoking is bad for your health and expensive,” she says. “Think of what you can do with the money you save and how much healthier you would be to enjoy it.”
“The effects of smoking are not pretty,” she emphasizes. “They include yellow teeth, increased buildup of plaque, and higher risk of oral cancer. In fact, mouth cancers are among the toughest cancers to treat. But when you quit smoking, your health improves almost immediately. Within 20 minutes your heart rate drops. Within 12 hours, the carbon monoxide level in the blood drops to normal. Within 2 weeks to 3 months, your circulation improves and your lung function increases up to 30 percent. Within a year, your risk of having coronary artery disease is half that of a smoker’s.”1
One of the most compelling reasons to stop smoking Susan offers is: “Children learn by example and if you smoke, chances are your child will, too.” In the meantime, chances are they are growing up in a household with secondhand smoke.
That’s why on the third Thursday of each November, the American Cancer Society holds the Great American Smokeout. It’s a chance for smokers to take a step toward a healthier life, and for the rest of us to publicly support them. At Delta Dental of New Jersey, we’ve planned a day of related activities for our employees. Smokers are encouraged to exchange their cigarettes for a tobacco-free survival kit, and nonsmokers can give up something they like, from coffee to candy, as an act of support for their colleagues. And, for a little more motivation, participants can win prizes in our Cold Turkey raffle.
The Great American Smokeout lasts just one day. But its message is important year-round. If you’re still smoking, now is a good time to stop.

Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo has refused to revise the tobacco excise rate, which will be applied as of January 1 next year. He said that businesses were considered before making the decision and determining the excise. The 15 – 16 percent rate increase was made based on the tobacco excise implementation road map. “We hope everyone understands that we must protect the public’s health and this takes commitment from all parties,” he said.

Agus said the 10 percent cigarette excise increase was the most effective measure to achieve these goals. The 16 percent increase will be applied to the second category of handmade clove cigarettes. “But there may not be a cigarette company in this category,” he added.

Indonesian Cigarette Industry Forum (Formasi) executive Heri Susianto, called on the government to postpone the new tobacco excise rate. “We also ask that the excise be lowered,” he said after a hearing with the finance commission.

Debate has been rife over whether smokers can receive state-paid healthcare benefits, which I argue they should. In light of Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo’s proposal to exclude smokers from free healthcare in Jakarta, it is timely to review the reasons why this plan can’t be justified. One of the most cited justifications for the governor’s proposal is an economic argument. Smokers, proponents of the plan say, are not poor or can’t be considered poor and therefore do not deserve benefits intended for the poor.

But how do we define and measure poverty? Can smoking be included in the measurement?

One way to look at poverty is by measuring consumption levels. The World Bank defines poverty as the inability to fulfill a certain level of consumption for basic needs, such as food or healthcare. Thus, proponents say, smokers deprive themselves of basic needs by spending money on cigarettes. Spending money on cigarettes is a waste indeed, but this argument only holds true if the counterfactual holds: that they would otherwise spend this money on basic needs. But would they?

Proponents also argue that the proposal serves as a disincentive to smokers so they would give up smoking in pursuing a free healthcare. It is a sort of punishment for smokers, albeit a weak and dishonest one.

The addictive property of nicotine has made efforts to encourage people to quit smoking far from easy. Most smokers fail in their attempts to stop. Many have struggled, sometimes for years, and succeeded, but they often relapse. In addition, successful cessation is often linked to increased access to assistance to quit smoking rather than preventing smokers from seeing doctors.

Not only is this punishment not evidence-based, it is also deceitful. It is like changing the rules of the game when the ball is already rolling. Where were we when these smokers took a puff on their first cigarettes? Did we tell them then they were going to lose their access to free healthcare?

Lastly, there is my favorite fairness argument — that it would be fair to place the burden of smoking-related illnesses on those individuals who smoke and relieve the rest of the society, the non-smokers, from paying for their illnesses. Smokers, indeed, are more susceptible to some diseases and are likely to use more healthcare services compared to non-smokers. This argument is correct, but only superficially.

In saying that an individual is held responsible for his/her actions, we are claiming that the action is completely voluntary and based on complete information of what such action would cause. In the case of smoking, is it fair for us to say this behavior is completely voluntary and deliberate?

Most smokers started smoking when they were young; some when they were just toddlers. I would argue that the initiation of smoking, for many, is not a voluntary decision made following a careful deliberation on complete information covering what health hazards smoking causes. In fact, most smokers hardly have complete information. The small warning box neither tells them how likely they are to suffer from those conditions nor warns them how cigarette smoking will affect their household finances.

The lack of information is aggravated by the aggressive cigarette sales promotions. Smoking role models have long been established — from the infamous Marlboro man to a successful architect. At schools, peer pressure plays an important part in smoking initiation. Worse still, our soccer league is named after a famous cigarette brand. So don’t we, society and the state, allow all this to happen and shouldn’t we be held responsible for these individuals’ smoking?

Fairness demands that we treat smokers and non-smokers equally. But we can’t be completely fair on smokers unless we can be certain that “the punishment fits the crime.” Smokers smoke differently and non-smokers suffer from diseases causally linked to smoking, too. How can we correctly quantify the contribution of smoking on the development of those diseases? Is banning smokers, let alone their families, from free healthcare a proportionate and fair punishment?

In sum, excluding smokers from free healthcare has no strong justification. It certainly has no prior evidence, or perhaps even hypothesis, that it would succeed to change smokers’ behavior.

I am a strong believer that smoking is evil, but I also believe that imprudent public health policy, such as this, will only see the most disenfranchised suffer further.

Moreover, by adopting such a policy we risk going too far. If smokers are banned from getting free healthcare services, shouldn’t we move on and ban patients from receiving treatment in severe head injury cases resulting from speeding collisions without a helmet or seat belt? What about diseases related to a lack of exercise or salt consumption?

As a nation, we ought to care about the poor, including those who smoke. Rather than further depriving these people of services they need the most, the state should proactively help them to quit smoking, for example by giving them access to smoking cessation programs.

After all, the state should be held responsible, at least partly, from failing to protect its citizens from being smokers in the first place.

A medical marijuana activist says he’s looking for 100 “weed warriors” to help him oust Michigan’s attorney general – that’s according to our media partners at www.mlive.com/lansing. Richard Clement says he’s launching a recall drive against Bill Schuette because he says the AG is cracking down on medical marijuana. The “weed warriors” would help collect some 807,000 signatures when the drive starts December 7.

Schuette helped lead the campaign against medical marijuana before he became attorney general. But a spokesman now says Schuette is just doing his job and enforcing the law.