The BC Lung Association and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of B.C. and Yukon want the provincial government to ban the sale of tobacco products in pharmacies and stores that contain pharmacies. “There are approximately 1,000 retail pharmacies in British Columbia, and many pharmacist-owned and operated stores have already made the laudable decision not to sell cigarettes,” says foundation chief executive officer Diego Marchese. “Unfortunately, this accounts for just over half of the pharmacies in B.C. The others, primarily larger chain stores, have not yet made the commitment to stop selling cigarettes.”

Locally, two pharmacies Donex Pharmacy and Department Store and Pharmasave do not sell tobacco products.

“We haven’t sold tobacco since the late 1990s,” says Donex owner Dave Dickie. “We’re here to promote health.”

Pharmacies are in the area of promoting health, and selling tobacco just seems to fly in the face of that, says Pharmasave co-owner Kim Giesbrecht.

“It’s been 17 or 18 years since this outlet has had tobacco products. Not since we’ve owned it.

“And the government now has an excellent stop-smoking program in place.”

According to a recent B.C. stats survey, 71 per cent of British Columbians support the ban of tobacco sales in pharmacies.

“We would like to see the B.C. government ban tobacco from pharmacy shelves, so these health-care professionals can focus on their core business of dispensing health-care products and advice,” says Marchese.

“This is a sound strategy to reduce the burden of future health-care costs caused by smoking-related illness, and it will help British Columbians live longer, healthier lives.”

Central Division Police yesterday began what they called a “crackdown” on illegal cigarette vending in the Chaguanas borough. During an exercise, led by Senior Supt Edward Castillo, of the Central Division, two vendors were arrested by officers along the Chaguanas Main Road for contravening the Tobacco Control Act 2009.

Police said a 44-year-old man, of Cashew Gardens, and a 33-year-old woman, of California, were arrested and charged under Section 15.1 of the act which prohibits the display of cigarettes for sale in T&T. They are expected to appear before a Chaguanas magistrate later today. Meanwhile, a 32-year-old Chaguanas resident was fined $2,500 on Wednesday after pleading guilty to the offence before Magistrate Gillian David-Scotland in the Chaguanas First Magistrate’s Court.

The vendor was arrested in a similar exercise on Tuesday afternoon. Under the legislation, which police sources said was rarely enforced, a person found guilty of the offence faces a maximum fine of $10,000 or up to six months in prison. Police said similar exercises would be conducted in the future to help curtail the illegal sale of cigarettes by street vendors in the borough.

Also included in the exercise was Acting Sgt Ramjitsingh and Cpl Ronnie Lee Gopaul of the Chaguanas CID.

The cigarettes they were selling may have been real, but they were doing so without paying taxes. Georgia state officials announced last week that 40 of the 50 people being accused in a multi-million-dollar crime ring at been arrested, following a nearly four-year statewide investigation, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. “This is pure and simple, organized crime,” said Scott Sweetow, an ATF special agent. “When you have millions of dollars at stake, we get very concerned with those millions of dollars.”

The crime ring includes both retailers and wholesalers who were practicing tax evasion on a large scale by purchasing counterfeit tax stamps, notes the newspaper, adding that the ring has cost the state millions of dollars in tax revenue.

“They gave the appearance that they were following the law, but in fact they didn’t realize they were conspiring with agents,” Sweetow said.

The individuals involved in the crime ring are expected to face charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, and for possession of tobacco with counterfeit stamps.​

Japan Tobacco Inc., the world’s third-largest publicly traded cigarette maker, started marketing a 50 billion yen ($595 million) sale of bonds for this week, according to a person with direct knowledge of the transaction. The company told investors it plans to sell about 30 billion yen of five-year bonds priced to yield between 9 basis points and 12 basis points more than similar-maturity Japanese government debt, said the person, asking not to be identified as the information is private.

Japan Tobacco also plans a sale of about 10 billion yen of seven-year bonds and about the same amount of 10-year notes, also at a spread of between 9 basis points and 12 basis points, the person said. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

It hired Nomura Securities Co., Mizuho Securities Co. and Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. to help sell the bonds, according to an e-mailed statement on Nov. 4 from Nomura.

Chula Vista Mayor Cheryl Cox and two council members this week shot down a proposal their colleagues made that would have required retailers to obtain a license and pay annual fees up to $300 to sell tobacco.

Councilmen Steve Castaneda and Mitch Thompson were looking for a way to keep better tabs on retailers that repeatedly sell smokes to minors. The ordinance they wanted to bring forward would have provided funding for undercover stings with underage decoys posing as customers.

Opposing council members and merchants said the proposal amounted to taxing small businesses. Merchants also refuted statistics from Castaneda and Thompson showing that nearly 75 percent of Chula Vista retailers have sold tobacco products to minors.

There are 63 cities in the state that have similar licensing requirements, including El Cajon and San Diego.

Chula Vista’s discussion stemmed from a pitch Castaneda made in January that the city ban tobacco sales within 600 to 1,000 feet of schools. When he received no support for that proposal, Castaneda and Thompson formed a task force to come up with ideas on how the city could add teeth to existing laws that ban tobacco sales to minors.

Over the last two months, the councilmen met with community members, merchants, police, social services agencies and health organizations while reviewing studies to get a better understanding of the issue and how people feel about it.

“This is not like sending a man to the moon for the first time,” Castaneda said in an interview before the Tuesday council meeting. “There are 63 other municipalities in the state doing this.”

Even though Castaneda’s council colleagues said they agree that cracking down on tobacco sales to minors is important, they are concerned that taxing businesses in order to pay for undercover tobacco stings is too much.

“This might be too harsh on the financial side,” said Councilman Rudy Ramirez. “To set out this blanket program for everyone, even those who are compliant, may be too much.”

Castaneda and Thompson said they will continue with their efforts to crack down on illegal tobacco sales and try to find other resources to pay for undercover stings.

By Tanya Sierra, Signonsandiego

Harare — THE 2010 tobacco selling season begins today, two months earlier than the traditional opening, amid high hopes that the crop will contribute significantly to the Gross Domestic Product this season.

Sales will initially be conducted twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays with two auctioneers — the Tobacco Sales Floor and Zimbabwe Tobacco Auction Centre.

Tobacco contributed 26 percent to GDP last season and this year it is expected to be much higher.

A total of 77 million kg of the golden leaf is expected to go under the hammer this year, up from 42 million kg last season.

About 45 percent of this is scheduled to go under auction with the balance being sold under contract. Contract sales are set to commence tomorrow.

As of yesterday morning, the two floors had received a total of 600 bales although Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri was optimistic that the figure would rise to above 800 bales.

Farmers are expected to get better prices for their crop this year because of an envisaged global shortage stemming from hailstorm damage of tobacco in Brazil.

About 22 000 growers have registered to sell their tobacco this season, which is a reduction from the 28 000 that registered last year.

However, the figure is expected to rise to the 2009 levels of 28 000 farmers as the season progresses.

At least 22 companies have been licenced to purchase tobacco for export and 14 have been classified as “B” class buyers — those that can buy tobacco but cannot export it.

The early opening of the season is expected to assist farmers repay their loans ahead of time, thus cutting down on interest payments. This will also assist early preparations for the coming season.

This year tobacco farmers managed to put 65 202 hectares under the crop despite a myriad of challenges which included a shortage of working capital and inputs.

Save for US$120 million that was provided by CBZ Bank, most commercial banks failed to assist farmers with money, leaving them to use their own resources.
Meanwhile, acting Agriculture, Farm Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister, Dr Ignatius Chombo says that Government is encouraged by the rebound in tobacco production following a 20 percent increase between 2008 and 2009 from 48,8 million kg to 58,6 million kg.

He was speaking during a pre-season luncheon to mark the opening of the marketing season.

He said Government is calling on private participation in the upcoming season in order to achieve the 75 000 hectares targeted for the 2010/2011 season which would require US$600 million.

“In this regard I call upon all tobacco-contracting companies to urgently make arrangements for the provision of inputs, financing and extension support to farmers to a win-win basis in time for the season. The need to formulate strategies to rapidly increase production and productivity levels and to regain the lost market share cannot therefore be over-emphasised,” said Dr Chombo.

Walter Muchinguri, Allafrica