Tobacco.org

• Hot Docs: How the Mohawk tobacco industry caught fire  

Where there’s smoke there’s ire, at least when it comes to critics of the tobacco industry on native reserves, evidenced in Ojibway filmmaker Jeff Dorn’s Smoke Traders.

The TVO-commissioned documentary, which had its world premiere at Hot Docs Thursday, screens again Friday. It will air on TVO this fall.

Dorn, who works at CTV Ottawa, spent three years filming in the Mohawk communities of Akwesasne and Kahnawake, documenting a thriving economy both among cigarette runners and the growing number of native-run cigarette factories and tobacco companies.

The doc starts out with runners making trips across the St. Lawrence River, ferrying duty-free cigarettes from aboriginal land to areas where taxes push up the price of cigarettes. . . .

What was once shadowy enterprise, with smugglers bringing duty-free products from the U.S. to Canadian consumers of black market, tax-free smokes has evolved into a multi-million-dollar industry run by native factory owners who produce cigarettes for tax-free sales on Canadian and U.S. reserves.

“We (Mohawks) control 50 per cent of the industry in Quebec and Ontario,” said Dickson proudly. And if they sell cigarettes to non-natives who come to the reserve to buy them without paying taxes, that’s hardly Rainbow Tobacco’s problem.

As one man says in the doc: “Canada calls it illegal. We call it good business.” . . .

Filmmaker Dorn said he wanted to show another side of native life with Smoke Traders.

“I’m not promoting smoking or tobacco,” said Dorn, who kicked the habit himself just over two months ago.

“The thing that amazed me as an aboriginal man is there’s not much left in the community for people to grab onto and this is something the Mohawks have found. It’s a powerful took and it’s an economic engine. You have an industry that is creating jobs and employment.”

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• Tobacco war goes to Sharjah supermarkets 

The Sharjah Municipal Council on Thursday drafted a law banning the sale of tobacco in all groceries and supermarkets located in residential areas in the emirate.

The move is part of the council's efforts to ensure public health and fight the bad habit of smoking among students and children.

The meeting chaired by council chairman Salim Al Shamsi recommended referring the draft law to higher authorities for approval.

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RAI announces dividend increase of 5.4 percent and issues results of 2012 shareholders’ meeting (PDF) 

British American Tobacco Buys 50,000 Own Shares To Hold In Treasury 

Japan Tobacco's Bright Light ($$) 

• Anti-Tobacco Activists Protest Family Dollar Selling Cigarettes  

A group of anti-tobacco activists is protesting Matthews, N.C.-based Family Dollar's recent decision to start selling cigarettes, saying the stores will push more cigarettes on low-income consumers, who already smoke more than average.

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• Relabeling Roll-Your-Own Tobacco as Pipe Tobacco Costing Feds, States $1.3 Billion in Lost Revenues  

Tobacco manufacturers that re-label roll-your-own cigarette tobacco as pipe tobacco are cheating federal and state authorities out of an estimated $1.3 billion in lost state and federal tax revenues, according to a report released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Last month, the Government Accountability Office found that cases of roll-your-own tobacco were being sold in packages labeled as pipe tobacco. The federal excise tax on loose tobacco used for roll-your-own cigarettes is $22 per pound higher than the excise tax on pipe tobacco.

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New York lost $16.9 million from tobacco tax loophole 

New York lost an estimated $16.9 million in potential tobacco tax revenue during the first 28 months following a federal excise tax increase on cigarettes, small cigars and roll-your-own tobacco.

That's the finding of a new report released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which said states collectively lost $374 million in tobacco revenue from April 2009 to August 2011 because of a market shift to lower-priced pipe tobacco to make roll-your-own cigarettes.

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$31 million in unintended consequences 

• Fiscal and Policy Implications of Selling Pipe Tobacco for Roll-Your-Own Cigarettes in the United States 

Conclusions

Marketing pipe tobacco as “dual purpose" and selling it for RYO use provides an opportunity to avoid paying higher cigarette prices. This blunts the public health impact excise tax increases would otherwise have on reducing tobacco use through higher prices. Selling pipe tobacco for RYO use decreases state and Federal revenue and also avoids regulations on flavored tobacco, banned descriptors, prohibitions on shipping, and reporting requirements.

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Smokers adjust puffs as prices continue to change  

Smokers Switch to Pipes, Cigars as Cigarette Alternatives 

RYO Tobacco and The New Age of Total Tobacco - New Market Report Now Available 

Middleboro considers tobacco sales ban for pharmacies  

• Decree good for Fiji, says minister  

FIJI continues to make progress in implementing the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), says Health Minister Dr Neil Sharma.

Speaking at the presentation of licences to representatives of tobacco importers and manufacturers in Suva yesterday, Dr Sharma said Fiji was the third country to ratify the WHO FCTC in October 2003 and the first developing country to do so. He said the government was committed to decreasing tobacco-related harm in Fiji and meeting Fiji's obligations under the convention.

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