Tobacco.org

• Cigarette smugglers beat plain packaging laws 

ILLEGAL cigarettes being smuggled into Australia have soared before plain packaging laws start, a Tobacco Inc-funded report claims.

The industry claims the boom is fostering organised crime amid the nation's shooting sprees and bikie wars.

A report to be released today says smuggled counterfeit and contraband cigarettes tripled last year, slashing $1 billion from federal tax coffers.

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Call for sight warnings on tobacco  

Plain packets 'could pay off'  

SELLING tobacco in plain packaging could help cut the numbers of young people taking up smoking believes a Devon MP who has welcomed a public consultation on the issue.

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Call for cigarette warning over blindness 

• Canadian Federal Excise Stamp Mandatory on Tobacco Products 

The Canadian government announced yesterday that, effective July 1, all tobacco products for sale anywhere in the Canadian market must carry the federal excise stamp. No person shall sell, offer for sale, or possess these tobacco products unless they are stamped in accordance with the Excise Act of 2001. Any person who contravenes this requirement is liable to a fine, imprisonment, or both.

The excise stamp indicates that federal excise duty has been paid and that the product was manufactured legally. It has state-of-the-art visible and hidden identifiers and security features similar to those found on Canadian banknotes, such as unique color-shift ink that changes from red to green when the stamp is tilted. The stamp also has hidden security features that only federal and provincial law enforcement agencies can detect.

These features allow law enforcement agencies, retailers and consumers to more easily identify counterfeit and contraband tobacco products. The federal excise stamp is distributed through a secure process administered by the Canada Revenue Agency.

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• Korea to toughen rules on tobacco packaging in Dec 

From December, cigarette packages will be half-covered with warning signs of the health risk of smoking, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced Monday.

According to the relevant law revision, the size of the warnings that tobacco producers will be obliged to attach to their product packages will increase from the current 30 per cent to 50 per cent.

They also have to insert an anti-smoking hotline number ? 1544-9030. On low-tar products, the phrase, "Low-tar cigarettes are as harmful to health as ordinary cigarettes," will be added.

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Vicky Crichton: Plain packaging will help make smoking less cool 

Cancer Research UK statistics released last week showed more than 4,000 people died of lung cancer in Scotland in 2010. . . .

A report, which is being released by Cancer Research UK today, refers to documents from the tobacco industry that show that packaging has indeed been developed to appeal to new smokers, through size, colour and design. This is significant when you consider that eight out of ten smokers start before the age of 19.

Plain packaging would strip all branding from cigarette packs, leaving all tobacco packs looking the same. Unbranding cigarette packets won’t stop everyone from smoking but it will give millions of children one less reason to start.

To support our campaign to end the packet racket and sign our petition, visit www.theanswerisplain.org.

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Smokers could be paying $1 more per pack  

Cancer campaigners call for end to the cigarette 'packet racket' 

Tobacco ads 'target young children' 

• Tapu Misa: Tobacco bullies should back off  

In Mill's view, the only freedom worthy of the name "is that of pursuing our own good in our own way ... Each is the guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental or spiritual".

Just how helpful this thinking has been to the corporate world was illustrated by the response of Big Tobacco and its friends to the news that the Government has agreed in principle to follow Australia's lead and ban branded cigarette packs as part of its commitment to a smokefree New Zealand by 2025 (meaning less than 5 per cent of the population smoking). . . .

Turia and the Maori Party deserve praise for persuading a right-of-centre government to agree to the goal of a smokefree New Zealand, especially given the fierce resistance to anti-smoking legislation introduced by the Labour Government in 1990 and 2003.

The industry has fought every attempt to restrict its activities. Since 1990, though, the smoking rate has come down from 28 per cent to just under 20 per cent, and a recent survey of Year 10 students shows a growing number aren't taking up smoking.

There's still a long way to go, especially among the Maori and Pacific communities. Health researchers predict plain packaging will help further reduce the number of young people who take up smoking. Given most smokers get hooked before they turn 15, it seems at least worth a try.

This isn't about protecting communities from themselves but from those who prey on them. How far should public policy go? As far as it needs to. What Turia and public health experts know is that, as with other social hazards (gambling, loan sharks, and the proliferation of cut-price alcohol outlets in low-income communities) this has never been a fair fight.

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New and Strict Labeling Rules for Tobacco Companies 

Case S389/2411: British American Tobacco Australasia Limited and Ors v. The Commonwealth of Australia 

JT International SA v Commonwealth of Australia; British American Tobacco Australasia Limited & Ors v The Commonwealth of Australia [2012] HCATrans 92 (18 April 2012) 

JT International SA v Commonwealth of Australia; British American Tobacco Australasia Limited & Ors v The Commonwealth of Australia [2012] HCATrans 93 (19 April 2012)