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County's smoking ordinance doused  

Allegan County property will remain a "smoking zone" after county commissioners opted Thursday, April 26, not to ban smoking by members of the public.

The commissioners instead requested that county administration draft an ordinance to designate areas within 25 feet of doorways as no-smoking zones but otherwise allow public tobacco use on county property.

Commissioner Steve McNeal led the charge to draft a less restrictive ordinance than the one originally proposed.

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Cohasset to consider ban on electronic cigarettes  

City advances scaled-back restrictions: smoking in parks  

Milpitas City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to introduce an ordinance amending the city's municipal code to enforce a total ban on tobacco smoking in all City of Milpitas parks.

The ban amends prior city laws restricting smoking near city-owned buildings and keeping smokers a distance of 25 feet from city playgrounds.

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National Study: Teen “Heavy” Marijuana Use Up 80 Percent Since 2008, One in Ten Teens Reports Using Marijuana at Least 20 Times a Month 

• Drug Fans: More Teens Smoke Weed Than Cigarettes; The War On Drugs Has Failed  

The study, the 23rd annual Partnership Attitude Tracking Study, shows that teen marijuana use is up, with 27-percent of teens (about 1.5 million) admitting to smoking weed in the past month. That's up from 19-percent in 2008.

In contrast, according to the Drug Policy Alliance, teens who admitted to smoking cigarettes in the past month is on the decline, with 22-percent of teens copping to smoking in the past month. That's down from 27-percent last year. . . .

The problem, according to the DPA: the prohibitionist approach to marijuana policy isn't working, and the "war on drugs" is a failure.

"The continued decline in teen cigarette smoking is great news - not just because it's the most deadly drug but also because it reveals that legal regulation and honest education are more effective than prohibition and criminalization," DPA publications manager Jag Davies says. "Although the U.S. arrests 750,000 people every year for nothing more than possessing a small amount of marijuana, teens consistently report that marijuana is easier to obtain than alcohol."

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Varenicline decreases alcohol consumption in heavy-drinking smokers.  

• Anti-Smoking Drug Decreases Alcohol Consumption in Heavy-Drinking Smokers 

The smoking cessation drug varenicline significantly reduced alcohol consumption in a group of heavy-drinking smokers, in a study carried out by researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco.

“Alcohol abuse is a huge problem, and this is a big step forward in identifying a potential new treatment,” said senior author Howard L. Fields, MD, PhD, professor of neurology and director of the Wheeler Center for the Neurobiology of Addiction at UCSF.

The study was published on May 1 in the journal Psychopharmacology.

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• 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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TN may boost tax on 'roll-your-own' cigarettes 

Dozens of Tennessee tobacco shops have taken advantage of a tax loophole that allows them to sell roll-your-own cigarettes at a deep discount, but those days may be drawing to a close.

Tennessee lawmakers this week passed a bill that would require roll-your-own retailers to pay a licensing fee and a cigarette tax on each carton they sell.

And proposals in Congress, including one sponsored by U.S. Rep. Diane Black, R-Gallatin, would stymie the growth of roll-your-own machines by designating the smoke shops that house them as manufacturers.

The loophole has cost Tennessee almost $4 million in lost tax revenue since 2009, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Jason Wells, manager of the Cigar Parlor and Roll Smokes and Go in Hendersonville, says state and federal legislation could shut down his business and hurt the recession-weary customers who benefit from the lower prices of the roll-your-own smokes he and others sell.

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Local governments will be nudged to go smoke-free in parks and some other public places  

Smoking is allowed at parks in Aberdeen, but a new federal grant will urge local officials to reconsider the policy.

Public health divisions across Grays Harbor, Thurston and Lewis counties have received a federal grant to push to create smoke-free environments in city parks, on library grounds and government campuses.

Grays Harbor is the lead entity for the $292,000 grant that will be partially split with Thurston and Lewis counties. Mason and Pacific counties may also qualify for the next round of Community Transformation Grants, which is spearheaded by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.

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Governor vetoes tobacco tax bills  

City To Landlords: Post Smoke Policy 

Cigarette likely cause of fire that displaced 120 cats 

A third-floor mattress fire Tuesday night in the building housing the Animalkind cat rescue organization that forced dozens of volunteers to round up and evacuate the building of some 120 cats Wednesday morning was likely caused by a cigarette, according to Hudson Fire Commissioner Tim Hutchings.

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Chinese men with ‘wrong’ fags get fine