Tobacco.org

• 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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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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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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Discarded cigarette butts litter the sidewalk near Staten Island's RUMC | SILive.com 

The smoke-free campus of Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC) has produced one dirty side-effect, say some residents who live near the complex on Bard Avenue and South St. Austins Place.

Smokers -- hospital employees and visitors alike -- now cross the street, light up, and then carelessly toss cigarette butts anywhere and everywhere, littering sidewalks, curbs, and front yards.

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N.Y.'s smoking ban faces challenge from smokers' rights advocacy group 

A smokers' rights group is objecting to a new rule that will prohibit smokers from using New York state's parks, pool areas and beaches and historic sites as ash trays.

The anti-smoking rule created in April by the state parks department would result in a disorderly conduct violation for smokers who puff away in banned areas.

Smoking will be allowed in some areas. Signs telling park visitors of the new rule have been posted.

"These bans were imposed by bureaucratic fiat, not legislated law," says Audrey Silk, founder of CLASH, which supports smokers' rights nationwide.

"On that basis alone, they're unconstitutional." She said the rule "in fact went against the Legislature's will."

Dan Keefe, a spokesman for the parks department, said the authority to create the measure comes from the Legislature.

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• New York City Council Introduces Bill Mandating Smoking-Policy Disclosure  

A New York City bill requiring that landlords, including co-op boards and condo associations, disclose their anti-smoking policies to residents and prospective renters and buyers was introduced at an April 18 City Council meeting and forwarded to the Committee on Housing and Buildings for discussion.

The bill, Intro. 0833-2012, was not placed on the committee's agenda either for its meeting yesterday (April 30) nor its meeting tomorrow (May 2). Committee chairperson Erik Martin Dilan (D-Brooklyn) is the bill's chief sponsor, with five Council co-sponsors, all by request of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"There are no hearings scheduled as of yet," his spokesperson told Habitat. "Usually there's some consultation between the chair of a committee and the speaker's office," he said, referring City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. "He does have some concerns about the bill that probably will be addressed in the coming months."

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• Cigar politics for Staten Island State Sen. Andrew Lanza 

State Sen. Andrew Lanza's credibility on future anti-tobacco legislation might be up in smoke after a good-government group revealed the Staten Island Republican spent $3,830 in campaign cash over three years on cigars for friends, supporters and constituents, giving renewed credence to that old-time image of cigar-chomping Albany pols in smoked-filled rooms.

In Lanza's case, he said the stogies were doled out as freebies to $250-a-head donors at his annual golf outing fund-raisers at the Richmond County Country Club.

But at least he shopped local: Lanza dropped the big bucks at Carmine's Cigars, Dongan Hills.

The New York Public Interest Research Group found Lanza and other lawmakers statewide have spent $44,919 on tobacco-related products like cigars since 2008.

Lanza defended the practice, telling the Advance that as the son of a cop and homemaker, he didn't have the personal wealth to throw around during campaign season and needed to look for different ways to raise money and thank supporters. . . .

"There is a difference from inhaling a pack or more of cigarettes a day to a couple of cigars a year," said Lanza.

Still, Lanza said he intends to continue to advocate against smoking -- like he did in 2010 when he said he was in favor of banning smoking in cars if there were passengers younger than 14.

"At golf outings," said Lanza, "we're all adults."

Fellow Republican lawmaker Assemblyman Lou Tobacco, who crusades against smoking, side-stepped a question about Lanza's cigar politics.

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Smoking In The Subway? Two 'Smartasses' Prime Example Of How NOT To Act On The Train (VIDEO) 

Like these two gentleman straphangers who, according to the description on YouTube, were "smoking, cursing, and spitting inside the NYC subway #7 train on 4/27/12 9:46pm."

Apparently the "two smart asses" entered the train at the Corona stop, and promptly threw trash on a smaller man, telling him to "get the f**k outta here." Then, one of the men lit up a cigarette across from a woman and her baby.

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• Report cites major shift in smoking habits since 2009 tax increase 

A new government report says Americans' smoking habits have displayed "sizable market shifts" since federal tobacco taxes were increased in 2009.

Sales of pipe tobacco and large cigars, which are taxed at a lower rate, have skyrocketed as smokers have adjusted their buying habits to the new price structure.

Monthly sales of pipe tobacco increased 12-fold, from about 240,000 pounds in January 2009 to over 3 million pounds in September 2011, the GAO found. And monthly sales of large cigars more than doubled, from 411 million pounds to more than 1 billion pounds over the same period.

Pipe tobacco is increasingly used to make relatively inexpensive cartons of roll-your-own cigarettes in machines installed in neighborhood smoke shops around the nation.

In New York, where state tobacco taxes are among the highest in the nation, the machines are in smoke shops in Depew and Lewiston in the Buffalo area; at several locations in Rochester; in New Rochelle, Nanuet and Newburgh in the Hudson Valley; in Brooklyn and Staten Island in New York City; and in Ithaca in the Southern Tier.

Congress increased taxes on both roll-your-own tobacco and packs of cigarettes in April 2009, making them equal. Lawmakers enacted a smaller tax increase for pipe tobacco, which has become a substitute for roll-your-own tobacco.

Likewise, Congress began taxing small cigars at the same rate as cigarettes. In response, manufacturers of small cigars fractionally increased the weight of many of their products so they would qualify as lower-taxed large cigars, even though they often are just slightly larger than cigarettes and often have filters. . . .

In a written response to the GAO report, Treasury officials noted that the numbers in the report "are not actual losses of revenues, but rather your estimates of the revenue increases if Congress were to change the law to eliminate the disparities."

And that's the GAO's recommendation: Congress should fix the disparities.

According to the GAO report, a woman representing one tobacco company said she knew of no difference between the roll-your-own tobacco her firm formerly produced and the pipe tobacco it switched to making -- other than the federal excise tax.

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LETTER: Smoke-Free Residences 

Re "Mayor Calls for Residential Smoking Rules" (news article, April 19): Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's proposal for a building disclosure policy will help New Yorkers make informed choices on where they live. Just as they do when learning of lead paint and asbestos, they can decide if they want to live in a home where they will not be exposed to secondhand smoke.

We are fielding more calls on secondhand smoke in residential buildings than on any other tobacco control issue, and 311 calls are increasing as well. The move toward more smoke-free housing options in New York City is a natural next step to protect the health of our families. Isn't it time we let New Yorkers choose how and where they want to live?

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• Indian cigarette chaos 

On these flatlands that make up the New York side of Akwesasne -— the St. Regis Mohawk reservation — three similar-looking buildings have risen along Frogtown Road. Not counting the tribe's casino and bingo hall, they are the largest commercial structures around. Inside the first, a red warehouse and factory, are stacks and stacks of hundreds of crates of cigarettes with the brand name Native. At the nearby green structure are stocks of cigarettes called Signal. And in the sprawling tan facility down the street, cartons and cartons of Nations Best and Discount are bunched in packages.

Besides the aroma of tobacco, the cigarette companies share other traits. They are federally licensed and regulated, employ dozens of people in a region with high unemployment and are key contributors to the reservation economy, tribal officials say.

Another characteristic has resulted in a problem for the state and local law enforcement authorities. The plants' products lack tax stamps, and are ending up among the tens of millions of confiscated cigarettes piled high in a secure warehouse in Schenectady County leased by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.

Because of recent seizures of truckloads, tempers have flared in the tribal government and Mohawk business community in cases that reveal a chaotic enforcement system that may end up costing the state. The cigarettes have been taken by State Police at the direction of district attorneys near the reservation despite a state tax department directive to allow transport of native-made cigarettes from one reservation to another even if they lack $4.35-per-pack stamps and state excise taxes have not been collected on them.

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• State lawmakers use cigars to lure in funds 

State lawmakers still love a good cigar — especially when it helps them raise money.

Legislators and other candidates for state offices have spent more than $44,919 on cigars and other-tobacco-related items since 2008, according to a study of campaign records provided to the Daily News by the New York Public Interest Research Group.

The cigars were often used as gifts for fat-cat donors at cash bashes.

“The practice of politicians and donors meeting in smoke-filled rooms is apparently alive and well in New York,” said NYPIRG’s Bill Mahoney.

Republicans were easily the biggest cigar spenders, with more than a half-dozen GOP candidates and campaign organizations spending $500 or more on tobacco-related products.

The tobacco aficionados included Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island), who spent more than $3,830 at Carmine’s Cigars on Staten Island during the past three years.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau County) spent $1,333 at Habana Premium Cigars in Albany. And the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, which Skelos controls, spent more than $6,000 at the same shop.

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Senator Who Sought Indian Tobacco-Tax Gets 7 Years on Corruption Charges 

A former state senator who relentlessly attacked the Seneca Nation of Indians and other indigenous communities for selling tax-free cigarettes on Indian reservations has been sentenced to seven years in prisons on corruption charges.

Carl Kruger, an influential state senator from Brooklyn, was sentenced by a federal court judge in New York on April 26, the New York Times reported. Kruger resigned his office in disgrace after pleading guilty last December to corruption charges, including bribery schemes in which he accepted nearly half a million dollars in exchange for taking official action as a senator.

The former state senator reached notoriety in Indian country in New York in 2010 for inserting himself into the judicial process over the state’s controversial plan to force American Indian businesses to collect state taxes on cigarettes they sell on sovereign Indian land to non-Indian customers. . . .

None of the media reports on Kruger’s sentencing mention whether the former senator will be required to pay taxes on the roughly half-a-million dollars in bribes that he accepted.

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ONE THIRD of people living in apartment must regularly smell second-hand smoke