Dead On Arrival

<p>Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.) has introduced a bill that would ban smoking in all federal buildings. The Smoke-Free Federal Buildings Act, introduced Friday, has four co-sponsors, among them Del. Eni F.H. Faleomavaega (D-American Samoa). The Pacific island territory Faleomavaega represents has a law banning smoking in all public places.</p>
<p>Davis’ bill would prohibit smoking in and 25 feet around all facilities owned or leased by the federal government. Smoking sections would not be allowed inside a federal facility.<br />
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Yes, on Capitol Hill and the Supreme Court and other government agencies people can smoke in their offices.&nbsp; Smoking bans are only for peasants, not for legislators.&nbsp;&nbsp; This bill was DOA and not even read but that doesn’t stop the press from reporting it.</p>

Another Smoking Cessation Drug Failure

<p>Targacept and AstraZeneca’s drug&nbsp;failed in its first late-stage clinical trial, the companies developing the drug said Tuesday.</p>
<p>Shares of the drug&rsquo;s main developer, Targacept, plunged 57 percent in early trading Tuesday morning to $8.23. AstraZeneca paid $200 million up front in a deal announced in 2009 for rights to the drug, known as TC-5124.<br />
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What a shame – not!<br />
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No Graphic Photo’s

<p>WASHINGTON, Nov 7 (Reuters) – A federal judge blocked a U.S. rule requiring tobacco companies to display graphic images on cigarette packs, such as a man exhaling cigarette smoke through a hole in his throat.<br />
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U.S. District Judge Richard Leon sided on Monday with tobacco companies and granted a temporary injunction, saying they would likely prevail in their lawsuit challenging the requirement as unconstitutional because it compels speech in violation of the First Amendment.</p>
<p>Is sanity returning?</p>

Maryland

<p>The Greenbelt secondhand smoke trial came to a quick conclusion today after a lengthy trial. Judge Albert Northrop ruled David Schuman deserved no compensation for his claim that his neighbor&rsquo;s secondhand smoke created a nuisance that Greenbelt Homes Inc. (GHI) failed to solve.</p>
Northrop said that the level of secondhand smoke entering David Schuman&rsquo;s townhouse was not an actionable nuisance. Nor did he see bad faith in GHI’s handling of Schuman&rsquo;s complaints.<br />
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A reasonable Judge.<br type="_moz" />

Make Up Your Mind

New Hampshire is complaining about loosing $4 million in taxes from tobacco after they reduced the state tax by ten cents per pack to encourage smoking?&nbsp; You can’t have it both ways banning smoking indoors and outdoors, demonizing people who do smoke, and then depend on tobacco taxes to balance the state budget.&nbsp; If you want more sales than allow smoking in bars and restaurants.<br />

NY Rolls Their Own

Tired of paying outrageous taxes on tobacco many New Yorkers are rolling their own using pipe tobacco.&nbsp; The senior city attorney Eric Proshansky said &quot;If you take pipe tobacco and you roll paper around it, it’s a cigarette.&quot;&nbsp; Really?<br />
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Overtaxing a legal product leads to bootlegging similar to Prohibition and lost tax revenue to the state. We have little sympathy for the tax man or Bloomberg who created the black market.<br />
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We have heard there are many bars that allowing smoking after hours.&nbsp; Right on!<br />

West Hollywood

Next week Mayor John Duran and Council member John D&rsquo;Amico will request that our City Attorney draft an ordinance that will exempt West Hollywood from State Senate Bill 332, which would allow landlords to ban smoking in their buildings. Fortunately for West Hollywood tenants the law does provide a provision that municipalities can exempt existing tenants from the legislation but only if they enact enabling ordinances prior to January 1, 2012.<br />
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Best get a moving!<br type="_moz" />

Chantix Dangerous Drug

A new study on Chantix done by the Public Health Sciences at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and published online in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS One,&nbsp; conflicts with recents studies done by the FDA.
<p class="i1">&quot;Pfizer’s smoking cessation drug Chantix carries too many risks and should only be tried when other treatments fail, researchers said on Wednesday&quot;.<br />
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&quot;Chantix was eight times more likely to be linked with a reported case of suicidal behavior or depression than other nicotine replacement products, such as the nicotine patch, they said&quot;.</p>

Outwhitted

When the Cuomo administration announced in July that the state would crack down on tax-free cigarette sales on Indian reservations, state officials portrayed the move as an aggressive and decisive step to enforce long-ignored laws in New York.<br />
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What’s happened since the crackdown?&nbsp; The Indian Nations have upped their production of Indian made cigarettes which are not subjected to outrageous taxes. Their business is thriving.&nbsp; Too bad Cuomo, you lose!<br />
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Two Faced

The ACS, AHA and the ADA lobbied against HR.3472 which promoted health insurance premium discounts of up to 20% for healthy behaviors relating to smoking, blood pressure, BMI, cholesterol levels, and blood sugar.<br />
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Why?&nbsp; This is what they said &quot;This bill might open the door for discrimination of people with pre-existing conditions, and also those who are genetically predisposed to these conditions. Most importantly it would restrict access to healthcare to those who need it most and research has shown that this has a negative effect on health&quot;.<br />
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I never got the impression they cared about discrimination against workers, seems to me they promote it.&nbsp; <br />