Cigar Industry

The cigar industry is seeking an exemption from Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act which allows the FDA control over tobacco companies.<br />
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Moving cigars to a separate category from cigarettes would &quot;save thousands of small businesses, tens of thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenues,&quot; stated International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association CEO Bill Spann in a press release.<br />
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Good luck with that!<br />
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Prohibition

<p>PROHIBITION is a three-part, five-and-a-half-hour documentary film series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that tells the story of the rise, rule, and fall of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the entire era it encompassed on PBS airing October 2nd, 3rd and 4th.&nbsp; Check to find your local channels.<br />
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The World Health Organization set forth a behavior modification program for the following: tobacco, obesity and alcohol.&nbsp; We need to learn from our history so we suggest you watch this program and find out exactly what happened when alcohol was prohibited.</p>

Another Anti Trick

The Anti’s will say they don’t care if you smoke just not inside or outside near them. A new tactic,&nbsp; Scotland is imposing a new tax on retailers who sell tobacco and alcohol. &nbsp; The tax will be imposed via a business rates supplement on retailers with a rateable value of &pound;300,000 or more.<br />
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In case you haven’t noticed we are in a global recession, more taxes on retailers closes businesses and creates unemployment. Duh!<br />
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Radiation in Cigarettes

According to an ABC news report polonium-210 is in tobacco.&nbsp; The tobacco companies could remove this substance by &quot;acid washing&quot; the tobacco leaves but have chosen not to.<br />
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A spokesperson for Phillip Morris, David Sutton said that&nbsp; &quot;Polonium 210 is a naturally occurring element found in the air, soil, and water and therefore can be found in plants, including tobacco&quot;.<br />
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The tobacco companies should remove this from tobacco, however, if it is in the soil, air and water what is the government doing about it?&nbsp;<br />
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Guns Or Pot Not Both

In Washington State medical marijuana is legal but the state has decided if you smoke pot you can’t own a gun.<br />
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The Bureau of Explosives, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms left little doubt how it feels about selling guns to legal marijuana&nbsp;users.
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<p>&quot;…any person who uses or is addicted to marijuana, regardless of whether his or her state has passed legislation authorizing marijuana use for medicinal purposes, is an unlawful use of or addicted to a controlled substance and is prohibited by federal law from possessing firearms or ammunition,&quot; wrote Arthur Herbert, the bureau’s assistant director for enforcement programs and&nbsp;services&quot;.<br />
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Not sure I see the correlation.</p>
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Denmark’s Fat TAX

Ten percent of Danes are obese, so their government has decided to impose a &quot;fat&quot; tax.&nbsp;
<p>Starting from this Saturday, Danes will pay an extra 30p on each pack of butter, 8p on a pack of crisps, and an extra 13p on a pound of mince, as a result of the tax.</p>
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<p>The tax is expected to raise about 2.2bn Danish Krone (&pound;140m), and cut consumption of saturated fat by close to 10pc, and butter consumption by 15pc.<br />
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Tax consumer products here haven’t worked, don’t know why they think it will tear.</p>
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South Carolina

The CDC awarded a $4.6 million grant to South Carolina, which does not have a statewide smoking ban.&nbsp; South Carolina&nbsp; will use the federal cash to support a statewide effort aimed at reducing death and disability stemming from tobacco use, heart disease and stroke.<br />
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Your tax dollars at work.&nbsp; The Anti’s are working hard to make sure there isn’t a state that doesn’t have a <span class="st"> draconian </span>smoking ban.&nbsp; Choice is not acceptable.<br type="_moz" />

Second-hand Marijuana Smoke

Boxer heavyweight Dave Herman proved positive for marijuana.&nbsp; Mr. Herman said that everyone smokes Marijuana in California, including people around him.&nbsp; Is it a case of second hand marijuana smoker or?&nbsp; Hmmm?

Virginia

The Virginia Tobacco Commission, the state body charged with spending the states share of a 1998 settlement against tobacco companies, formally gave $25 million of tobacco money, to the development of a medical school here Wednesday.<br />
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At least they didn’t use it for lawn on a ritzy golf course.<br />

More Discrimination

Atlanta, Georgia.&nbsp; More and more companies in Altanta are adopting a policy of not hiring smokers.&nbsp; They actually ask and will test to find out if you smoke or not.<br />
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There are 45 to 50 million smokers in this country, why hasn’t the ACLU or a law firm taken this up with a class action suit?&nbsp; Half of the states have laws to protect smokers and others against hiring discrimination.&nbsp; While they use the excuse that smokers raise the cost of health insurance the real number is 5%, and that is just a maybe not a definite increase.<br />