Basically it’s all over.  President Obama signed the PACT Bill March 31st. which will effectively shut down all online tobacco sales by July 31st.

Let us hear what you have to say.

President Barack Obama signed legislation on March 31 banning the United States Postal Service from shipping cigarettes. The legislation was vigorously opposed by the Seneca Nation of Indians, a group heavily involved in the mail-order tobacco business.

While the measure was assailed by the Seneca Nation, it was praised by many other groups. Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids stated that, “Enactment of this legislation is a milestone in the fight to keep kids from smoking and prevent tax evasion that costs taxpayers billions each year.” Read the rest of this entry →

The Senate unanimously passed the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act (PACT Act) March 11, which would help prevent tobacco tax evasion and underage purchasing by consumers through a ban on remote sales of tobacco.

The bill — which passed the House in May — is authored by Sen. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin and co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of 20 senators. The House version, penned by Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York, passed by a vote of 397-11. But because the House and Senate version are different, the House will need vote to accept the Senate version, which if passed, the bill would go to President Barack Obama’s desk. Read the rest of this entry →

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid initiated the hotline process for the PACT Act this evening just before 6:00 PM. The Senate has now adjourned for the evening and will resume the PACT Act hotline process first thing tomorrow morning.

We need Anybody and Everybody to burn up the phone lines to the US Senate tomorrow morning and object to the passage of this bill. Anything you can do to make this happen will be greatly appreciated. There may be no more tobacco mail order if this bill is passed tomorrow. PLEASE FORWARD THIS REQUEST TO ANYONE YOU THINK CAN HELP US.

REMEMBER… There may be no more tobacco mail order if this bill is passed tomorrow.

Your online tobacco buying days may be numbered…

PACT Act
THE SITUATION: Right now there is legislation pending in the United States Senate - the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009 (“PACT Act”) (S.1147) which contains, among other bad ideas, a provision to make ALL cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products nonmailable. This legislation has already been passed by the House of Representatives and is currently in a Senate Committee that could send it to the Senate floor at any time for a vote!

Click here for a detailed description of how YOU can help defeat the 2009 PACT act in PDF format.

Conflict with neighbors was the last thing Donna and Richard Ganguet expected to encounter when they moved into a gated community for people age 55 and older.

“In a senior community, you think we’ll all be compatible and have the same values,” said Richard Ganguet, a retired El Dorado County sheriff’s deputy.

But three years after settling into their single-family home in El Dorado Hills’ Four Seasons development, the Ganguets are suing their next-door neighbor over cigar and cigarette smoke they say wafts into their backyard and house.

Because of the smoke, the couple say, they no longer sit on their patio. They also try to sandwich in swims in the side-yard lap pool between their neighbors’ smoking sessions.
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The magnitude of the deaths that will be on their hands if smokers’ are only given one choice.

COLLEYVILLE, TX, November 01, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ — What started as a noble cause with lobbying groups like the American Cancer Society, Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights and Mother’s Against Drunk Driving, is now morphing into a multi headed monster as they became a victim of their own success. Both have campaigned and succeeded in getting stricter laws on drunk drivers and smoking which most all of us applaud. They don’t seem to be satisfied with just protecting the victims any more. They are now taking aim at personal freedom as they move to control your behavior even when your behavior in public or private is not harmful to anyone else.
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With so many places around the world instituting smoking regulations, increasing taxes and, quite literally, kicking smokers to the curb, it’s getting harder to find cigarette-friendly vacation spots.

But not every country is trying to kill that buzz. On the flip side, some of them, such as Greece, are attempting to crack down but are failing miserably.

You may feel alone smoking in some major U.S. cities, so we’ve compiled a list of countries with the most prevalent tobacco use among people aged 15 or older, based on 2005 data from the World Health Organization.

Nonsmokers, too, will want to take note of the list. As you might guess, a smoker’s paradise can be, in turn, a nonsmoker’s hell.
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St. Louis County residents get to vote next Tuesday about whether or not to clear tobacco smoke from restaurants. In Kirkwood, voters take on a separate anti-smoking proposition, more stringent than that of the County. If the County Proposition N passes, its smoking ban would take effect in 2011. Kirkwood’s proposition would take effect in January, 2010, and allows fewer exceptions than does the county ban.

I appreciate a smoke-free dining area. I can’t argue with evidence that second-hand smoke is harmful. I can, however, point out exaggerations from both sides.

I have not made a study of studies, but it stands to reason that frequency and intensity of exposure come into play - and I have rarely seen those cited. The danger from second-hand smoke and a host of other things we ingest is relative to exposure. Read the rest of this entry →

The nation’s two top cigarette-makers are boosting per-pack prices by 6 to 8 cents a pack.
Though the companies won’t say why, analysts believe it is to cover new user fees charged by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to pay for the costs of its new assignment to regulate tobacco.
The increase on what Altria’s Philip Morris USA and Reynolds American’s RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. charge wholesalers seems unlikely to have a big effect on smoking, as this spring’s 61.66 cent-a-pack hike in federal excise taxes did.
Last week, Altria Group Inc. chairman and chief executive Michael E. Szymanczyk told analysts the effect of that tax hike accounted for about two-thirds of the 16 percent drop in the number of cigarettes it sold in the third quarter. The rest came from wholesalers’ inventory reductions.
That price effect was in line with the historical trend, he said.
Though tobacco companies don’t disclose their models for forecasting the effect of price changes on smoking, economists and security analysts have estimated that every 10 percent increase in prices cuts consumption by 4 percent.