DOBSON - Students and staff who want to smoke at Surry Community College soon will have to take it to the street - or to the parking lot.

College trustees approved a policy Monday restricting tobacco use to parking areas. The college previously allowed smoking and tobacco use on campus except inside buildings and building entrances.

The new policy will take effect Aug. 1.

“I think we have reasonably good support for this,” college Vice President Gary said Monday during a board of trustees meeting.
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GENEVA (AFP) — Tobacco giants Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco actively collude with cigarette smugglers to gain a foothold in lucrative developing markets, campaigners alleged on Wednesday.

“Transnationals benefit in a number of ways from the illicit trade in tobacco,” said Kathyrn Mulvey, director of international policy with the lobby group Corporate Accountability International (CAI).

This includes establishing a brand presence in new markets, and getting more people addicted to cigarettes — particularly children because smuggled tobacco is so cheap, she told journalists.
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Big Tobacco targets smoking ban, tax
With $83,000, lobby seeks exemptions
By Jeffrey Meitrodt and Ashley Wiehle | Tribune reporters
February 13, 2008
SPRINGFIELD - Tobacco companies are dumping thousands of dollars on lawmakers in a revved up effort to chip away at the new statewide smoking ban and ward off efforts to nearly double Illinois’ cigarette tax.

In the four weeks before the Feb. 5 primary election, two tobacco giants contributed $83,000 to 30 lawmakers. That amount sets a monthly pace that eclipses the industry’s largesse in this state for at least a decade, according to a Tribune review of campaign finance records. About threequarters of that money went to House Democrats.

“We’ve been the whipping boy for a number of [legislative] sessions now… so we decided this year that we are going to participate in the process more heavily,” said lobbyist John O’Connell, a former lawmaker who represents cigarette giant Reynolds American Inc. “We are still a legal industry. And it is a legal product.”
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Smoking has been banned in many public places across the country, including Bismarck, but chewing tobacco is still allowed almost anywhere.

A speaker who visited Century High School today says that`s one of the reasons people have a false impression that chewing tobacco is less harmful than smoking.

Rick Bender was only 26 when he was diagnosed with cancer and lost half his jaw and a third of his tongue. For the past 14 years he`s been touring the nation, talking to teens about how dangerous chewing can be. He says his goal is to give students something else to chew on.
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HARRISBURG, Pa., Feb 12, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ — Send Valentine’s Day E-Cards, Find Inspiration in Video Blogs on DeterminedToQuit.com

A Lancaster couple’s video blogs documenting their efforts to quit using tobacco are now being featured on the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s new tobacco cessation Web site, www.DeterminedToQuit.com.

Angela and Justin Williams have been married for a little more than a year and are determined to quit smoking together, not just for themselves but also for their young daughter.
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Students looking to do university research may now have more to worry about than ever before. An increasing number of colleges and universities nationwide have banned tobacco funding in light of the industry’s desire to get more involved with the students.

The McCombs Business School at the University of Texas at Austin was one of the most recent schools to ban tobacco funding.

Along with a $150,000 gift, Phillip Morris, the largest tobacco company in the U.S., and its parent company, the Altria group, wanted to support events and educational programs at the business school since it recruits a number of the school’s students as employees each year.
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RICHMOND, Va. - Philip Morris USA, the nation’s No. 1 tobacco company, said Tuesday it filed lawsuits against two cigarette importers for alleged counterfeiting and unauthorized use of the Marlboro trademark.

Richmond-based Philip Morris filed separate federal suits in the Eastern District of New York against C.H. Rhodes and U.S. Sun Star Trading Inc., both of New York.

The suits come after U.S. Customs and Border Protection confiscated about 16,450 cartons of counterfeit cigarettes in separate incidents when Rhodes and Sun Star were the respective importers of record.
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By MINDELLE JACOBS

In a touch of marketing brilliance, Imperial Tobacco is promoting an alternative to cigarettes — an addictive smokeless tobacco called snus.

The tobacco product, a tea bag-sized sachet that’s placed in the mouth between the teeth and the gums, is currently being test-marketed in Edmonton, to the chagrin of Canadian anti-tobacco activists.

“You give any opening to the tobacco companies and they will exploit it enormously,” says Rob Cunningham, policy analyst for the Canadian Cancer Society.
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ESCANABA — Area smokers who go to Wisconsin to buy lower-priced cigarettes may have to change their plans.

On New Year’s Day, the tax for a pack of cigarettes in Wisconsin increased by $1. Wisconsin residents are now paying $1.77 in taxes for a single pack of cigarettes.

The tax on a single pack of cigarettes in Michigan is $2.

Maureen Busalacchi, executive director for SmokeFree Wisconsin, said the organization estimates 33,000 adults will quit for good because of this tax increase.
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Associated Press - January 7, 2008 3:45 PM ET

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The Tennessee Revenue Department is ending its surveillance program to catch people bringing too many cigarettes into Tennessee to avoid higher taxes.

Commissioner Reagan Farr tells The Associated Press that the program accomplished its goal of educating people that only 20 packs can legally be transported across state lines.

Farr says his department will still enforce the law, but it won’t conduct scheduled surveillance of tobacco stores in neighboring states, including Virginia.
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