The hottest tobacco trend of the 21st century is an ancient tobacco-smoking method called hookah, or water pipes. This ancient method of smoking, which originated in Persia and India, heats a special type of tobacco and transfers the fumes through a water-filled bowl. Smokers inhale through the water pipe’s hose, which is passed around as a social activity. Many Washington restaurants and bars are offering hookah smoking for patrons; it is becoming as fashionable as cigars were in the 1990s.

When I was at a D.C. restaurant recently, I saw eight students walk in, sporting middle-school mascots on their shirts. They looked no older than 14. They ordered two hookahs and smoked for about an hour. No one bothered them. No one questioned them. It seemed as though no one even cared that what seemed like 14-year-olds were smoking. No one, that is, except me.
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CHICAGO - If legislation passes to give the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate the tobacco industry, it could reshape the industry’s competitive landscape, Fitch Ratings said in a new report yesterday.
The U.S. House passed the legislation in July, but it requires approval by the Senate and President Bush. Bush’s administration has said he will veto the bill.
Fitch said it does not expect the law to be passed this year, but added that if a Democrat is elected president, the eventual passage of the bill is “highly probable.”
Analysts say that Philip Morris USA stands to benefit if the FDA receives power to regulate the tobacco industry because greater restrictions could solidify its position as the market leader with its Marlboro brand. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. has said it opposes the bill.

By Michael McNutt
Capitol Bureau
More money than originally projected is going to a state board that funds programs to reduce tobacco use.
Earnings from Oklahoma’s share of the national tobacco settlement are $15.5 million for this fiscal year, a board of investors for the state Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Fund determined this week.

The state board was anticipating about $12 million.
The amount is an increase of $5.1 million, or 50 percent, over last year.
The trust fund can spend only actual interest earnings from the tobacco endowment.
The money goes to more than two dozen community programs and for the state’s toll-free telephone line, (800) 784-8669, to help Oklahomans stop using tobacco.
About 22,000 people called the free service last fiscal year.
As part of the 1998 tobacco settlement agreement, big tobacco companies give money back to states to help pay for medical expenses associated with smoking.

JACKSON — Gov. Haley Barbour’s tax study commission is suggesting the Legislature remove sales tax exemptions for nonprofit groups and various services to generate more revenues and use some of that money for lowering income or grocery sales taxes.

“We could broaden the tax base so we can lower other rates,” said commission Chairman Leland Speed.

The 38-member commission on Wednesday finalized a wide array of recommendations being sent to the governor and the Legislature for cutting some taxes and increasing others. However, legislators and commission members say they don’t expect much will actually be enacted into law.

The recommendations could be largely shelved, but the commission’s eight-month study on taxes was worthwhile, Speed said.

“This whole exercise is like going to the doctor and getting a physical,” he said.
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ALBANY, N.Y. - The ongoing sovereignty battle over untaxed cigarette sales on tribal land heated up again recently when the New York state legislature passed a bill intended to enforce the collection of state sales taxes on tobacco products sold to non-Indians in Indian country.

But if S. 8146-B, which the Senate passed Aug. 8 during a special legislative session, provoked an outcry of opposition from the nations - and it did - a newly introduced bill that was drafted with the help of tobacco giant Philip Morris USA is likely to draw even more fire.

S. 8146-B, which has not yet been signed into law by Gov. David Paterson, would prohibit tobacco companies from selling cigarettes without tax stamps to any wholesaler who had not provided certification, under penalty of perjury, to both the state and the tobacco companies saying that the cigarettes would not be resold untaxed in violation of the state tax law.
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