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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The Oklahoma Tax Commission is missing out on more than $1 million a month in tax collections by refusing to strongly enforce state tobacco tax laws, an Oklahoma City wholesaler has alleged.

Oklahoma City wholesaler Alan Beck displays some of the tobacco products he claims are being sold illegally in the state. Photo by Steve Gooch, The Oklahoman

“Legitimate distributors are being forced out of business,” said tobacco wholesaler Alan Beck, who operates a wholesale business at 2305 S Agnew Ave.
Beck said he has complained to Tax Commission officials for more than four years about the “blatantly illegal” sale of untaxed tobacco products by a few dishonest Oklahoma wholesale operators. (more…)

Coming soon to the lives of American smokers: cigarette labels that go far beyond a simple warning.

Imagine gruesome color photographs showing a mouth riddled with cancer, lungs blackened, a foot rotten with gangrene. If the images sound sickening, well, that’s the point.

Under a law signed by President Obama on June 22 — the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act — tobacco companies will be required to cover 50 percent of the front and rear panels of cigarette packages with color graphics showing what happens when you smoke and bold, specific labels saying such things as: (more…)

Their websites have names like SmokeAnywhere.com and SmokingEverywhere.com, and manufacturers of electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, are touting that their products are “cheaper than a cigarette,” have a “cool design,” come in “different flavors” and are a “tar-free option” to traditional cigarettes. The website of E-Cigarettes National boasts that its new electronic cigarettes have “eliminate” (more…)

Electronic cigarettes contain traces of toxic substances and carcinogens, according to a preliminary analysis of the products by the Food and Drug Administration.

The findings, which were announced on Wednesday, contradict claims by electronic cigarette manufacturers that their products are safe alternatives to tobacco and contain little more than water vapor, nicotine and propylene glycol, which is used to create artificial smoke in theatrical productions. When heated, the liquid produces a vapor that users inhale through the battery-powered device. (more…)

The great judge Learned Hand once said, “The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.” If so, the tobacco regulation bill recently passed by Congress indicates that the spirit of liberty is even scarcer than usual in the halls of government.

What motivates advocates of stricter tobacco regulation is the unassailable assurance that they are not only completely right but that their opponents are a) wrong and b) evil. This invigorating certitude makes it possible to justify almost anything that punishes cigarette companies, even if it does no actual good — or does actual harm. (more…)