Leave government out of quitting smoking addiction
Smoking and other addictions are misunderstood by the public and distorted by those in authority. Any addiction is genetic and hereditary with painful origins. The Food and Drug Administration cannot change a disease. It is not God. (more…)
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Larry Mabe’s story is like so many others working at Reynolds American Tobacco. “My dad and my mother worked here, and they retired from here,” he says.
Linda Jones has spent a lifetime in tobacco, too. “Thirty-three years ago, when I first started with the company, I planned on retiring from here and I still hope to,” she says. (more…)
The House on Friday passed the Senate’s tobacco bill and sent it to the White House, where President Obama promised to sign it quickly.
Obama, who has struggled to quit smoking, said the measure would “protect our kids and improve our public health.” (more…)
WASHINGTON — Richard M. Burr, the Republican tobacco-state senator who tried a filibuster this week against a bill that would allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the cigarette industry, flew home to North Carolina for the weekend, conceding that the landmark legislation was likely to pass next week.
Senator Richard M. Burr gave up a filibuster against the bill.
Although a Senate filibuster killed a similar measure in 1998, times have apparently changed. Mr. Burr acknowledged Thursday that his effort would probably be blocked by a cloture vote that the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, has scheduled for Monday evening. “Clearly the cloture motion will pass,” Mr. Burr said in an interview.
“Probably with flying colors,” David Ward, his press secretary, added.
After that, a final vote on the tobacco control measure could come Wednesday, Senate staff members said.
The House has already passed almost identical legislation, and President Obama has indicated he will sign the measure.
Tobacco regulation used to be a fight to the death in Congress, but now Mr. Burr stood largely alone in the filibuster effort. (more…)
More than a decade after Harvard researchers first revealed that life and health insurance companies were major investors in tobacco stocks - prompting calls upon them to divest - the insurance industry has yet to kick the habit, they say.
A new article on insurance company holdings, published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine, shows that U.S., Canadian and U.K.-based insurance firms hold at least $4.4 billion of investments in companies whose subsidiaries manufacture cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco and related products.
Burley tobacco farmers have grown accustomed to seeing production decline in recent years, as high costs and few profits pushed many growers away.
But recent federal yield numbers predict a good year for burley, which once ranked among the Volunteer State’s most profitable crops.
The burley tobacco produced by Tennessee farmers this year is expected to outperform last year’s crop by 22 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. If that prediction holds true, it will mark the first time the production of burley — most commonly used in cigarettes — has shown a year-over-year increase since 1999.
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Ten years after the tobacco settlement, South Carolina has slid back to its worst-in-the-nation status in what it spends to keep people from smoking, according a report released Tuesday by a coalition of public health groups.
South Carolina will collect $114 million this year from the tobacco settlement and taxes, but it is the only state that doesn’t plan to spend any state money to help people quit smoking and prevent others from taking up the habit.
It had shared that distinction with Connecticut, but legislators there were considering a plan Tuesday to add nearly $7 million to its federal spending, and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids used the proposed figures in the report.
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High school students in Florida are more likely to smoke marijuana than tobacco, according to a new report on adolescent health from the state Health Department.
About 16 percent of Florida high school students said they used marijuana in the past month versus 15.5 percent who said they smoked cigarettes, according to a 2006 government survey.
The difference is dramatic in Martin County where 24 percent of high school students say they’ve used marijuana in the past month, compared to 20 percent who used cigarettes. Martin County had a higher rate of teen tobacco and marijuana use than neighboring counties.
The vast majority of people believe the price of cigarettes should be increased in a bid to reduce the numbers smoking, according to a survey.
International experts at a conference on tobacco control in Dublin were told taxes should be raised further to make the cost of the habit a major turn-off.
And one of the country’s leading anti-smoking campaigners Professor Luke Clancy called on the Government to hike prices by at least 50 cent every year. “Raising tobacco prices, removing tobacco signage from retail outlets, removing tobacco from our consumer price index and massively increasing the spend on educating our young people on the risks of tobacco use are all proven measures to combat smoking,” he said.
Latin America’s per capita consumption of tobacco will drop over the next four years due to new laws and increased enforcement.
BY JIM DALY
Countries throughout Latin America have been increasing the number of laws controlling labeling and public smoking. In the midst of growing health concerns and increased global pressures to establish and enforce tobacco legislation, some Latin American countries are strongly pushing new legislation as it relates to bans on tobacco, while others are making moves to expand previous legislation that was rarely enforced.
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