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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Cigarette sales in the United States have declined in recent years, but sales of non-cigarette tobacco products have risen and offset the decline in cigarette sales by 30 percent, a Harvard School of Public Health study finds.

Researchers analyzed federal government data and found that between 2000 and 2007, cigarette sales declined 18 percent, from 21.1 billion packs to 17.4 billion packs. Over that same period, sales of other tobacco products increased by the equivalent of 1.10 billion packs of cigarettes — 714 million moist snuff, 256 million roll-your-own tobacco, and 130 million small cigars.

The findings, published in the June 11 issue of theJournal of the American Medical Association, suggest the apparent magnitude of overall decline in tobacco use in the United States may be illusory, the researchers said.
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Richard Piatt reporting

Want a pack of cigarettes? A cigar? Chewing tobacco? Go to another store.

It’s a self-imposed ban on all tobacco products in grocery stores owned by Dan’s Foods. Starting June 1, the stores will stop selling everything tobacco-related, and the company says the decision is based solely on health.

Like it or not, this is a pretty bold move for the locally-owned grocery store chain. Some people we talked to came right out and said they thought it was dumb. But Dan’s is doing it because it thinks it’s a smart idea.

Smoker Rick Bills has been puffing away for years, and even he supports Dan’s ban on smokes. “Yes, I do regret my decision to smoke,” he said.

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TOPEKA | Kansas is improving its rate of federal compliance with rules regarding the sale of tobacco products to minors.

The federal Synar Amendment requires states to maintain a compliance rate of 80 percent or higher. In 2004 the state fell below that target rate.

Each year the Kansas Division of Alcohol Beverage Control and the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services conducts random checks of tobacco retailers to make sure they are not selling these products to underage youths.

Of those inspected last year, 87.1 percent did not sell tobacco products to minors.

That was a 7 percent improvement over similar inspections the previous year, according to department officials.

First New York, now the green mountain state will be charging smokers more to light up.

Starting on July 1st, Vermont will be raising its cigarette tax from a $1.75 a pack to a $1.99.

When the new tax is in place, Vermont will have the 11th highest tobacco tax in the country.

Over the past 20 years, the cigarette tax has risen slightly in the green mountain state.

The gradual increase has lead to a 25% drop in smokers.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Supreme Court said Monday it would examine for the third time an appeal by tobacco giant Philip Morris against a huge 79.5 million dollar award to the widow of a long-time Marlboro smoker.

An Oregon court in 1999 found that advertising campaigns by Philip Morris denying that smoking posed a health risk were partly to blame for the death of heavy smoker Jesse Williams from lung cancer two years earlier.

The Oregon jury awarded two types of damages to his widow: 520,000 dollars in compensation for the loss of her husband and 79.5 million dollars in punitive damages against Philip Morris.

With interest, the sum has ballooned today to close to 145 million dollars.

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