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…)

A state appeals court has upheld a San Francisco jury’s award of $2.85 million in damages to the family of a woman who died of lung cancer after smoking cigarettes for 27 years, ruling that she relied on tobacco companies’ claims that their products were safe.

In another development, San Francisco’s ban on tobacco sales in drugstores survived a legal challenge from Philip Morris. City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s office said the tobacco company had dropped its appeal of a ruling upholding the year-old ordinance.
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NEW YORK (AP) - The New York City Council has passed a bill that outlaws sales of all flavored tobacco products - going a few steps beyond a federal ban.

The Food and Drug Administration recently banned manufacturing, importing, marketing and distribution of cigarettes made to taste like candy, fruit and cloves.

The City Council passed a bill Wednesday that would include all flavored tobacco products, like small cigars and chewing tobacco. The law would ban sales in New York City.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg supports the bill and is expected to sign it.

The FDA is looking at whether to add more of those products to its ban.

Officials and health experts say flavored products are more appealing to young people and can hook children on smoking and tobacco at young ages.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn is seeking to increase the state’s tax on cigarettes by $1 per pack to $1.98. That increase, if passed by the state legislature, would catapult Illinois from its current rank of 30th to the 16th highest cigarette tax state in the nation, edging out New Hampshire where the tax is $1.78 per pack.

The lowest state tax is Missouri’s at 17 cents a pack, and the highest is Rhode Island’s at $3.46. The overall average among the 50 states is $1.34.
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Wisconsin has become the next-to-last state to require so-called fire-safe cigarettes.

Gov. Jim Doyle signed the bill a year-and-a-half ago and the law took effect on Oct. 1.

Fire-safe cigarettes are designed to snuff themselves out if they’re not smoked for a certain length of time.

The idea is to prevent fires started by cigarettes that are left smoldering.

Sen. Judy Robson, D-Beloit, tried for five years to require fire-safe cigarettes, soon after New York became the first state to mandate it.

Now, every state but Wyoming has similar laws on the books although some won’t actually take effect until next year or 2011.

The National Fire Protection Association says 800 Americans die each year from fires caused by smoking materials.

But not all smokers are crazy about the new cigarettes.

Milwaukee tobacco retailer Jeff Steinbock says some of his customers complain that the new smokes don’t taste as good and they have to keep lighting them up because they go out too quickly.

Steinbock says it’s another case of blaming the product instead of people for their irresponsible behavior.

Medical professionals continued to send a strong message about tobacco’s ill effects as the Micronesian Medical Symposium continued yesterday, while presenting the current state of cancer incidence and mortality rates to the region’s doctors and nurses.

Tobacco smoking has been linked not only to lung cancer, but to a number of other cancers and health problems, said Dr. John Ray Taitano, founder of the Micronesian Medical Symposium.

“Smoking prevention is the only thing that’s been demonstrated to decrease the risk of lung cancer,” said Dr. David Quinn from the University of Southern California.

Guam had the highest smoking rate per capita in the nation for the period from 1998 to 2007, according to a study published in March by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (more…)

We walk up to the bulletproof glass at the counter.

“Newports, short,” we tell the clerk, sliding payment to him through the slot below. He slides back our cigarettes and a receipt.

The damage: $7.50. Smokers looking for economic relief must love this store. It’s a dollar cheaper a pack than most stores in Chicago.

But if you’re the deficit-ridden city or Cook County, this store is not your friend. Not when the pack bears no evidence that the 68-cent Chicago tax and the $2 Cook County tax have been paid.

As cigarette taxes have gone up, smokers have been finding ways to avoid them, from driving out of state to buying online.
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Beginning Jan. 1, the tax on cigarettes will increase to $1 a pack from 30 cents. Other tobacco products will see an increase to 45 percent from 12 percent, following voters’ overwhelming passage of Proposition 2 in Tuesday’s municipal elections.
“I think we had a lot of smokers who voted for it. A majority of smokers want to quit. A majority of smokers don’t want to smoke at any price,” said Matt Felix, director of Juneau’s office of the National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence.
Paul Bennett was one of those smokers. He said he smokes three or four cigarettes a week and voted for the tax hike because the extra cost would help him curb the habit.
“I guess it’s pretty bad. I’m a smoker, it’s not cheap,” he said.
The unofficial vote tally was 3,366 to 2,156. (more…)

SPRINGFIELD — The idea of raising Illinois cigarette taxes by a $1 a pack could come up again as early as next week as a way to pay for the state’s biggest scholarship program.
Raising taxes by $1 was debated this spring as a way to generate more money for health care for low-income people.
Now, Gov. Pat Quinn wants to use money from a cigarette tax hike to pay for the state’s Monetary Award Program. It’s the biggest need-based scholarship program in Illinois, but the state’s financial problems have left money for spring semester grants in limbo.
Though the Illinois Senate approved of raising cigarette taxes earlier this year, there weren’t enough votes in the House to follow suit. Lawmakers returning to Springfield next week could try again.
The Senate sponsor of the tax plan said spending more on health care will draw in federal money. Then, state money could be shifted to pay for MAP grants. (more…)

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - Smoker or non-smoker? It can be a divisive issue and now comes the question: just how much should employers be able to regulate when and how employees smoke? Norton Healthcare is tightening up its anti-tobacco policy and it’s burning some smokers up.

Trying to find a smoker to talk to you about smoking isn’t easy.

One smoker, who didn’t want to be identified, summed up this way: “Smoking is bad. You’re not supposed to smoke.”

Many smokers want to stay hidden, and that’s just fine by Norton Healthcare administrators, at least while their employees are at work.

“It’s just what happens here that impacts the patients’ care that we’re most concerned about,” said Jim Parobek, Norton Vice President of Ancillary Services. (more…)