2 face burglary, theft charges after store break-ins for cigarettes

An Indianapolis man broke out a Phillips 66 convenience store window and began stealing cartons of cigarettes early today, police said.

Police were nearby -- they've been frequenting the area after three previous thefts -- and quickly arrested Cole without incident about 12:30 a.m. at the store, 10400 N. Michigan Road.

Suspected getaway driver Carroll Walton, 53, Indianapolis, took off at a high rate of speed, and police pursued and pulled him about a mile away, said Carmel Police Department Lt. Jeff Horner.

The two were taken to the Hamilton County jail in Noblesville. Cole was preliminarily charged with three felony counts each of burglary and theft and held in lieu of $50,000 bond.

Walton remained held on two counts each of theft and burglary as well as counts of reckless driving, resisting law enforcement and driving while suspended with a prior convention. He's being held in lieu of $37,500 bond.

Surveillance footage from the store, police said, show the pair is responsible for at least two of the other robberies.

Horner didn't know if the two were later selling the cartons or just really needed a smoke.

"They were both pretty tight-lipped when they were brought in," Horner said.

SC allows ex-DOH chiefs to intervene in cigarette case

The Supreme Court (SC) has granted a motion of former health secretaries to intervene in the case of the Department of Health versus Mighty Tobacco Corporation and a Malolos, Bulacan Trial Court in connection with a Department of Health (DOH) administrative order on the inclusion of graphic health warnings in cigarette packaging.

In a 39-page motion for leave to intervene, former Health Secretaries Francisco Duque III, Jaime Galvez-Tan, Alberto Romualdez, Alfredo Bengzon and Esperanza Cabral, the one who issued the order herself, maintained that all cigarette manufacturers have to comply with the order requiring the inclusion of pictures depicting harmful effects of cigarettes on their packaging.

They said “the meddling of the tobacco industry is preventing the DOH from carrying out its mandate to protect and preserve the health and lives of Filipinos.”

Mighty Corporation, producer of “Sweetened” cigarettes and American-blended tobacco products, was able to secure an injunction order from the Malolos, Bulacan Regional Trial Court Branch 15 restraining the DOH from implementing DOH Administrative Order No. 13 also known as the “Graphic Health Information Order” issued in May 2010. Thus, the case pending before the high court filed by the Health Department.

Fortune Tobacco, owned by business tycoon Lucio Tan, also managed to secure an injunction order in Marikina City.

In a press statement, intervenors noted a World Health Organization study placing the number of deaths of Filipino from Tobacco smoke at 240 a day, “making it an alarming public health crisis.”

48 traders charged for selling illegal cigarettes

Forty-eight traders have been charged in court for selling cigarettes without the graphic health warnings on their packages, Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said.

He said the offences were detected during a Tobacco Revenue Control Regulations 2004 enforcement operation, or Ops Basuh, on Jan 5 and Feb 22 which also led to the confiscation of 6,359 packets of cigarettes worth RM22,225.

"Traders found guilty of selling illegal cigarettes can be fined not more than RM10,000 or jailed a minimum of two years under the PPKHT 2004," he told reporters after launching the Regional Workshop on the Mid-term Review of Country Projects for Health Promotion Foundations and Tobacco Taxation, here today.

Liow said 242 traders were compounded for selling cigarettes below the minimum price fixed by the government, involving compounds of RM121,000.

He added that the public is urged to help them eradicate sales of illegal cigarettes by reporting the matter to district health offices.

Lawmakers Aim To Raise Taxes On Smokers

Lawmakers are looking to put increased taxes on smokers.
Several house bills would add increased costs to cigarettes and other tobacco products.
The Tobacco-Free Coalition of Oregon says the state’s current tax of $1.18 per pack of cigarettes has not changed since 2002.
The International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association says taxing all tobacco products will hurt cigar and pipe smokers, who say they do it as a hobby instead of a habit.

Biz supports tobacco tax

The Entertainment Industry Foundation's Stand Up to Cancer program has thrown its support behind a California ballot initiative to add a $1-per-pack tax on cigarettes to fund cancer research and tobacco prevention programs.
The initiative could be placed on the June ballot depending on whether a statewide special election is called. If not, it would be on the California primary ballot in February 2012.

Laura Ziskin, co-founder of Stand Up to Cancer, said researchers are in great need of additional funding, as cuts are made to federal research budgets. The California Cancer Research Act, as it is called, would generate about $855 million in the first year, with a decline of about 3% each year after that, according to the initiative's supporters.

Among those supporting the measure are Livestrong founder Lance Armstrong, former State Sen. Don Perata, the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Assn., the American Heart Assn. and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.

It's expected that tobacco and cigarette companies will campaign to defeat the measure, and the head of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. has already expressed its opposition.

Most Parents Support Testing Kids for Tobacco Exposure

If you’ve ever wondered how much cigarette smoke your kids are really exposed to – you’re not alone.
A new study led by the Center for Child and Adolescent Health has found that a majority of parents would support testing children for tobacco smoke exposure as part of their primary care visit.
Researchers surveyed nearly 500 parents – both smoking and non-smoking – and asked them how they felt about the idea of testing children for tobacco smoke exposure during routine pediatric visits. Overall 60 percent of parents supported the idea. Researchers say such testing could help promote smoke-free homes, cars and ultimately encourage family members to kick the habit for good.
Dr. Jeff Chapman, a pulmonologist at Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital, who was not part of the study, agrees.
“Potentially families where there is a smoker identified, perhaps having objective evidence that it is impacting their children may motivate some families to quit smoking,” he said.
You can read more about the study in the journal Pediatrics.

Corbett budget seeks to shift tobacco money

Back when the state's economy flourished in the late 1990s, Pennsylvania received a special bonanza when tobacco companies agreed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars annually to put troublesome lawsuits behind them.

For the past decade, state officials have used the annual tobacco payments to pay for a host of public health programs through the Tobacco Settlement Fund.

Now in the third year of lean fiscal times, Gov. Tom Corbett proposes to transfer the tobacco money to the mainstay General Fund where state tax revenues go rather than keep it in a separate fund. A sizable chunk of tobacco money would continue to support established health programs, but some $220 million would be used for a newly created Liberty Loan Fund for economic development under the governor's proposal, according to a House Democratic Appropriations Committee analysis.

The proposed transfer is generating debate about the purpose of special funds and whether it is good policy to pay for programs with a revenue source that has some connection to the issue being addressed. In this case, a share of tobacco company profits from the sale of cigarettes has been spent over the years to advance health care, including programs to persuade smokers to kick the habit.

Sen. John Blake, D-Archbald, a former chairman of the Tobacco Settlement Investment Board, is among the vocal critics of the governor's proposal.

The annual payment stems from a 1998 agreement between the tobacco industry and attorneys general in 46 states. The agreement settled claims against the tobacco industry to recover Medicaid costs associated with treating smoking-related illnesses in exchange for the states dropping lawsuits.

A 2001 state law set priorities for spending the tobacco money, but a recent report by state Auditor General Jack Wagner has determined that $1.3 billion, or 30 percent, of the tobacco company payments received have been diverted from the tobacco settlement fund since 2005 for other purposes by former Gov. Ed Rendell and lawmakers. This includes a $121 million transfer to meet pension obligations for public school employees.

The use of tobacco money has surfaced as an issue with the recent demise of the state adultBasic health care program for low-income adults. The program ended Feb. 28 after financial contributions from the surpluses maintained by the four Blue Cross insurers in Pennsylvania ran dry.

From 2001 until 2005, tobacco settlement funds were used to pay for the adultBasic program as one of the priorities under the 2001 law. A class-action lawsuit recently filed by several former adultBasic recipients asks Commonwealth Court to order that a scheduled payment of $370 million in tobacco funds be partly used to restart the program.

At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing this week, Budget Secretary Charles Zogby said the proposed transfer of tobacco money reflects the reality that the tobacco settlement fund has already been raided many times.

"The past actions with the tobacco fund backed us into a corner," he said.

Blake said he doesn't think the Rendell era transfers from the tobacco settlement fund were good policy. But he criticized Corbett's proposal as being a unilateral move that would undermine a shared responsibility among members of the tobacco investment board for deciding how tobacco money is spent.

The move raises the risk of lawsuits by tobacco companies objecting to the end of the 2001 allocation law, Blake said. He also expressed concern that state investment in the biotech industry - now funded with tobacco dollars - could be jeopardized by the proposal.

NH House Votes to Slash Cigarette Tax

Bucking a national trend to raise tobacco taxes, the New Hampshire House voted last week to lower the state’s cigarette tax by a dime, the Union Leader reports. The Senate will likely approve the measure shortly.

With a 236 to 93 vote in favor of the reduction, the House slashed the cigarette tax to $1.68 a pack. Republicans pushed for the tax cut as a way to bring in out-of-state visitors to border stores, which would trigger more sales of cigarettes, convenience store items, liquor and lottery tickets. Some Democrats opposed the bill, arguing that it would decrease annual state revenue by $16 million.


The Legislative Budget Assistant’s Office analysis found that a reduction in the tax at current sales levels would lower revenue by $15 million, but the agency also discovered the reduced rate would boost sales enough that the revenue shortfall would be cut in two by 2012.


In the Senate, Finance Chairman Chuck Morse thinks the measure will be approved. “I believe reducing the tax will be a revenue producer,” he said.


Rep. Patrick Abrami pointed out that New Hampshire has had a stagnate tobacco tax revenue since cigarette taxes jumped from 80 cents to $1.78 in 2007. Neighboring state Maine had a $2 per pack tax, which is close to New Hampshire’s current rate.


“We have reached the tipping point. We are hurting our merchants, and we are losing sales on our borders,” said Abrami.


The New Hampshire Retail Grocery Association supports the bill.

Department of Health: Illegal Sales of Tobacco Products to Minors Drop for Seventh Consecutive Year

Illegal sales of tobacco products to minors in Pennsylvania have dropped for the seventh consecutive year, the Department of Health announced today.

"Our inspections show a sustained reduction in the percentage of tobacco products illegally sold to minors, falling from 27.9 percent in 2001 to 6 percent in 2010," said acting Secretary of Health Dr. Eli Avila. "This improvement is great news for the children of Pennsylvania because research shows 90 percent of adult smokers started when they were kids."

The results were gathered through random, unannounced inspections of stores selling tobacco products in 2010. States that do not meet the federally established limits risk losing 40 percent of their federal substance abuse prevention and treatment block grants for the following year. These funds are distributed to counties to pay for drug and alcohol treatment and prevention programs.

Since 2002, the department has worked in collaboration with its regional primary contractors and community-based organizations to develop comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programs in each of Pennsylvania's 67 counties; conduct on-going enforcement checks; and provide retailer education and youth prevention initiatives.

The Department of Health's anti-tobacco efforts are intended to help individuals to quit – or never start – using tobacco products, and to curb the retail sale of tobacco to minors.

Marketplace Globalist Quiz: Tobacco Production King

Tobacco continues to pose one of the world’s largest public health challenges, killing 5.4 million people each year. With governments and international health organizations stepping up their efforts to curb tobacco use, we wonder: Which country produces more tobacco than any other?
The United States has slipped to fourth place among the world’s top tobacco producers. Its output totaled 363,000 metric tons in 2008 — or 6% of global production, according to the latest available data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Tobacco has been a major cash crop for the U.S. economy for hundreds of years. The United States was the world’s largest tobacco producer as late as 1975, but U.S. production has since declined, while production in emerging market economies has soared.

Prison officer allegedly tries to sneak in marijuana, tobacco

The nose of a drug-sniffing canine allegedly found more than an ounce of marijuana and bags of raw tobacco on a prison officer trying to sneak the goods into Maury Correctional Institution this weekend.

Edwin G. Edwards, 29, will make his first appearance in Greene County District Court Friday for felony charges of possession of a controlled substance on prison grounds and possession with intent to sell and distribute a controlled substance and misdemeanor charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and providing tobacco to an inmate.

Thanks to the astute pooch, officers recovered 37.5 grams of marijuana, five to six bags of tobacco and rolling papers from Edwards’ lunch bag and body shortly after 7 p.m. Sunday, said Capt. Daniel Hawkins, the arresting officer with the Greene County Sheriff’s Office.

Hawkins assisted officials with the N.C. Department of Corrections in a routine unannounced drug screening over the weekend at Maury Correctional Institution of all visitors, staff and vehicles entering the prison property, said Keith Acree, spokesman with the DOC.

“The dog hit on the marijuana when he entered facility and lined up in a row with everyone else to be searched,” Hawkins said of the arrest.

Edwards, a correctional officer at the state prison since June 2008, resigned Monday. He earned an annual salary of $28,484, Acree said.

“We do interdictions periodically as part of our strategy to keep drugs out of prison facilities,” Acree said.

Hawkins placed Edwards, of Greenville, in the Greene County Jail under a $10,000 secured bond. He has since posted bail.

New 'dissolvable tobacco' products up mouth disease risk

Do You Know the Impacts of Smoking? Smoking and Tobacco Use. More... Healthline.com
A new study has suggested that the new genre of 'dissolvable tobacco' products - pop-into-the-mouth replacements for cigarettes - has the potential to cause mouth diseases as well as other problems.

John V. Goodpaster of the Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis and colleagues analysed the complex ingredients in the products and found that it contained mainly nicotine, along with finely-ground tobacco and a variety of flavouring ingredients, sweeteners and binders.

According to them, the first dissolvable tobacco products in pellet, stick and strip forms went on sale in 2009 in test markets in Indianapolis, Ind., Columbus, Ohio, and Portland, Ore.

These products are advertised as smoke and spit-free, but nicotine is a toxic substance linked to the development of oral cancers and gum disease, said Goodpaster.

Health officials are concerned about whether the products, which dissolve inside the mouth near the lips and gums, are in fact a safer alternative to cigarette smoking.

The researchers, however, said there are possibilities that the nicotine in these products may accidentally poison children.

"The packaging and design of the dissolvables may also appeal to children, and some dissolvables, such as Orbs, may be mistaken for candy," said Goodpaster.

Other ingredients in dissolvables have the potential to increase the risk of tooth decay and one, coumarin, has been banned as a flavouring agent in food because of its link to a risk of liver damage.

"The results presented here are the first to reveal the complexity of dissolvable tobacco products and may be used to assess potential health effects," said Goodpaster.

Strategies To Exploit Uncertainty in Tobacco

After taking control of tobacco regulation in 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating the use of menthol in cigarettes. Its tobacco panel, the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) is due to report its findings by March 23, 2011, and the FDA will issue a binding ruling after that. We envision three ultimate outcomes: menthol is banned (6% probability); no action is taken against menthol (16% probability); no ban, but tighter regulation (78% probability).
With a ban on menthol a potential outcome, investors have reason to harbor concerns about the future of Lorillard (LO
), the maker of Newport menthol cigarettes. However, based on our conversations with anti-smoking lobbyists, FDA officials, tobacco executives (including Altria (MO
) CEO Mike Szymanczyk and Lorillard CFO David Taylor), and representatives of smokers' rights groups, we think a ban is unlikely for the following reasons: The scientific evidence being considered by TPSAC is ambiguous; A black market for menthol cigarettes could emerge, limiting the FDA's ability to oversee the category; Tax revenues for governments at all levels would be impacted; Eighty percent of African-American smokers consume menthol products, so this issue has a racial component.
On the other hand, the anti-tobacco lobby is vociferous, and with the TPSAC being stacked in favor of individuals with anti-smoking positions, we view the status quo as a very unlikely outcome as well.
To exploit the uncertainty in the menthol category, we've outlined three investment strategies across multiple securities and risk thresholds:
Debt: Buy Lorillard bonds. The credit market appears to be pricing in a worse scenario than the equity market, even though we think a bankruptcy scenario is highly unlikely.
Equity: Wait for headline risk to provide an entry point. A negative TPSAC report could provide an attractive entry point to Lorillard's equity, which appears to be valued on a probability-weighted basis.
Paired equity trade: Buy Lorillard, sell Reynolds American (RAI
) stock. Lorillard's stock should rally harder in the absence of Draconian measures, while a short position in Reynolds should cushion the blow in the event of a ban because we think it will not be able to retain the majority of its revenue from Kool menthol cigarettes.