Plain packaging for cigarettes: at best, ineffective; at worst, harmful

In anticipation of new federal regulations that will increase the space reserved for health warnings on cigarette packages from 50 to 75%, the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) today unveils a second Economic Note on the growing tendency of governments to regulate advertising. In practice, increasing the space reserved for warnings may be seen as a form of plain packaging, and this is all the more true when a sticker is added (on the section left for the brand) to show that duty has been paid.

In Canada, health warnings on packages of cigarettes went from taking up 20% of the front and back of each package in 1989 to 50% in 2001. Over the same period, warnings in the United States took up only around 5% of each package, leaving ample room for advertising the product brand. However, there has been no observable difference in the reductions in smoking rates in the two countries, including for young smokers, despite the fact that packaging and marketing restrictions are harsher in Canada.

It should be noted that this MEI publication does take into account research that supports plain packaging. However, it also points out that according to several studies, that research has important methodological shortcomings and does not follow recognized statistical analysis techniques.

In addition to not providing the hoped-for beneficial results, plain packaging, which consists in removing all distinctive signs (logo, colour, etc.) associated with the product, could even ultimately lead to an increase in the number of smokers. This counter-intuitive result is explained by the fact that consumers are prepared to pay more for a product with a well-known name that is a synonym for quality. As a result, if plain packaging makes it harder to distinguish one cigarette package brand from another, a price war would inevitably follow, since this would be the only means of differentiation left to cigarette manufacturers. Therefore, backed up by studies, the MEI publication shows that this price drop would likely entail an increase in tobacco consumption.

For the purposes of this publication, the MEI estimated the increase in the number of smokers to be expected for the Canadian market using the most conservative hypotheses from the studies consulted. The result is an anticipated rise of nearly 3% in the number of smokers, the equivalent of 135,000 new smokers in Canada.

"If all cigarettes are sold in indistinguishable packages, why pay more for a particular brand? And in a price war, it's usually contraband products that end up having the last word," explains MEI president Michel Kelly-Gagnon.

"For reasons explained in detail in our publication, the measures the federal government is preparing to adopt will be very effective if the goal is to do as much harm as possible to legally established Davidoff cigarette manufacturers, but it will prove to be much less so if we suppose that the goal is rather to reduce the number of smokers. At the very least, the government should make a commitment right now to carry out an objective assessment of these new regulations three years after they come into force in order to see if they were effective and if unintended consequences have materialized," adds Mr. Kelly-Gagnon.

New Mich. cigarette law has some smokers fuming

A new state law intended to reduce the fire hazard posed by smoldering cigarettes has frustrated some Michigan smokers, who complain that the safer cigarettes taste foul.
The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, requires all cigarettes sold in Michigan to be engineered to automatically extinguish when left unattended. To comply, cigarette companies usually add two or three special bands to the cigarettes’ paper that, when lit, reduce the flow of oxygen to the tobacco, thereby slowing the stick’s rate of burn.
If a smoker does not draw on the lit cigarette, the bands effectively smother it.
Ashley May, a 22-year-old smoker from Roseville, told The Detroit News that the fire-safe smokes taste foul and are hard to keep lit.
“I don’t like them,” she said after a drag from a Kool. “You have to constantly puff on them every 30 seconds or else they’re going out. And then when you try to re-light them, they taste horrible.”
Although May and her husband Ed do not like the fire-safe cigarettes, they said they are a good idea if they end up reducing the number of house fires caused by unattended cigarettes.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm approved the law in June, making Michigan the 49th state to pass fire-safe cigarette legislation.
The new cigarettes won’t end all fires started by smoking materials, but they will help lower the numbers of deaths and injuries caused by them, said Ronald Farr, Michigan’s Fire Marshal.
“It’s a life-safety issue,” he said. “That’s the single biggest point for them.”
Fires caused by smoking-related materials in Michigan killed four people last year and injured 33 others, including seven firefighters, according to the state’s Bureau of Fire Services.
Nationwide, fires ignited by cigarettes claimed 780 lives in the United States in 2006, according to the Massachussetts-based National Fire Protection Association.
With Michigan’s new law looming, tobacco retailers such as Joe Odisho, the owner of Smokers’ Planet in Roseville, have heard plenty of complaints about the new cigarettes.
“I’ve had people come in (and) ask if I have a brand without (the fire-safe cigarettes) and then turn around and walk out when I tell them ‘no,”’ he said.
Under the new law, cigarette manufacturers that want to sell their products in the state have to register them with the state’s Bureau of Fire Services. They also must certify that their cigarettes were made with the self-extinguishing technology.
The state will charge cigarette makers a $1,250 fee to register each family brand of their products they want sold in Michigan. The companies will also have to re-certify their products every three years.
The packaging for cigarettes must carry a special mark on them – FSC for Fire Standard Complaint – as well.
Any manufacturer, distributor or retailer who continues to sell unsafe cigarettes after Jan. 1 faces fines of $100 per pack and seizure of the product, according to the law.

Teens smoking more pot, less tobacco

Cigarette smoking is out but pot use is in among the nation's teenagers, who also report a higher use of prescription painkillers and a waning perception about the risk of illicit drugs, a federal study on students has found.
As more states move to approve medical marijuana, and pot legalization and decriminalization become more mainstream in the national discussion, teens seem more accepting of pot use, according to a study released Monday by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
The national survey, "Monitoring the Future," was conducted by the University of Michigan and queried 47,097 students in the eighth, 10th and 12th grades.
It found that one-fifth of seniors - 20.6 percent - reported using marijuana in the previous month, up from 18.3 percent in 2006. High school sophomores' pot smoking rose from 13.8 percent in 2008 to 15.9 percent this year, statistics that researchers said should capture the nation's attention.
"So far, we have not seen any dramatic rise in marijuana use, but the upward trending of the past two or three years stands in stark contrast to the steady decline that preceded it for nearly a decade," said Lloyd Johnston, who serves as principal investigator on the Michigan study, which has tracked teen drug use since 1975.
"Not only is use rising, but a key belief about the degree of risk associated with marijuana use has been in decline among young people even longer, and the degree to which teens disapprove of use of the drug has recently begun to decline," Mr. Johnston said. "Changes in these beliefs and attitudes are often very influential in driving changes in use."
Judy Kreamer, president of Educating Voices Inc., a nonprofit drug-education and drug-prevention organization in Naperville, Ill., called the survey results "very disturbing" but said they come as no surprise given the messages that advocates have sent youths in recent years.
"Today, if you watch television or listen to the radio, you cannot help but hear people laugh and tell jokes about marijuana," she said. "There is a lot of information out there that it's just a medicine and isn't as bad as alcohol. We have to straighten that misinformation out - for our children's sake.
"I want people to understand that marijuana is a harmful drug, and we have to keep our children safe. It's our responsibility, and part of that requires that we educate ourselves about the harms associated with marijuana and that we then impart those concerns to our young people so that they understand."
Among the study's bright spots: Methamphetamine use, binge drinking and cigarette smoking have declined.
The number of eighth-graders who reported smoking within the past month dropped from 19.4 percent in 1997 to 6.5 percent this year. Twelfth-grader smoking also dipped, from 36.5 percent in 1997 to 20.1 percent in 2009, marking the "lowest point in the history of the survey on all measures," among all grades surveyed, researchers said.
Cocaine use was also on the decline, with use among seniors falling from 4.4 percent in 2008 to 3.4 percent in 2009.
Seniors also registered an attitude shift on the perceived harmfulness of hallucinogens such as LSD, along with amphetamines, sedatives/barbiturates and heroin, and there was a heightened perception that drug availability was declining.
"These latest data confirm that we must redouble our efforts to implement a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to preventing and treating drug use," said Gil Kerlikowske, who heads the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
"Continued erosion in youth attitudes and behavior toward substance abuse should give pause to all parents and policymakers," Mr. Kerlikowske said Monday as results from the study were released at the National Press Club in Washington.
The University of Michigan researchers noted that the percentage of teens using any illicit drug is up in 2009 over the past two years, but that the proportion of the students who reported using any drug other than pot is declining for those in the eighth and 12th grades.
The investigators said they remained concerned, however, that the perceived risk of using such drugs as Ecstasy, LSD and other inhalants has fallen, even as their reported use among teens has dropped.
"Given the glamorous name and reputation of [Ecstasy], I could easily imagine it making a comeback as younger children entering their teens become increasingly unaware of its risks," Mr. Johnston said.
"While LSD use is at historically low levels at present, the proportion of students seeing its use as dangerous has been in decline for a long time (although it did not decline further this year in two of the three grades), removing a major obstacle to experimentation. We have seen LSD make a comeback before. Clearly, it could happen again," he said.

CEPS Destroys 330,000 Cartons Of Cigarettes

The Northern Sector Command of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Services (CEPS) on Saturday destroyed 330,000 cartons of seized cigarettes.
The cigarettes which were of different brands were destroyed because they were either smuggled goods or did not have the health warning: "Cigarette smoking is dangerous to your health".
Mr. Ernest Frimpong-Nuamah, the Sector Commander led a team of CEPs personnel and officials of the Foods and Drugs Board and the Environmental Protection Agency to witness the destruction of the items.
Mr. William Annan, Principal Collector and Preventive Officer of CEPS said the destruction of the items was to serve as a deterrent to others who may be anticipating smuggling goods into the country without passing through the necessary procedures.

Cigarettes where chic back in the day

A couple of things lately have reminded me of some of the outstanding advertising campaigns of the past. There are some great ones now, the lizard, the duck, the kids feeling cheated ...
It’s good to see car companies perking up. Ford has been getting good reviews, and its Fusion has been named Motor Trend’s Car of the Year. Makes me remember the big billboard signs with the beautiful girl in the convertible, with the words: “Watch the Fords go by!” And, right after the war, when new cars were being (literally) fought over, the big crystal ball with just the snout of the ‘46 showing, and the words, “There’s a Ford in Your Future.”
Chevy’s best advertising was Dinah Shore singing, “See the USA in your Chevrolet ...” For Packard, it was “Ask the Man Who Owns One.” And “When better cars are built, Buick will build them.”
Tobacco companies were the most inventive. But right now, a member of the Reynolds family (Camels) is on a crusade to end smoking. And word is out that EAMC (that’s East Alabama Medical Center, not East Alabama Male College, where some of us went to school) is cutting out smoking even in the parking lot. Quite a change from when Ted Williams endorsed Camels and “More doctors recommend Philip Morris ...”
Fellow named ... what is his name, Hill, Mesa, Ridge ... some kind of high ground, is very upset about it. You mean I can’t even smoke in my truck with the windows closed? Fume, fume,fume.
I used to smoke. Started off on Luckies (So round, so firm, so fully packed), but I felt sorry for the Reynolds family and switched to Camels (I’d walk a mile for a camel)’til I quit, cold
turkey, never to smoke again.
Funny how you’d pick a certain brand. Uncle Jeff smoked Raleighs. Uncle Grady smoked Old Golds. Frosty’s dad smoked Camels. Cousin James smoked Chesterfields (“Smoke dreams from smoke rings, while a Chesterfield burns ...”) Our hired man smoked Country Gentleman through the week, Prince Albert on weekends. As we worked together, I’d quiz him about why he liked certain brands. The tobacco business fascinated me.
When I was growing up, the men at Mt. Pisgah, between Sunday School and preaching, would step outside for a smoke. Cigarettes were as ubiquitous as men’s hats.
When I quit smoking, the mother of my grandkids who are in college was a baby. Unlike most ex-smokers, it doesn’t bother me to be around smokes, which are, like men’s hats, a vanishing breed.
But stubborn ones like Hill, Mesa, whatever, will, as Tex Williams said, make St. Peter at the Golden Gate wait, while they have another cigarette.

Man takes cigarettes at knifepoint from Sun Valley store

Washoe County sheriff's deputies are looking for a man who robbed a Sun Valley store early Monday morning.
About 1:40 a.m., the man entered the Bi-Rite market, 5690 Sun Valley Boulevard, and asked the clerk for a pack of cigarettes. The clerk told the man how much they cost, and the man placed a dollar bill and some change on the counter and said, "This is all I have."
The suspect put his leg on the counter, revealing a large, black-handled knife. He took the cigarettes and went east on Sun Valley Boulevard, deputies said.
The suspect was described as Hispanic, in his 30s, about 5-foot-7, with dark hair and a dark goatee and wore a gray, long-sleeve shirt, dark pants and silver glasses.

Cigarette butts toxic to fish, say researchers

Cigarette butts are toxic to fish and should be labeled as toxic hazardous waste, U.S. researchers say.
Scientists at San Diego State University say that a single cigarette butt containing a small amount of unburnt tobacco is enough to contaminate a litre of water and kill half of the fish swimming in it.
"Based on this new research, we believe that cigarettes should be considered toxic waste and new requirements need to be established for how they are disposed," Tom Novotny, a public health professor at San Diego State University, said in a statement.
The researchers tested the toxicity of the tobacco on fresh and saltwater fish: fathead minnows and top smelt — two species that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency typically uses in pollution studies.
The cigarette butts were left soaking in the water for a day before fish were placed in it for testing.
Whole cigarettes and cigarette butts with unburnt tobacco were found to be the most toxic, but even filters that had been smoked and that had no tobacco left on them were found to be toxic.
Cigarette filters are made of cellulose-acetate, which does not biodegrade.
The researchers presented their conclusion at a meeting of the American Public Health Association in Philadelphia earlier this month, and have submitted their study for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
Cigarette butts are considered the most littered item in the world. Novotny recently estimated that 767 million kilograms of cigarette butts — or about 4.5 trillion butts — end up as litter every year.

Perata's cigarette tax measure finds First 5 foes

Fresh out of the gate, a ballot measure to raise cigarette taxes for cancer research proposed by former state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata is taking heat from early childhood education advocates who rely on tobacco taxes, too.
Perata — a 2010 Oakland mayoral candidate — had hoped this California Cancer Research Act, launched at a news conference Monday, would garner good publicity and widespread public support as a war on Big Tobacco. Instead, some say, it could end up facing united opposition from tobacco companies and the education advocates who warred with them 11 years ago.
California law already called for a cigarette tax of up to 12 cents per pack, paid into the state's general fund, by the time voters approved Proposition 99 of 1988, which added a 25-cent-per-pack tax to fund tobacco-related health education and disease research, hospital care for the indigent, park and wildlife restoration and other causes.
When producer, actor and director Rob Reiner put his successful Prop. 10 on the ballot in 1998 — a 50-cent-per-pack tax to fund early childhood education via a new "First 5 California" bureaucracy — he included a "backfill" provision. This required the state to compute how much the new tax would reduce cigarette sales, and transfer a cut of the new Prop. 10 revenue to offset the decrease in Prop. 99 and general fund revenue.
Perata's proposed measure includes a backfill provision for Prop.99 and the general fund but not Prop. 10, so this new $1-per-pack tax would drain tens of millions of dollars from early childhood education across the state by suppressing cigarette sales with out replenishing Prop. 10 losses, Prop. 10 campaign manager and longtime Reiner political consultant Chad Griffin said Tuesday.
That won't sit well with education advocates, labor unions and others who backed Prop. 10 against tobacco companies' $30 million campaign onslaught, he said.
"Unless this is corrected, and hopefully this was a mistaken omission and can be refiled quickly ... I think you'd see a wide coalition of people including Rob Reiner and children's health and education groups across the state actively opposing something that ideally we'd be supporting," Griffin said — a big problem for the measure "given the unity needed to beat Big Tobacco" next year.
But the omission was no mistake.
"While we admire and support the goals of First 5, we had to recognize as we put this initiative together that we're living in an era of limits, where only one in 10 promising research proposals is getting the funding it needs," said longtime Perata campaign consultant Paul Hefner. "We came down on the side of providing the greatest possible support for research that will save lives and protect Californians, and we think our proposal made the right call."
The Prop. 10 cigarette tax now generates about $500 million per year, and some critics have accused First 5 California and its 58 county counterparts of sitting on or mismanaging much of that while many state programs fall to the budget-cut ax. Still, 66 percent of voters in May's special election rejected Prop. 1D, which would've redirected $1.7 billion of Prop. 10 revenue into the general fund over five years.
"I have absolutely no issue with a tobacco tax initiative to support tobacco related illness ... That is not the issue at all, and I don't want to be seen in a kids-versus-cancer scenario," First 5 Contra Costa Executive Director Sean Casey said Tuesday. "But there is a time-honored practice when an initiative is put forward to honor the previous initiatives that may be affected by it."
His commission expects about $9.4 million in Prop. 10 tax revenue this year, anticipating a 5 percent to 8 percent reduction from last year because of a 60-cent-per-pack federal cigarette tax increase that took effect in April. An additional $1-per-pack hike from Perata's measure, he assumes, could mean another hit of up to 10 percent.
Casey said his agency just finished developing a five-year, $70 million strategic plan to fund services from community resource centers to home visits for mothers of newborns to scholarships for early preschool. That plan draws down savings put away in earlier years of Prop. 10 funding, in anticipation of the gradual and predictable decline in smoking — a prediction that could be rendered useless by the new tax measure.
"We will feel it in Contra Costa, it will be real, and this is just not the time for that," Casey said.
Perata said Monday he expects tobacco companies will "empty the vault" to oppose this measure. Spokesmen for tobacco giants R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris voiced their opposition later Monday, and the California Taxpayers Association and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association said they'll probably oppose it, too.

FDA Goes After Online Sales of Flavored Cigarettes

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning more than a dozen online cigarette sellers that they may be in violation of the new regulations against selling most types of flavored cigarettes to U.S. citizens and have 15 days to prove that they have stopped those sales or risk government action.A ban on the U.S. sale of cigarettes flavored with anything other than menthol went into effect on Sept. 22 as part of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
That law, enacted in June, gives the FDA power to regulate the content of tobacco products, along with the marketing and distribution of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, and the impact of ads for those products on young people. The new law also lets the FDA limit the amount of nicotine in products and block labels such as “light” and “low tar” that appear to offer “healthier” cigarettes.
The warning letters went out to 14 owners of Web sites that the FDA says are still offering the banned flavored cigarettes for sale to U.S. customers, according to Internet searches conducted by its own Office of Enforcement and by its new Center for Tobacco Products, a division created within the FDA in August to administer the new tobacco ad and promotion policies and review applications for the exemption of new tobacco products.
The FDA sent a previous letter to the tobacco industry at large on Sept. 14 reminding them of the flavored-cigarette ban and stating that company selling the banned products would be subject to enforcement.
This latest round of notices went out to individual merchants, some located in the United States and some based overseas but selling to U.S. citizens through their Web sites. All the letters cite the language of the new bill that “A cigarette or any of its component parts (including the tobacco, filter or paper) shall not contain, as a constituent (including a smoke constituent) or additive, an artificial or natural flavor (other than tobacco or menthol) or an herb or spice, including strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon, pineapple, vanilla, coconut, licorice, cocoa, chocolate, cherry, or coffee, that is a characterizing flavor of the tobacco product or tobacco smoke.”
If the products listed for sale on the merchants’ Web sites do contain such flavorings, the letters say, they are adulterated tobacco products and subject to FDA penalty. If they don’t, they are misleadingly labeled and also subject to FDA penalty.
Merchants not based in the U.S. who received FDA letters were told that the agency will work to have their shipments into the U.S. stopped at customs, and that the FDA will notify authorities in their home countries that their banned products will not be allowed into the U.S.
The FDA’s enforcement effort is part of its initiative to prevent children and adolescents from taking up the smoking habit—something they can be lead into by candy- or fruit-flavored tobacco products, as well as marketing aimed at young audiences.
“FDA takes the enforcement of this flavored cigarette ban seriously,” Center for Tobacco products director Lawrence Deyton said in a release. ”These actions should send a clear message to those who continue to break the law that FDA will take necessary actions to protect our children from initiating tobacco use.”
In related news, a U.S. District Court ruled a week ago that tobacco companies have little chance of blocking enforcement of the Family Smoking Prevention Act on the grounds that it restricts their free speech rights to market new tobacco products, including smokeless tobacco and so-called “electronic cigarettes.”
R. J. Reynolds, which markets the Camel cigarettes product line, and Lorillard Inc., maker of Newport menthol cigarettes, filed suit against the law Aug. 31 in Richmond, VA, along with several other smaller tobacco marketers. In its filing, Reynolds asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction against the law, arguing that it impaired “their First Amendment right to communicate with adult tobacco consumers about their products.” If granted, the ruling would have prevented the FDA from enforcing the law while the plaintiffs pursued their broader case against it.
But U.S. District Court Judge Joseph McKinley denied the injunction on Nov. 5, saying that the “plaintiffs have little likelihood of success” in challenging the provisions of the law governing new “modified-risk” tobacco products.
The ruling means the tobacco makers will have to comply with the FDA’s new manufacturing and marketing regulations while the plaintiffs’ lawsuit moves forward.
That suit contends that the new law prohibits their use of “color lettering, trademarks, logos or any other imagery in most advertisements, including virtually all point-of-sale and direct-mail advertisements.” They also allege that new, more prominent health warnings on package fronts and cartons will relegate their branding to the bottom half of cigarette packaging and make it difficult, if not impossible, to see.”

Earnings Preview: Lorillard Inc.

RICHMOND, Va. — Tobacco maker Lorillard Inc. reports its third-quarter results on Monday. The following is a summary of key developments and analyst opinion related to the period.
OVERVIEW: The oldest continuously operating U.S. tobacco company and maker of Newport menthol cigarettes, based in Greensboro, N.C., said in July that it was selling more cigarettes even after it raised prices and a federal tax increase went into effect April 1.
Cigarette volumes at Lorillard, whose brands also include Kent, True, Maverick, Old Gold and Max, increased 2.1 percent for the second quarter, when the company estimated volumes fell 4.1 percent across the industry.
It is the fourth major tobacco company to report on its earnings this month. Altria Group Inc. — owner of the nation's biggest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA, which makes Marlboros — said cost-cutting and higher cigar sales helped its third-quarter profit rise 1.7 percent, even though it sold fewer cigarettes. Altria said its overall cigarette volume fell 12 percent for the quarter, and it estimated a 10 percent drop industrywide.
Reynolds American Inc. — the second-biggest cigarette seller in the U.S. and maker of Camel and Pall Mall — recorded 72 percent higher profit than in last year's third quarter, when restructuring costs and the falling value of its trademarks dampened its earnings. It said its estimated 11 percent drop in volume was better than the industry's decline, which it pegged at 12.6 percent.
Lorillard joined Reynolds and several smaller tobacco companies in suing the U. S. Food and Drug Administration over statements it has made under the new authority it won in June to regulate the tobacco industry. A federal judge in Kentucky is considering the case.
BY THE NUMBERS: Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial on average expect Lorillard to post a profit of $1.52 per share on revenue of $1.32 billion. In the third quarter a year earlier, the company earned $1.38 per share on revenue of $1.12 billion.
ANALYST TAKE: Analysts hope the third quarter sheds light on cigarette volumes for the year as the industry recovers from turbulence surrounding the federal tax increase.
Credit Suisse analyst Thilo Wrede told investors Oct. 13 that despite volume declines he expects Newport to keep gaining market share and he said Lorillard's Maverick brand would post double-digit volume gains.
In a separate note Sept. 21, Wrede said Lorillard is the best U.S. tobacco company.
"Lorillard continues to have the best margins, volume growth outlook and brand equity," Wrede wrote, adding that Maverick is drawing budget-conscious smokers.
WHAT'S AHEAD: The tobacco industry is anticipating more fallout from the FDA's new regulatory authority. Although a ban on flavored cigarettes went into effect last month, the FDA has not clarified how it will treat menthol cigarettes like Lorillard's popular Newport brand. And both Altria and Reynolds American hope to take some of Lorillard's share of the menthol market.
Wall Street will be looking at how further smoking bans, tax increases and regulation could affect cigarette volumes and profitability.
STOCK PERFORMANCE: During the quarter that ended Sept. 30, shares of Lorillard rose about 7.2 percent to $74.30. Over the previous 52 weeks, the stock traded between $52.50 and $79.02.

Tobacco delegation from China to visit NC

RALEIGH, N.C. More than 20 people representing China's tobacco industry are visiting North Carolina to learn more about the state's homegrown product.
State Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler will host the 22-person delegation on Saturday afternoon at the State Fair in Raleigh. The delegation will tour the Got to Be NC Agriculture exhibit, the tobacco barn and other exhibits.
Troxler visited China on a trade mission in August. He said he's trying to expand the Chinese market for North Carolina tobacco.

Suspects Sought In Antioch Tobacco Store Robbery

Police are seeking help from the public in identifying four armed suspects who took over and robbed a tobacco store in Antioch Tuesday afternoon.
Units responded to reports of an armed robbery at Tobaccoville located at 2717 Contra Loma Blvd. at around 2:15 p.m., according to Antioch police.
Four men armed with handguns stormed the business and forced a sales clerk to the ground at gunpoint, according to police.
The four men, described only as black men in their 20s with medium to large builds, stole tobacco products and an undisclosed amount of money.
The robbery was captured on closed-circuit security surveillance, and police on Tuesday released suspect photographs from the footage.

Somonauk retailers pass tobacco compliance check

All four Somonauk retailers checked for compliance with state tobacco laws passed, according to Somonauk police.
"It is very rewarding to see that our local businesses are adhering to the laws that have been created to safeguard our local children against the purchase of tobacco products," Chief Richard A. Smith said in a press release.
Tobacco retailers were inspected as the first of three rounds of compliance checks. An underage agent of the police department was sent to each establishment and attempted to purchase cigarettes. None of the businesses sold tobacco to the minor.
The compliance checks are paid for, in part, with a grand awarded by the Illinois Liquor Control Commission. The police department has been educating retailers on the minimum-age tobacco laws and the importance of verifying the age of their customers while conducting the compliance checks.

MAILBAG: Hard-drug use is worse than ever

A recent article (“How to say no to drugs,” Sept. 24) focuses on the proliferation of the possession of hard drugs such as ecstasy, heroin and LSD by students in Glendale, and primarily in La Crescenta. It draws attention to the lack of fear students feel when being confronted with such dangerous substances.
In September, a Rosemont Middle School student was arrested for the ownership of ecstasy, and a Crescenta Valley High School student was caught with two tablets of LSD. Such fearlessness toward experiencing hazardous drugs has never before been apparent in any other generation. The fear and knowledge preventing students from wanting to experiment with these drugs should be returned and enforced by drug classes in schools. School officials and law enforcement should work together to eliminate any such possibility of these illegal substances being brought onto campus.
In previous years, the main problem drugs were tobacco and marijuana. These days, students are going a step further in the world of drug experience. Rather than affecting one’s lungs or heart, hard drugs such as LSD and ecstasy pinpoint regions in the user’s brain and gradually disintegrate those vital connections. Lately, detailed research of present and previous ecstasy and heroin users demonstrates severe memory loss and progressing brain damage.
Users in elementary and middle school are particularly at risk, given that their brains aren’t nearly as developed as they should be to contain the damage and handle the effects of these substances. Banning and preventing possession of these drugs should be one of the main focuses and priorities of school laws and organizations. Frequent and unannounced drug dog and police searches should be made a norm at schools in our area.
It is extremely vital to educate students on how risky it is to even try these high-level drugs, and to minimize greatly the exposure to these substances.

Cigarettes stolen from gas station

A man broke into the McTeer Food and Fuel at 4150 Windsor Spring Road in Hephzibah early Monday and stole cigarettes and cigars.
A Richmond County sheriff’s report says that a newspaper deliveryman arrived at the gas station and found the front glass door broken and a large rock on the floor inside. The burglar had stolen an unknown amount of cigarettes and cigars from the business.
Video surveillance footage showed that the burglar was black, 35 to 40 years old, about 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighed about 185 pounds.

Luci E Cigarettes Now Part of the E Cigarettes National Elite Lineup

Not just any electronic cigarette line can grace the pages of E CigarettesNational’s website. The company prides itself on only offering what it considers the highest of quality e cigarette kits to the public and has added the Luci brand to its premier lineup.
They claim to offer only the top electronic cigarettes on the market based on several criteria that they claim makes the selection that the offer the best on the market. They look at companystability, quality of products and availability inside the U.S., among other important factors.
The company has now announced that the Luci Brand will now grace the pages of E Cigarettes National because of the attention to detail, product reliability, product quality, and sound financial history of the founders of the company.
“We can not just sell any products that may or may not work, and even further, we can not sell products that are not readily available to us so that we can provide top quality customer serviceand product replacements if there is an issue with one of the kits or products,” states Tiffany Ellis, Marketing Director of E Cigarettes National. “It would be devastating to our company if there were some problems and we could not get the replacement parts in a timely manner to support our clients. We make decisions on carrying products based on the best interest of our customers.”
The company claims that the reason for their success is the ability to talk to a human being 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for help with ordering or to start any customer service issue. Customer service problems are handled within 12 to 24 hours after receiving the contacts.
“Only satisfied customers will do for us and we go the extra mile to make sure that happens with all of them and we believe that Luci will stand the test of time in an ongoing relationship with E Cigarettes National and our great and loyal clients,” says Tiffany.

$100G in cigarettes with fake tax stamps seized in Linden; were headed to Hudson: cops

More than $100,000 worth of smokes and nearly $280,000 in cash was seized in a crackdown on a ring that forged the stamp on cigarette packs to avoid paying taxes, officials said.
Based on the scale of the enterprise, it is thought the state may have lost more than $1 million in tax revenue, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said.
This type of operation "generates a tremendous profit for the defendants and, of course, is taking money from the citizens of New Jersey," said DeFazio, whose office conducted the investigation with the New Jersey departments of Homeland Security and Treasury. "This money would have gone into the treasury of the state and it is diverted instead to the pockets of these defendants."
Investigators believe the group regularly bought large quantities of untaxed cigarettes in other states at significantly lower prices than in New Jersey and transport them to a storage facility in Linden, DeFazio said.
They opened each carton and affixed a forged New Jersey or New York tax stamp to each pack before reloading the cartons and selling them at bargain prices to stores in Northern New Jersey and New York, DeFazio said.
During searches last week investigators also seized thousands of counterfeit tax stamps, DeFazio said, adding that a clothing iron was apparently used to affix the stamps to packs of cigarettes.
On Thursday investigators arrested Elizabeth residents Rajae Awad, 39; Anwar Ghani, 46; and Jamal Abbadi aka Jamal Alyazjeen, 40; as well as Ahmad Aldabesheh, 48, of Mohegan Lake, N.Y., DeFazio said.
They were charged with theft by deception, forgery and conspiracy and face up to 10 years in prison if convicted, DeFazio said
Those arrested are all natives of Jordan, DeFazio said, adding: "There is evidence that at least some of the money generated was forwarded to Jordan, but there is no reason to think it went to any sort of terrorist activity."
The Jordanian connection is the reason the NJ Department of Homeland Security joined the probe.
The investigation began months ago when officials got a tip that cigarettes with counterfeit tax stamps were being sold in Jersey City stores, DeFazio said. Surveillance in Jersey City led to the Linden storage facility, and to surveillance at other locations, DeFazio said.
Investigators believe a large portion of the cigarettes were purchased in North Carolina and detectives traveled there this weekend and recovered records at a storage facility believed to have been a staging site for the ring, DeFazio said. The prosecutor said vans were used to transport the cigarettes to New Jersey.

Man gets 18 months over cigarettes

A 27-Year-old man of chief Kaingu’s chiefdom in Itezhi-tezhi district has been slapped with an 18 month jail sentence for failing to pay for 12 cigarettes that he obtained from a makeshift shop.

Before Namwala Magistrates Munalula Mubita was Prosper Munyumbwe who was charged with the offence of obtaining pecuniary advantage by false pretences, contrary to Cap 301 Section One of the Laws of Zambia.

Facts of the matter were that on August 11, 2009 the complainant, a Mr Moboola, sent his 11-year-old nephew to sell his cigarettes in a makeshift shop but when he went to check on him, the nephew told him that Munyumbwe had taken 12 sticks of consulate cigarettes on pretense that he had no change and that he would pay later.

The court also heard that Munyumbwe was later found stealing 12 packets of consulate cigarettes at the same make shift shop prompting the owner to apprehend and take him to police where he was arrested and detained.

Munyumbwe pleaded guilty.