Push to Legalize Medical Marijuana in Arkansas Causing Concern

An effort to legalize medical marijuana in Arkansas is causing concern for the Family Council Action Committee (FCAC).

On Tuesday, FCAC President Jerry Cox issued a statement regarding the push by Arkansans for Compassionate Care, which is gathering signatures for a ballot proposal in 2012.

"This is about legalizing marijuana," Cox said. "It's just a matter of legalizing it in degrees. I think you'd find, if you asked around, that a lot of the same folks who support this support total legalization of marijuana for any purpose. I believe their real agenda is to have marijuana be as legally available as tobacco."

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel certified Arkansans for Compassionate Care's initiative in April, meaning advocates can begin collecting the 62,507 valid signatures they'll need to place the initiative on the November 2012 ballot. They'll have until July 6, 2012 to do it.

According to the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) website, the initiative would allow patients with serious illnesses like cancer, multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease, and PTSD whose doctors recommend medical marijuana to possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana. It would also allow patients to buy marijuana from one of up to about 30 dispensaries in the state, and allow patients who don't live near a dispensary to grow their own or designate a caregiver to grow it for them.

Cox said lifting restrictions on controlled substances poses a risk to families. "Substance abuse creates very real problems for families," Cox said. "If a husband or wife is addicted to something, it's going to put a strain on that marriage. It's going to put a strain on their kids. If you think we have problems with marijuana now, just wait until it becomes legally available."

Cox pointed out marijuana has been a Schedule I controlled substance for forty years. "This law would make Arkansas one of the most liberal states in the nation, where marijuana is concerned. And there are too many unanswered questions. How are we going to be sure medical marijuana grown in Arkansas isn't sold illegally across state lines? I've read marijuana can be cultivated with varying levels of active ingredients in it much the same way nicotine levels can be manipulated in tobacco. How are they going to keep marijuana growers from using that to make their product more potent or addictive?"

Cox pointed out that medical marijuana is a very unique approach to treating illness. "It's the only medicine you smoke," Cox said. "The health community has spent almost fifty years trying to stop smoking. Now a group of people wants Arkansas doctors to start encouraging just that: Smoking for your health. It just doesn't make sense."

Cox said he has not decided whether his group will file as a ballot question committee in opposition to the proposed constitutional amendment.

Tobacco companies use corporate social responsibility for political purposes

Corporations may use corporate social responsibility programmes not only to improve their public image, but also to gain access to politicians, influence agendas, and shape public health policy to best suit their own interests. In a research article led by Gary Fooks from the University of Bath's Tobacco Control Research Group in the UK and published in this week's PLoS Medicine, these programmes are revealed as "an innovative form of corporate political activity".

The authors document the persistent efforts of British American Tobacco (BAT, the world's second largest publicly traded tobacco company, which has won several awards for its social and environmental programmes) to re-establish access with the UK Department of Health, following the Government's decision to restrict contact with major tobacco companies.

In a detailed case study that involved searching BAT documents made publicly available as a result of litigation in the US (for the period, 1998-2000), the authors illustrate how the company used its corporate social responsibility programme in its dialogue with policymakers to influence the priorities of public and elected officials in the UK, encourage them to take notice of proposals that best suited the company (for example, to make regulation voluntary), and to revise the Government's concerns about whether the industry could be trusted to work in partnership.

The authors document examples of correspondence from Martin Broughton (BAT's chair between 1998 and 2004) and notes from meeting with politicians, including former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, to show how BAT was able to link its preferred policies to political and societal values, such as harm reduction, child health, and cooperation between business and government.

The authors argue that their findings underline the need for broad implementation of Article 5.3 of the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (an international treaty that aims to reduce the harm associated with tobacco use) which aims to protect public-health policies on tobacco control from tobacco industry influence. Successful implementation will require measures to ensure transparency in all interactions between all parts of government and the tobacco industry and to increase awareness across government of what tobacco companies hope to achieve through corporate social responsibility, report the authors.

The authors say: "our case study underlines the value of understanding BAT's [corporate social responsibility programme] as an innovative form of corporate political activity. This approach to conceptualising [corporate social responsibility] has potentially important implications for public health given the widely documented impact of tobacco companies' political activity in delaying and blocking health related policies. "

They continue: "More generally, it is likely to be relevant to understanding the impact of [corporate social responsibility] in other industrial sectors, such as alcohol and food, where corporate social responsibility also seems to have been used to shape government policy."

The authors add: "we suggest that our findings—and the absence of strong evidence suggesting that co-regulation is capable of aligning the business models of big food and drinks companies with the demands of public health—suggest that the role of corporate social responsibility in the [UK Government's Public Health Responsibility] Deal needs to be subjected to closer scrutiny."

Top Tobacco, Republic Tobacco Suit Alleges Trademark Infringement

Top Tobacco LP and Republic Tobacco LP are taking legal action against several Illinois businesses for trademark infringement, unfair competition and trafficking in counterfeit goods. The companies filed a lawsuit in federal court in Chicago last month.

Named in the suit are wholesale distribution companies Midwestern Cash and Carry LLC, Midwest Cash and Carry and Midwest Distribution Warehouse, along with several gas station retail locations and various affiliated individuals, according to a news release from Republic Tobacco.

The lawsuit alleges, among other things, that the defendants have been knowingly selling, in the Chicago market, counterfeit TOP-brand cigarette rolling papers that were illegally manufactured in China with the specific intent of confusing and deceiving the public. Also named in the lawsuit are Tang Qiwen, the alleged manufacturer of the counterfeit goods.

Top Tobacco and Republic Tobacco seek to stop the defendants from any further counterfeiting, unlawful sales or wrongful use of the TOP trademarks, and to recover from them substantial damages, costs and fees.

"TOP Tobacco and its predecessors have been in the cigarette market for more than 100 years and the mark TOP is well-known among merchants and customers," Steve Sandman said on behalf of Top Tobacco and Republic Tobacco. "TOP-brand products are manufactured and sourced exclusively for, and under the direction of, Republic Tobacco, and such products are sold only through Republic Tobacco. Therefore, we maintain a vigilant anti-counterfeiting program to protect against violations of the TOP Marks, and this action is a firm reminder that such unlawful conduct will not be tolerated."

Deputies looking for burglar who stole 300 cartons of cigarettes

The Richland County Sheriff’s Department is requesting the community’s assistance in identifying and locating individuals wanted for Burglary/Breaking and Entering.
Deputies say that on August 10 at 2:29 a.m. they responded to an alarm call at the Sharpe’s Shop on Main Street.

When deputies arrived to the call, they found that someone had forced entry into the business.

According to deputies, the victim said that the burglars stole cash and 300 cartons of cigarettes from the business.

Deputies say that surveillance video equipment was able to capture the burglars in action.

3 billion cigarettes annually smuggled into Pakistan

The annual smuggling of two to three billion cigarettes into Pakistan from Afghanistan and Iran is costing the kitty around Rs1.5 billion every year, a tobacco industry source said Friday.

The source said that inefficiency and connivance of customs officials deputed at ports and the country s borders with Afghanistan and Iran with smuggler were to blame for the huge revenue loss.

He said the law allowed sale of only those cigarettes that carried approved pictorial health warning on packets.

He however, said local markets were flooded with cigarette packets without mandatory pictorial health warning.

This clearly shows these brands are smuggled into the country causing huge losses to exchequer through massive tax evasion.

The source said despite repeated crackdowns by the government on their dealers, smuggled cigarettes were selling in the market without let or hindrance.

Health fuming over shop cigarette promotions

Jersey's Health Department say they are "disappointed" that two retailers are advertising cheap cigarettes in their shop windows on the island.

Both Checkers and Iceland stores, owned by the Sandpiper group, are promoting reduced tobacco deals.

The Health Promotion Unit say the move undermines their years of work trying to reduce smoking in the island and advertisements such as those on display today are openly promoting a habit that kills.

Andrew Heaven from the Health Promotion Jersey said: "We're really disappointed. The States of Jersey has endorsed tobacco control strategy which tries to protect young people and tries to reduce the number of tobacco consumed on the island and we are currently pursuing regulations that would prohibit advertising of smoking like this."

Advertising tobacco on television was banned in the 1990s, but similar retail legislation is still being drafted and before Jersey introduces a complete ban for shops across the island, the Health Department is awaiting the outcome of retail appeals in the UK.

Guernsey's government are one step ahead of Jersey when it comes to tobacco displays.

They have agreed in principle to force retailers to put cigarettes and similar products under the counter in an attempt to reduce the number of young people taking up the habit.

But it is a move that has annoyed the Citima, the Channel Island Tobacco Importers and Manufactures Association.

Because legislation is not in place to stop supermarkets like Checkers advertising cheap cigarettes, there is nothing health officials can do because they are not breaking the law.

But when governments globally are trying to cut the number of smokers, the question is whether retailers have a moral obligation to help in that campaign.

We did contact Sandpiper for a response to their cigarette offers, but nobody was available to comment.

So while Jersey's government waits to follow Westminister's lead, cut price cigarettes will continue to be sold in the island.

Have you ever thought what dangerous chemicals are in cigarette smoke?

In the history of smoking, the purpose of smoking was to release a recreational drug called nicotine to be absorbed by lungs. I think, still they smoke for the same purpose or else why?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has classified that the environmental tobacco smoke as a Group A carcinogen. This means that there is more than enough evidence to prove that tobacco smoke, whether it is inhaled by the smoker or the non-smoker, can cause cancer in humans.

Mainstream and side stream smoke; both contain a huge number of toxic, poisonous and carcinogenic substances. Smoking is one of the biggest causes of death and illness in the UK. It can lead to cancer, breathing problems and heart disease.

How many dangerous chemicals are in cigarettes?

I am sure many people are unaware of the fact that there are more than 4250 different chemicals in cigarettes and the smoke contains a cocktail of drugs and poisons which are very harmful even to unborn babies. Apart from other hazards, nicotine is an appetite suppressant. It reaches the brain in a matter of six seconds. Therefore, the more you smoke the less hungry you feel and the less you are likely to eat. It gradually destroys the taste buds and you have no taste of food, feel bland.

Smoking and unborn children

The combined effects of nicotine, (the main drug in tobacco) and other gases which enter the lungs when smoked, greatly increases the chance of disease and ill-health. Tobacco is a stimulant drug giving smokers a ‘lift’. Since these discoveries cigarette advertising in sports events such as in formula one racing, football, golf and rugby, gradually came to a halt and cigarette business also went down. In the past, smoking was allowed in cinemas, theatres and in any other social clubs such as in public houses where they gather to drink beer and other alcohols. Again research found that smoking has been directly linked to lung cancer, heart disease and other major illnesses, as well being dangerous during pregnancy for the mother and unborn child, with all these findings sadly some people still smoke.

According to British heart foundation, smoking is one of the major causes of cardiovascular disease and smokers are almost twice as likely to have a heart attack as people who have never smoked.

Even disable and old people happily smoke, why?
You may be a non-smoker but when other people smoke or due to secondary smoking or passive smoking, can put the health of others at risk. This is one of the reasons why currently smoking has been so widely banned in public places. I have noticed, some bend the rule; they smoke outside their offices, schools or at other working places. If you go pass a large hospital, quite often you would notice a few people happily smoke outside the premises. You would be surprised to see how many old disabled men and women on wheelchairs, crutches are smoking just at the entrance to the hospital.

Chewing betel, tobacco then cigars

I have seen some Sri Lankans chew tobacco along with betel leaves; lime and arricanuts [puwak], chew it for a while then spit out a stream of some what red spit. They spit anywhere, sometimes while travelling in cars and buses as well. If you visit rural tea boutiques, you may still see some old people chewing betel leaves. It has been found that much more nicotine enters the body through chewing tobacco and many nicotine patches, gums than through smoking cigarettes. Sometimes they smoke long black cigars as well.

Second hand smoking

Sometimes the children as young as 10 or 11 years old, get into small gangs and smoke, may be to show off the others. Some pregnant women, all walks of people happily smoke in spite all these warnings. It’s chilling to think about not only how smokers poison themselves, but what others are exposed to by breathing in the second-hand smoke. Next time when you’re missing your old buddy, the cigarette, take a good long look at this list of toxic chemicals and carcinogens in cigarettes then think. If someone smokes around you, just slowly get away but never say anything to them because they don’t like any advice, instead they get annoyed, even a glance at them is enough, so never even eye contact.

More about Nicotine.

In numerous ways nicotine is a very dangerous substance. Certain reports suggest that there may be a link between nicotine and kidney disease, it damages the inside of your arteries and it can increase your risk of heart disease. The cigarette smoke damage the lining of the arteries that leads to build up a fatty material [atheroma] and this narrows the blood vessels making the blood to pass through a narrow space. Further more, nicotine stimulates the body to produce adrenaline which makes the heart beat faster that means raises blood pressure which is another cause for heart diseases. Furthermore, withdrawal from nicotine can lead to irritability, headaches, poor concentration, insomnia, constipation and it can even increase your appetite. Therefore, whilst you may feel less hungry when you have a steady supply of nicotine, you quickly become reliant on this substance to suppress your appetite, all the time doing increased damage to your body. As mothers, they know it but still keep on smoking because of the habit or the addiction.

“Research has shown that nicotine, like cocaine, heroin, and marijuana, increase the level of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which affects the brain pathways that controls the reward, and pleasure. One of them is Nicotine; it is a powerful addiction drug and a very tough one to break.

Some common dangerous chemicals in cigarettes are:

Benzene, this is a colourless cyclic aromatic liquid hydrocarbon from coal and petroleum, used as a solvent in chemical industries and sometimes in Universities. In fact, I had to use it as a solvent when I was doing my MSc in synthetic organic chemistry in the University of North London in Holloway road. I must say it was handled carefully, under fume cupboards so that any escaped vapour extracted immediately. There are alternative solvents for experiments.

Not just Benzene but benzopyrenes and butane are formed during the burning of tobacco. Why, it is bad because it is a carcinogen and associated with blood cancer or leukaemia. These gases are absorbed by the lungs then transported to various organs, mainly to the liver where they are metabolised and converted to various compounds. Now we know these compounds are very reactive and toxic to the body.

An embalming poisonous fluid called formaldehyde also present in cigarette smoke. It is also supposed to cause cancer, breathing or respiratory problems then skin and digestive problems.

A toilet cleaning liquid known as ammonia is also present in cigarettes. It frees nicotine from tobacco as a gas.

Nail varnish has a fragrant volatile liquid called acetone and this is also found in cigarette smoke. Acetone removes paints and graffiti from masonry.

No introduction is required about tar, it is the road surfacing black substance and this is also present in cigarette smoke. The danger is the inhaled smoke when condensed on lungs surface deposits a layer of tar. Imagine who smokes 20 a day for 20 years! Why do the people tar the lung surface then complain, “Doctor, I have breathing difficulties”?

Nicotine is also used as an insecticide and the substance is a powerful addictive drug so if you cannot give up smoking it must be due to addiction.

Carbon monoxide is produced by the incomplete combustion of carbon-containing fuels, such as gas (domestic or bottled), coal, oil, coke and wood fires, gas stoves, heating boilers, gas-powered water heaters, paraffin heaters, and solid fuel-powered water heaters are all potential sources of carbon monoxide. The problem arises when such appliances are poorly maintained, not serviced and housed in poorly ventilated areas. In addition to this cigarette smoking produces carbon monoxide. Even a 12 year old child knows, carbon dioxide and monoxide are produced when something burns but a grown up person who smokes doesn’t know what gases are produced when cigarettes burn.

Carbon monoxide can also bind to haemoglobin [red blood] but does so about 240 times more tightly than oxygen, forming a compound called carboxy-haemoglobin. Again even GCSE science students know this fact. This means that if both carbon monoxide and oxygen are inhaled, carbon monoxide will preferentially bind to haemoglobin. This reduces the amount of haemoglobin available to bind to oxygen, so the body and tissues become starved of oxygen.

What about the unborn babies, in the smoking pregnant women, do the unborn babies starve for oxygen? So it’s possible that some people have smoked even before they were born.

Warning over illegal cigarette sales

Illegal cigarettes are being sold through undercover fag houses”, Sunday markets and stores, Trading Standards warned today.

Leicestershire County Council’s Trading Standards is urging people to report all illegal cigarette sales and to steer clear of such products, as they don’t know what they are smoking.

Today, it warned traders that counterfeit cigarettes can be detected by Trading Standards’ scanners. Anyone caught selling them would face major fines and imprisonment.

As part of the county council’s summer blitz on illegal cigarette sales, Trading Standards wants people to report sales of counterfeit or smuggled cigarettes.
Both pose potential health risks, as consumers cannot be sure that they meet the latest British labelling and quality requirements.

People who sell counterfeit cigarettes face a maximum fine of £10,000 and possible imprisonment for a range of labelling and trade mark offences. They may also be fined up to £5,000 and possibly imprisoned for avoiding tobacco duty.

Over the last two years, the county council has received 20 complaints concerning either illicit or counterfeit tobacco and seized 2,130 cigarettes and 1,650grams of hand rolling tobacco from retail premises.

David Bull, the county council’s Head of Trading Standards, said: We want the public to report anyone they think is selling illegal cigarettes – whether it’s the secretive fag houses” that spring up in people’s neighbourhoods, or Sunday markets and shops.

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.

Cigarettes will be part of unusual VMFA exhibit by Chinese artist

A half-million cigarettes shaped into a 40-by-15 foot carpet depicting the coat of a tiger is being created at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts by a Chinese artist fascinated by Virginia's historical connection to tobacco.

The work, being assembled by hand in VMFA's parking deck, is the third installment of Chinese contemporary artist Xu Bing's "Tobacco Project," which explores the production and culture of tobacco through the artist's eyes.

"He was interested in Richmond because of its rich connection to tobacco," said John Ravenal, the museum's curator of modern and contemporary art. "He was fascinated" with the region's tobacco farms, warehouses and factories, some of which he toured.

"He loves agriculture and industry, and he spent time on a farm himself as a young person as part of (China's) cultural revolution," Ravenal said.

Xu Bing's interest in tobacco extends to the texture of the leaf itself, as well as the "visuals" associated with the product's packaging and advertising, Ravenal said. "A lot of aspects of the exhibition are a celebration of the culture of tobacco," he added.

To gain further inspiration, Xu Bing, who also is vice president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, conducted research at the Library of Virginia and the Valentine Richmond History Center.

Xu Bing, 56, launched his Tobacco Project more than 10 years ago at Duke University, where he was an artist in residence. From there, he traveled to Shanghai to create the second installment of the trilogy.

He is collaborating with six former graduate students from Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Arts to make the tiger skin carpet and other works, which include a 440-pound block of compressed tobacco embossed with the text, "Light as smoke."

Other items include books of poetry printed on cigarette paper and matchbooks, and a 40-foot-long reproduction of an ancient Chinese landscape painting on a scroll that will have a 40-foot-long cigarette burned down the length of it, Ravenal said.

Xu Bing is using tobacco as a subject and art medium to explore its historical and contemporary impact on human culture and trade. The exhibit will include positive and negative aspects, including Xu Bing's personal connection to a country where 50 percent of the men smoke and his father's death of lung cancer at 64.

"He has his own kind of tragic connection," Ravenal said.

The largest piece of the Richmond exhibition will contain 500,000 "1st Class" cigarettes, a discount brand. The museum, through its exhibition budget of privately donated funds, purchased the cigarettes – about 35,000 packs – at roughly wholesale price from a source in North Carolina, Ravenal said.

"One of our former trustees comes from a tobacco family, and she has a connection with someone who was high up in the tobacco industry," Ravenal said.

The former VCU grad students assembling the carpet, which should be completed by late August, are gluing "handfuls" of cigarettes at a time to the carpet base. The orange-and-white tiger image is being created by the placement of the cigarettes: the filter end is positioned upright for the color orange, the ignited end for the color white.

Xu Bing, who spent two weeks here in February planning and making templates, will return to Richmond several days before the exhibition opens Sept. 10 to "kind of fine-tune the installation," Ravenal said.

Menthol cigarettes make quitting smoking more difficult, new study finds

A new study, coming amid an ongoing controversy over the possible ban of menthol cigarettes, concludes that the mint-flavored cigarettes are harder to quit than regular smokes.
The findings, released today by researchers at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, found menthol smokers had far more trouble kicking the habit – especially among minorities.
While the reasons are still subject to debate, Jonathan Foulds, a professor of public health sciences and psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine, believes an anesthetic effect in menthol cigarettes allows smokers to inhale more nicotine. His theory is that groups with less money reach out for their fix in the most economic way possible.
"It’s clear that people smoke their cigarettes differently, based on their socioeconomic situation," he said. "Menthol makes the poison go down smoother."
The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, examined the entire national smoking population, and focused in on specific subgroups, such as those trying to quit.
Menthol smokers showed lower quit rates, and the relationship was noted among whites, blacks and Puerto Ricans, according to the research. But it was more telling among minorities.
"We defined our denominator or study population five different ways, considering things like quit attempts and the use of other tobacco products," said the report’s author Cristine Delnevo, director of the Center for Tobacco Surveillance and Evaluation Research for The Cancer Institute at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. "The association was robust and consistent, as well as more pronounced among blacks and Puerto Ricans."
Menthol was found to be generally more common among younger smokers and females. But the most pronounced effect of the lower quit rate was on minorities. More than 70 percent of black smokers in the U.S. were menthol smokers, and even more in New Jersey, where the rate was about 80 percent.
About 21 percent of white smokers smoked menthols.
One of the newest revelations about menthol smoking by race was the Puerto Rican population, which at more than 60 percent of smokers, was significantly higher than other Latino groups, such as Mexicans at 20 percent.
The study also concluded menthol smoking decreased independently of race with increased education, income and age.
The new study, partly funded by an FDA grant, comes amid a controversy over the minty smokes. Other flavored cigarettes were banned in 2009 by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which focused on the targeting of younger populations by added flavor choices. The FDA is considering a full ban on menthol cigarettes since the group’s Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee recommended in March that a "removal of menthol cigarettes from the marketplace would benefit public health in the United States."
Lorillard, maker of the Newport brand, declined comment on the study until it could be reviewed. However, the company rebuts the alleged dangers of menthol, and has opposed any menthol ban. It also filed suit in February against the advisory committee, alleging conflicts of interest among some of its members. The company also runs a website that strenuously lays out its position on the topic — and predicts a possible black-market backlash if the roughly 30 percent of cigarettes in the country are outlawed.
"Lorillard believes that the scientific evidence does not show that menthol in cigarettes is harmful, and that Americans have a right to make a personal choice to use any legal product," the website says. "Prohibition of menthol cigarettes would lead to the illegal sale of more dangerous cigarettes through an unprecedented underground market."
Tobacco health experts say marketing of the various menthol brands has been targeted at African-Americans. Researchers at the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program at the University of California found in a 2004 review of tobacco companies’ records shows an "African Americanization" of menthol cigarettes by the tobacco industry. Delnevo agrees.
"It is clear the industry has been marketing menthol to African-Americans for at least 40 years," Delnovo said.

Charlotte a test market for smokeless tobacco lozenges

Bite-size dissolvable orbs that look like breath mints and melt in your mouth are the tobacco industry’s latest attempt to fight falling U.S. cigarette sales.
Charlotte is one of two test markets for Winston-Salem-based Reynolds American Inc.’s newest products: dissolvable, smokeless tobacco lozenges that come as orbs, sticks or strips.
The products all contain less nicotine than cigarettes, between 0.5 and 3 milligrams instead of 12 to 15. Reynolds spokesman David Howard said they meet a “societal expectation.”

“There’s no secondhand smoke, no spitting and no cigarette butt litter,” Howard said.
Health officials still worry about the risks of smokeless options. Smokeless tobacco users may not get lung cancer, health experts say, but they risk mouth cancer, gum disease and tooth loss. Prenatal dangers for pregnant women also still exist.
“There are no safe tobacco products,” said Dr. Matt Carpenter, a clinical psychologist and associate professor at the Medical University of South Carolina who’s researching the effect of smokeless products on smoking habits.
Huntersville resident Joey Hodge, who’s smoked for almost five years, sees the appeal of smokeless products that won’t be as tough on his lungs or make him smell like smoke, but the 20-year-old isn’t sold on Reynolds’ newest offering.
“They were definitely not the greatest thing I’ve ever tasted,” Hodge said. Plus, he added, the products “really didn’t do much” to satisfy his nicotine craving.
Hodge’s reaction isn’t the sort tobacco makers are hoping for. As cigarette sales slide because of the health risks and social stigma, tobacco companies are counting on smokers like Hodge to fuel the new smokeless market. The dissolvable products sell for about $2 for a 12-pack - comparable, Reynolds says, to its other smokeless products.
“They can enjoy tobacco pleasure without bothering others and without having to leave the workplace, or the restaurant or the bar,” Howard said.
Analysts say new laws banning cigarettes in public places, like the ban on smoking in restaurants and bars that took effect in North Carolina last January, are among the factors driving a steep decline in cigarette sales.
“In recent years you’ve seen smoking banned in most states in most bars and restaurants. That kind of takes away the fun,” said Phil Gorham, industry analyst for investment firm Morningstar.
In its second quarter earnings report last month, Reynolds reported the number of cigarettes sold in the U.S. fell 4.4 percent. Gorham said companies like Reynolds can combat falling sales by increasing prices in the short term, but they’ll eventually need to diversify revenues.
While American sales of cigarettes drop 3 percent to 4 percent every year, the market for smokeless products grew 3 percent in 2009 and 7 percent in 2010, said Mary Gotaas, tobacco industry analyst for researcher IBISWorld. This year, smokeless sales are expected to jump 8 percent, Gotaas said.
While Reynolds is testing its new dissolvables, Richmond, Va.-based rival Philip Morris has its own product in the works: a dissolvable tobacco stick.
The growth of smokeless products worries some public health advocates who think the new products appeal to children. During the first round of testing, the orbs’ packaging resembled Tic Tacs, creating concern that children might confuse them with candy, said Dr. John Spangler, professor of family health and community medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
For this round of testing, there’s larger packaging and new warnings. Packages now say “This product contains nicotine and is for adult tobacco consumers only” and “There is no safe tobacco product,” in addition to one of four required FDA warnings.
The Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee of the FDA is holding hearings exploring the implications of smokeless products. Right now, all tobacco products must be age-restricted and kept behind the counter, just like cigarettes.
Warning labels on smokeless tobacco products must cover at least 30 percent of the packaging and every product must carry one of four messages: “Smokeless tobacco is addictive,” “This product can cause mouth cancer,” “This product can cause gum disease and tooth loss,” or “This product is not a safe alternative to cigarettes.”
Howard said there’s no expectation that smokeless dissolvables will be regulated less strictly than other tobacco products. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, one of 12 senators who called for the hearings, called dissolvables the latest way for tobacco companies to stay “one step ahead of the sheriff.”
One issue on the committee’s agenda: the potential use of smokeless tobacco products as quitting aids. Gotaas said that appeal is one of the factors driving smokeless sales.
Dean Torrance of Charlotte, a smoker for 20 years, has tried, and failed, to quit. She said smokeless products may be just what she needs.
“I would like to be able to do smokeless to get me to stop,” Torrance said.
Doctors say there are safer ways to quit smoking. Both Spangler and Carpenter recommend their patients use tested and proven medications, such as nicotine replacement pills and patches, instead of other tobacco products with unknown consequences that could keep them addicted.
Said Carpenter: “The very best thing that anybody can do for their health, if they’re a smoker, is to quit all tobacco products completely.”

Medical marijuana petitions rejected

Backers of a push to legalize medical marijuana in Ohio must head out and collect at least 1,000 more valid signatures after an initial batch of petitions didn't pass muster with the state, the Toledo Blade reports.

The Ohio Coalition for Medical Compassion submitted 2,143 signatures in order to get the language for the constitutional amendment before Attorney General Mike DeWine, but little more than 500 were valid. Should the group get 1,000 signatures, it must then have the petition language certified and then collect at least 385,245 more valid signatures to make the November 2012 ballot, the paper reported.
The so-called Ohio Alternative Treatment Amendment would decriminalize marijuana possession, delivery and cultivation when used for medical reasons and set standards for patient possession.