Free Republic

HARARE — Zimbabwe has opened its 2017 tobacco-selling season with hopes the “golden leaf” will change the economic fortunes of the southern African nation. Officials say the tobacco yield has been increasing after a downward turn in 2000 when the government chased white commercial farmers off their land. Zimbabwean farmers applauded after the 2017 tobacco selling season began Wednesday in Harare at the country’s biggest auction floor. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor John Mangudya saluted the farmers. “Producers of tobacco are indeed our heroes. You are important to this economy. The foreign currency you produce is above $800 million a...

An irate man contacted me recently to complain he’d been turned down for back surgery because he’s a smoker. “It’s just not right,” said the Charlotte man, who suffers from chronic hip and leg pain. “I need this surgery. It’s to the point where I can’t walk around the block with my dogs.” He acknowledged smoking is a “bad habit,” but after 35 years, he’s not sure he can quit. And he doesn’t think he should have to. (snip) Spector said it’s part of a national trend for doctors to run down a checklist of behaviors in preparation for elective...

(Skip) A decade later, comprehensive smoking bans have proliferated globally. And now that the evidence has had time to accumulate, it’s also become clear that the extravagant promises made by anti-smoking groups—that implementing bans would bring about extraordinary improvements in cardiac health—never materialized. Newer, better studies with much larger sample sizes have found little to no correlation between smoking bans and short-term incidence of heart attacks, and certainly nothing remotely close to the 60 percent reduction that was claimed in Helena. The updated science debunks the alarmist fantasies that were used to sell smoking bans to the public, allowing for...

When social conservatives told libertarians (of which I am one!) and liberals about their fears that legalization of marijuana would cause a domino effect, they were blasted for supposedly using a 'slippery slope' argument. 'Stop nagging,' we told those conservatives, 'it won't be that bad! It's just that people who use marijuana right now won't be punished for it. Won't that be a considerable improvement?' Well, perhaps not so much: Newport Cigarettes, one of the world’s most popular cigarette brands, announced today that they will join the marijuana legalization trend and start producing marijuana cigarettes. Reynolds American Inc. Chief Marketing...

Past Month Alone, Serious NYC E-Cig Explosions Have Dealt Serious Injuries To People—3rd Degree Burns & Permanent Disfigurement; People From Brooklyn,Queens, LI Have Also Been Victims Of Ticking-Time-Bomb E-Cigs; Critical Focus By Feds & Possible Recalls Must Be Weighed With E-Cig Sites Pushing Holiday Gift Buys, Schumer Concerned Explosions Will Continue To Rise; FDA Recorded Dozens Of Serious Explosions In 2015 & 2016; 2017 Could See Even More   Schumer: Feds Must Consider Recalls For Exploding E-Cigs; Enough Is Enough   U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today called on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take a hard look...

Thousands of Mosul residents flee the city every day as the Iraqi army pushes farther into the city from the east. But despite suicide car bombs, airstrikes and the whizzing sound of bullets around them, when they emerge, one of the first things they ask for from the soldiers are cigarettes. For almost 2½ years, the Islamic State (IS) in Mosul projected an image that it was against the consumption of narcotics; in reality, however, it has reaped enormous funds from the trade. Ala Munir was at home one blistering day in July last year when four IS militants turned...

FREE SMOKES (LOS ANGELES) WE WILL MEET YOU AT YOUR LOCAL POLLING PLACE. STRONGER TOGETHER do NOT contact me with unsolicited services or offers

A 36-year-old Scottish tourist wearing traditional Muslim garb had her blouse set on fire in a bizarre incident outside a pricey Fifth Ave. boutique, police sources said Monday. The victim noticed the sleeve of her blouse was charred and smoldering in the Saturday night attack, just hours before the ceremony marking the 15-year anniversary of 9/11. She was not badly hurt.

Smoke-free policies have the potential to provide healthier environments at multifamily, public housing while also motivating residents to quit or smoke less, according to a new study by the Minnesota Department of Health’s Office of Statewide Health Improvement Initiatives. The eight public housing properties in this study implemented smoke-free policy changes after working with local public health agencies through the Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP). After the smoke-free policies were implemented, the study found a 46 percent drop in frequent indoor secondhand smoke exposure among non-smokers. In addition, 77 percent of smokers reported reducing the amount they smoke and 5...

The sale of e-cigarettes to minors will be banned starting Monday, as part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's long-awaited plan to extend the agency's regulatory powers across all tobacco products. The new rules halt the sale of e-cigarettes and any other tobacco product to anyone younger than 18. The regulations also require photo IDs to buy e-cigarettes, and ban retailers from handing out free samples or selling them in all-ages vending machines. The rules also cover other alternative forms of tobacco like cigars, hookah tobacco and pipe tobacco. Electronic cigarettes are battery-operated devices designed to create an aerosol...

Although only about 8 percent of pregnant women in a new U.S. study reported smoking cigarettes, twice as many tested positive for high levels of a chemical that indicates nicotine exposure. The researchers analyzed data on 787 women who self-reported any cigarette use during the last trimester of pregnancy and had provided urine samples. The samples were tested for cotinine, which indicates nicotine exposure, and for evidence of other drugs including amphetamines, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, cannabinoids such as marijuana, cocaine, muscle relaxants, short-acting opioids such as heroin, long-acting opioids including buprenorphine and methadone, and phencyclidine (PCP). The average age was 28....

On a cool spring day at the Capitol, Toni Atkins delivered a series of blows unlike anything the tobacco industry had ever felt in California. Then speaker of the Assembly, the San Diego Democrat had been a lame duck for the last six months since the house elected Anthony Rendon to replace her. It was a Thursday morning in March and her final session as speaker, a tenure that lasted just shy of a year and 10 months. In a series of quick votes, the Assembly passed six smoking bills, the most significant of which raised the age to buy...

Smoking or vaping at state beaches and parks, or disposing of tobacco products at these locations, may soon be illegal under Senate Bill 1333, a measure authored by Senator Marty Block, a San Diego Democrat. The measure passed the State Senate by a 25 to 11 bipartisan vote this week and next heads to the Assembly. Senator Block says, “We have an obligation to value and preserve our environmental treasures. SB 1333 will help to keep our state parks and beaches clean and safe by removing exposure to second hand smoke and in reducing the threat of park fires.” He...

Knoxville vape companies are fuming mad after the FDA passed new regulations this month. They say this new law will put an end to the vaping industry. They are shocked at how far reaching the regulations are, and now they're afraid the new restrictions will destroy the industry. Hunter Allison with Tri State Vape Company will have to submit an application for each new product. He says that would come with a hefty price tag. Allison says, "The absolutely lowest price I've seen is $300,000 per product and that's $4.5 million for me and there's no possible way. He's already...

Henrico Co. cigarette bust: More than $10 million funneled into smuggling operation By Kristin Smith Published: May 4, 2016, 5:46 pm Updated: May 5, 2016, 6:32 pm HENRICO, Va. (WRIC)–New details are emerging about a massive bust in Henrico County. 8News broke the story earlier this week.Police shut down a multi-million dollar cigarette trafficking ring that was operating out of Henrico County. The court documents on the case read like a movie script.Details of the nearly two-year investigation involve confidential informants, GPS tracking devices and lots undercover surveillance.According to a search warrant affidavit, the masterminds behind the operation spent...

Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday enacted California’s most significant new tobacco regulations in decades, signing laws that will place tight restrictions on use of the increasingly popular e-cigarette and make California the second state to raise its smoking age to 21. Brown signed five closely watched bills, which will also expand smoking restrictions in the workplace and on school properties. California now joins jurisdictions like Hawaii, New York City and San Francisco that have bumped the tobacco-buying age to 21 in an effort to block young people’s route to obtaining tobacco. But Brown vetoed one measure that would have allowed...

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that smoking e-cigarettes can be harmful — but now the Britain-based Royal College of Physicians thinks smokers should use them as a way to quit. Their report says the devices are helping people more than harming them — at least so far. “This is the first genuinely new way of helping people stop smoking that has come along in decades,” John Britton, director of the U.K. Center for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies at the University of Nottingham, said in a statement. E-cigarettes deliver nicotine without the tar — and without some chemicals linked...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched a smoking prevention campaign aimed at young adult lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) persons who are occasional users of tobacco. Young adult LGBT persons are nearly twice as likely to use tobacco as other young adults, said Mitch Zeller, JD, director, Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), FDA, during a press briefing to announce the campaign, called This Free Life. Of the more than 2 million LGBT persons aged 18 to 24 years in the United States, more than 800,000 are occasional or so-called social smokers, according to Dr Zeller. "Unfortunately,...

The Pentagon is looking to raise the price of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco sold on U.S. military installations worldwide, in an attempt to ween U.S. service members from tobacco use. Defense Secretary Ash Carter codified the policy in an April 8th department-wide memorandum, which also expanded smoke-free areas on American military bases, according to Reuters. The new tobacco policy would increase prices on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco sold at U.S. military commissaries and post exchanges to match the price of tobacco products sold off base, which are subject to state and local taxes. Currently, tobacco products sold on U.S. bases

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback offered options on Wednesday for dealing with sinking revenue for the state's current and next budgets, including the sale of tobacco bonds. With the fiscal 2016 revenue estimated to drop by nearly $94 million and fiscal 2017 revenue expected to be $134.7 million less than previously projected, the Republican governor said Kansas could raise about $158 million through its first sale of bonds backed by its share of a 1998 multi-state settlement with U.S. tobacco companies.