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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/10/14/obama-cuba-regulations-expands-trade-travel-rum-cigars/92042662/

Each time over the past decade or so that New York state increased its tobacco tax — now at $4.35 per pack of cigarettes — calls to the state’s Quitline spiked. And as high as the state tobacco tax went, in New York City, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg hiked the tax even more. “I was so angry with him, I could hardly afford it,” says Elizabeth Lane, a Harlem resident who paid $12 a pack. “I had to beg, borrow and steal to get money to buy cigarettes.” At first, Lane cut down to four packs a week from seven. But...

There had also been an eye-opening moment on the streets of Cleveland during the Republican National Convention, when [Johnson and I had] been walking behind a cigarette-wielding Ohioan. As the smoker’s exhaust wafted in our faces, I remarked offhand that—with the advent of e-cigarettes—I thought there was a good libertarian case for banning regular cigarettes. “I do too,” replied the health-obsessed triathlete, recounting his support for anti-smoking efforts in New Mexico.

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.

Obese people will be routinely refused operations across the NHS, health service bosses have warned, after one authority said it would limit procedures on an unprecedented scale. Hospital leaders in North Yorkshire said that patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above – as well as smokers – will be barred from most surgery for up to a year amid increasingly desperate measures to plug a funding black hole. The restrictions will apply to standard hip and knee operations.

Electronic cigarettes, which do not require a flame but heat tobacco leaves to create a vapor that is inhaled, are so popular in Japan these days that demand cannot keep up with supply. The e-cigarette boom was triggered by iQOS, a product released by Philip Morris Japan K.K. Rather than burning tobacco leaves, the iQOS heats cigarettes in a small cylindrical device — all designed exclusively for each other — so that nicotine and vapors are inhaled together. Sales of iQOS began in Tokyo in September last year, before expanding nationwide in April. Even though the kit is priced as...

By now, there’s little doubt in anyone’s mind that smoking is dangerous both to smokers and those around them, though that doesn’t stop 40 million American adults from lighting up almost every day. Banning cigarettes outright might encourage people to kick the habit, but a blanket prohibition on smoking seems unlikely to happen any time soon. Rather than focusing on banning cigarettes themselves, states (along with cities and the federal government) have passed various tobacco laws making it more difficult for people to smoke. They’ve raised taxes on tobacco, banned smoking in many public and private spaces, and required warning...

Americans everywhere are struggling to come to grips with recent high-profile tragedies arising from violent encounters between police and civilians. For both police and many motorists, routine traffic stops have become nerve-wracking events. This is the backdrop against which the trustees of Michigan State University have imposed a new ordinance that will increase the number of needless traffic stops on its campuses. The measure takes effect on Aug. 15, and bans smoking or using smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes anywhere on MSU property. The ordinance applies even to personal vehicles on public streets that pass through the university. Violators can be...

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....

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...

<p>NEW YORK (AP) — The nation seems to be kicking its smoking habit faster than ever before.</p> <p>The rate of smoking among adults in the U.S. fell to 15 percent last year thanks to the biggest one-year decline in more than 20 years, according to a new government report.</p>

The Chinese government has banned all depictions of gay people on television, as part of a cultural crackdown on “vulgar, immoral and unhealthy content”. “No television drama shall show abnormal sexual relationships and behaviours, such as incest, same-sex relationships, sexual perversion, sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual violence, and so on.” The ban also extends to smoking, drinking, adultery, sexually suggestive clothing, even reincarnation. China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television told television producers it would constantly monitor TV channels to ensure the new rules were strictly adhered to.

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...

"Duane Stone is a veteran Seattle mental health specialist. He's seeing a surprising increase in patients experiencing psychotic episodes as well. Many have never had any mental health problems before. "I get lots of first break kind where this person doesn't have an experience with mental illness, they don't have a diagnosis, they're 30 or 40-years-old. And the only thing they've been doing has been smoking marijuana for the last year or two," Stone said. It's not just your stereotypical stoner. They're family people working at places such as Microsoft and Amazon."

Moscow Anti-Smoking Campaign Uses Obama's Image as Deterrent The Moscow Times Feb. 16 2016 17:34 Last edited 17:34 Anti-smoking posters in Moscow have used the image of U.S. President Barack Obama smoking to deter smokers -- saying that both he and cigarettes are killers. The poster has a photoshopped image of the U.S. president and the words: "Smoking kills more people than Obama, although he kills a lot of people. Don't smoke -- don't be like Obama." Russian State Duma opposition deputy Dmitry Gudkov published a photograph of the bus stop poster on Facebook, adding a Soviet joke about freedom...

MOSCOW, - An anti-smoking poster on the streets of Moscow is going viral online due to its unusual star -- U.S. President Barack Obama. Dmitry Gudkov, Russian State Duma opposition deputy, posted a picture to Facebook of the anti-smoking ad, which features Obama with a cigarette in his mouth. "Smoking kills more people than Obama, although he kills a lot of people. Don't smoke -- don't be like Obama," the poster reads in Russian. "I am disgusted and ashamed of what appears on the streets of the Russian capital," Gudkov said. Obama famously quit smoking under pressure from first lady...

An anti-smoking poster featuring Barack Obama has appeared on bus stops around Moscow, with the caption: "Don't smoke - don't be like Obama." "Smoking kills more people than Obama, although he kills a lot of people," the ad reads.

U.S. tobacco giant Altria Group Inc. MO, +2.48% on Thursday said it would cut roughly 5% of its workforce in an effort to reduce costs by $300 million annually as industry volumes decline. The Marlboro maker announced the layoffs on the same day it reported profit and revenue for the fourth quarter that missed Wall Street expectations as cigarette shipments slipped and earnings declined from its stake in SABMiller PLC's beer business. Altria's earnings rose slightly to $1.25 billion, or 64 cents a share, from $1.24 billion, or 63 cents a share, a year earlier. The results foreshadowed some of...