Blunt response to tobacco suit against Worcester

The blunt wrap tobacco industry has decided to drop its federal court challenge into the legality of the city's ban of the sale of blunt wraps — a thick cigarette-like rolling paper usually made from tobacco leaves.

City Solicitor David M. Moore said the blunt wrap companies that had sued the city decided to dismiss their case in light of the state Supreme Judicial Court's refusal to hear their appeal of a court decision that upheld Boston's blunt wrap sales ban, as well as comments and questions made by the federal judge at the Nov. 9 hearing on their challenge to the Worcester ordinance.

Mr. Moore said he was told yesterday about the companies' decision to withdraw their case against the city.

Earlier this year, the City Council adopted a series of amendments to the city's tobacco control ordinance, including a ban on the sale of blunt wraps on the basis that it was a tobacco product presenting all the negative public health consequences of other tobacco products.

It was also believed that the product was associated with the consumption of controlled substances.

Mr. Moore said the city blunt wrap sales ban was modeled after a similar ban adopted by the Boston Public Health Commission in 2008.

He said the Boston ban was upheld by Suffolk Superior Court and, on appeal, by the state Appeals Court. On Dec. 1, he added, the state Supreme Judicial Court refused to grant a further appeal, leaving the Appeals Court decision in effect.

Because of the legal challenge to that provision of the city's tobacco control ordinance, Mr. Moore said, the city agreed in court to stay enforcement of the blunt wrap sales ban until after the court ruled on the legality of the Worcester ordinance.

He said the blunt wrap sales ban will take effect 30 days after the federal court accepts the companies' request for dismissal.

District 2 Councilor Philip P. Palmieri, chairman of the City Council Public Health Committee, said it was “great news for the city” and an important first step toward fully implementing all provisions of the tobacco control ordinance adopted by the council in April.

Mr. Palmieri, who was a leading advocate for the ban, said the companies' decision to drop their lawsuit is a vindication of the council's action.

“This is a first step in the process,” he said. “Obviously, now we anxiously await to hear from the court of other provisions of the ordinance we adopted. We are very hopeful that the court system will render a decision on those other aspects in the not too distant future.”

The four amendments to the city's tobacco-control ordinance adopted by the City Council impose greater restrictions on the sale and advertising of tobacco products.

British Department of Health Publishes Tobacco Display Ban Guidance

The British Department of Health has released its guidance on how retailers should go about complying with the tobacco display ban in England. The new rules will apply for all stores larger than 280 square meters beginning April 6, 2012, and expand to all other shops on April 6, 2015.

The guidance was devised in collaboration with the Local Government Regulatory Support Unit, the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) and the British Retail Consortium. “ACS has worked closely with government officials to make sure this guidance takes account of the practical difficulties retailers will experience, and ensure it will provide clarity to retailers on the requirements and their responsibilities under the new regulations,” said James Lowman, who heads ACS.

“While we welcome the guidance, it is disappointing this has taken so long to be published. The regulations will come in to force for large retailers next April, yet they are only now being given the detail of the requirements they face,” he said.
The tobacco display ban was announced in March 2011. ACS stated that there still remains a lack of clarity around compliance deadlines in Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland also intends to ban tobacco display, but that would be separate legislation.

Christopher Hitchens’ passions: Words, alcohol and cigarettes

British-American writer Christopher Hitchens— the combative and caustic critic, intellectual, atheist and self-defined “conservative Marxist” — died Thursday at the age of 62 at a Texas hospital.

The cause of death was pneumonia, a complication of oesophageal cancer. He died Thursday night at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, surrounded by family and friends.

Vanity Fair magazine, which announced his death, said there would “never be another like Christopher.”

The magazine’s editor, Graydon Carter, described Hitchins as someone “of ferocious intellect, who was as vibrant on the page as he was at the bar. Those who read him felt they knew him, and those who knew him were profoundly fortunate souls.”

Hitchens disclosed in June 2010 that he was being treated for cancer and would be “a very lucky person to live another five years.” He continued to write even as he temporarily lost the use of his voice.

In an August essay for Vanity Fair, he wrote, “I sometimes wish I were suffering in a good cause, or risking my life for the good of others, instead of just being a gravely endangered patient.”

His passions included words, alcohol and cigarettes. He once wrote that his daily intake of alcohol was “enough to kill or stun the average mule.”

A 2010 interview with USA TODAY was conducted on a New York sidewalk because Hitchens needed a cigarette. He said then he had given up smoking for two years but resumed as he was finishing his memoir, Hitch-22.

“I figured one cigarette isn’t going to kill me, which is stupid,” he said between puffs — shortly before he discovered he had cancer

Medical marijuana for ADD? State considers it

State officials will consider a request to allow medical marijuana for people with ADD and OCD, nearly two years after denying the drug to depressed and bipolar patients.
The petition is the latest attempt to add a mental illness to Washington's list of qualifying conditions for medical cannabis. Three other petitions, for depression and other mental health disorders, have been denied.
Passed by voters in 1998, Washington's law allows patients with terminal or debilitating conditions to use marijuana. Qualifying conditions include cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma and "intractable pain." It also includes anorexia, as a disease that results in nausea, vomiting and wasting away.
The latest request involves an Edmonds man who petitioned authorities in September to include attention deficit disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder, conditions he said he has suffered from for years.
The man said he had seen a psychologist regularly with little relief. He said various medications -- stimulants, depressants, anti-psychotics, anti-depressants and anti-convulsants -- have not helped.
"At this point, my psychiatrist ... has recommended that I write a letter asking for an opinion on medical marijuana, as other options have been exhausted," the man wrote.
The Medical Quality Assurance Commission and the Board of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery will consider the man's petition at a hearing on Jan. 11.
"What they're looking for is some clinical and scientific basis for adopting it," Blake Maresh, the osteopathic board's executive director, said Tuesday.
'Incredibly complex issue'
In February of 2010, the medical commission denied a request from a man who had suffered from a social anxiety disorder since the fifth grade. He said cannabis had helped him more than any other treatment.
Other patients with bipolar disorder, severe depression and other anxiety disorders also told the commission that pot was the only thing that helped.
But the commission found insufficient scientific evidence that showed pot helped patients with those conditions. It found that no rigorous, controlled, randomized, peer-reviewed and published trial had been done on the issue.
That denial followed the rejection of two other similar requests. In 2001, the commission denied medical marijuana for patients with manic or chronic depression. In 2004, they again denied it for people with depression and severe anxiety.
The issue has raised unanswered questions for mental health advocates and health-care providers. While many patients report feeling better with marijuana, many doctors say the drug's mood-altering qualities can mask and worsen symptoms.
"Marijuana usage among individuals who live with serious and persistent mental illness is an incredibly complex issue," said Christine Lindquist, executive director of the local National Alliance on Mental Illness chapter.
"Many people who self-medicate with marijuana report significant relief from their symptoms, although for others, complete abstinence from drugs or alcohol is necessary for stability in their health."
The last qualifying condition added for medical marijuana in Washington was chronic renal failure in 2010.

Olens defends trip with tobacco lobbyist

A spokeswoman for Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens justified a plane ride the state's top prosecutor took with a tobacco lobbyist.

A lobbyist for Altria, parent company of tobacco giant Philip Morris, disclosed the flight to the state Ethics Commission, valuing it at $1,304.54. The lobbyist is Sean Collins.

Olens' office says Collins accompanied Olens on the round-trip flight. The Attorney General accepted the flights with the tobacco lobbyist in order to attend a meeting of Republican attorneys general in Palm Beach, Florida.

"Accepting an invitation to join this flight was legal and it was reported in a transparent manner," Olens spokeswoman Lauren Kane wrote in response to 11Alive's emailed questions.

Kane said the flight originated in the southeast Georgia city of Brunswick November 14 and "did enable (Olens) to attend the conference and keep his other commitments."

Kane says Olens flew back to Atlanta on the private plane following the conclusion of the conference.

The Attorney General's free flights came under attack from the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, an anti-smoking group. It monitors payments by tobacco companies to states involved in a legal settlement reached more than a decade ago. An official with the group said it was a conflict of interest for Olens to accept the free travel from a lobbyist with an industry involved in ongoing legal issues.

"Public officials charged with enforcing this agreement, getting travel money to conferences from the companies that are subject to that agreement, is ridiculous and outlandish," said Danny McGoldrick of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids in Washington.

But Olens' spokeswoman says the face time with the Altria executive was useful.

"Tobacco companies are seeking to reduce payments to the states. We're vigorously fighting them," Kane said. "At that time, the companies had not decided which states to challenge, and Sam hoped to convince them not to challenge Georgia."

Kane said Olens was unavailable to speak on his own behalf due to an illness that has kept him out of the office this week.

E-Cigarettes: An Emergent Threat To Big Tobacco?

The cigarette sector is well known for its cash generation abilities, moderate valuations, and generous dividends. Having survived years of lawsuits and a somewhat diminished demand, the sector still promises some earnings growth and stability.

Although production, consumption and even exports in the US have been on a clear downward path as shown below (source: CDC, "Cigarette Production, Exports, and Domestic Consumption—United States, 1990–2007"), the companies have been able to adapt through price increases, cost cuts, and conquering new external markets.
The sector presents homogenous valuation in terms of Price/Earnings and Dividends, although with somewhat different growth rates, making for a wide dispersion of Price/Earnings/Growth (PEG), falling between the 1.4 awarded to Philip Morris International (PM) and the 3.0 that Reynolds American (RAI) gets.

The sector’s high ROEs are both a function of its stable, highly profitable, nature, and the fact that these companies have repurchased a lot of shares which greatly impacted their book value (this is particularly evident in Philip Morris International).

The threat

Along the years, big tobacco has survived many threats, the two largest being the endless lawsuits due to the health impact cigarettes have, and the lower overall consumption (some of it also coming from the health hazard being much more widely known now).

However, there’s a new threat emerging presently: e-cigarettes and the associated “vaping”. With these new cigarettes, the smoker doesn’t actually smoke – he inhales a vapor mix that includes both a flavor, and nicotine.

PM USA Set to Hike Cigarette Prices Next Week

Cigarettes will get slightly more expensive next week, as tobacco industry insiders report that Philip Morris USA (PM USA) is set to hike the price of its cigarettes by 5 cents a pack across all its brands.

According to Bonnie Herzog, managing director, Beverage, Tobacco & Consumer Research, at Wells Fargo Securities, tobacco industry contacts reported that PM USA is also reducing its off-invoice promotion allowances on L&M to 34 cents a pack (down from 55 cents) through Jan. 28, 2012. She noted this price increase should bode well for R.J Reynolds' Pall Mall brand.

In an e-mail this morning, Herzog wrote that PM USA's list price increase "is encouraging in light of its recent modifications to its controversial MLP (Marlboro Leadership Price) program since this increase will appease most retailers as it allows them to increase their margins."

A spokesman for The Altria Group, the parent company of PM USA, could not be reached for confirmation or comment.

"Overall, this price increase is positive and the industry still does have some pricing power. Given that consumption will likely continue to decline in the mid-single-digit range, pricing is necessary to drive top-line growth," Herzog wrote.

R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard Inc. are expected to follow suit with their own price increases in the coming days, she said. Their hikes are expected to be in line with PM USA's nickel increase.

These increases come five months after the big three tobacco companies raised prices this summer. Lorillard began that round of hikes by raising the price of its Newport Menthol brand by 5 cents a pack and Newport Non-Menthol by 11 cents a pack.

Edinburgh shops in under-age cigarettes fine

Two trained volunteers, aged 16, attempted to buy a packet of cigarettes at various premises across the city.

During these test purchases last month, two convenience stores, in the south west of the city, sold the product illegally to the under-age teenagers.

It is against the law to sell cigarettes to under 18s. The businesses have received a £200 fixed penalty.

If they are caught again they will see an increased fine of £400 and could be stopped from selling cigarettes.

Robert Aldridge, Edinburgh City Council's environment leader, said: "Trading standards officers have been busy visiting shops across the city to remind retailers of their responsibilities when it comes to selling tobacco.

"Retailers generally react well to visits from enforcement officers, and have found their advice useful, but the results of the most recent test purchase exercise are disappointing and highlight the importance of continued action.

"I hope these fines will serve as a stark warning that retailers must abide by the legislation.

"It is important that young people are aware that they will be challenged by responsible shopkeepers if buying cigarettes.

"I would urge the public to contact us with any information about under-age tobacco sales in their neighbourhoods."

Before to the tests, council trading standards officers visit shops and let them know that they will be carrying out checks in the near future and provide information packs on how to comply.