Smoke If Ya Got Em: 60 More Marijuana Dispensaries To Close

Everything is going to pot. An additional 60 medical marijuana dispensaries have been ordered to shut down immediately as Los Angeles city officials expand their campaign against dispensaries that did not register in the Top 100 lottery to determine which establishments can keep operating, reports LA Now.

The new letters went out earlier this week about two weeks after the city attorney's office notified the operators and landlords of another 141 pot shops that they must close. The letters warn that the city could sue violators, seek financial penalties and “padlock the property.”

The assistant city attorney overseeing enforcement efforts said it's unclear if all the business are selling marijuana and that city employees are checking on the operational status of each of the additional businesses.
The letter asks for a return response and so far the city attorney has received intel on nearly 25 locations. 11 claim to have closed the dispensary portion of their business, six are reportedly taking steps to close and one denies it's green reputation.

£20k illegal cigarettes seized in Belfast

A man has been arrested after £20,000 worth of illegal cigarettes and tobacco were seized during a series of raids on properties in north Belfast.
Home and vehicles in the Ardoyne area were raided as part of planned searches by officers from both HMRC and the PSNI on Tuesday evening.

Almost 100 kilos of hand-rolling tobacco, 20,000 duty free cigarettes and £10,000 in cash were recovered.

Brian Dixon of HMRC's Specialist Investigations said: "Tobacco smuggling is organised criminality on a global scale and robs the taxpayer of millions each year in unpaid duty and VAT."

A man was arrested and questioned in relation to the incident.

New Brunswick Raises Gas and Cigarette Taxes

In an effort to raise much-needed provincial revenue, the New Brunswick government earlier this week trimmed spending and eliminated a tax rate cut for high-income earners, and increased taxes on cigarettes and gas, The Canadian Press reports.

Finance Minister Blaine Higgs introduced an $8-billion budget that includes a nearly $449-million deficit, though the figure is less than half the $1 billion deficit that the government projected last November.

Last year, New Brunswick officials ordered departments to reduce spending by one percent in the current fiscal year and two percent in each of the next three years, cuts that have resulted in more than $200 million in savings for 2011-12.

“I want to make it clear that we are very serious about spending restraint,” Higgs said.

As of yesterday, New Brunswick’s cigarette tax increased $1.31 a pack, a spike that is expected to generate an extra $25 million in annual revenue.

Additionally, motorists have begun paying 2.9 cents per liter ($0.11 per gallon) more in gasoline tax and 2.3 cents per liter more ($0.089 per gallon) on diesel, increases that are expected to raise $44 million more in annual revenue and cost the average New Brunswicker an extra $85 a year per vehicle.

Higgs said those changes will help the government balance the budget by 2014-15.

“This budget is only the beginning,” he said. “Together we are partners for change in the way New Brunswick, both as a government and as a province, will operate in the future.”

Andrea Bourgeois, spokesperson for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, worries about the increases.

“Other tax increases — such as the gas tax — will take some of the competitive advantage away,” she said.

Robert Krekeler, cigarette distributor and founder of food bank, dies

Robert L. Krekeler sold cigarettes by the truckful but stopped smoking and didn't want his family members to start.
He also sold tons of candy but consumed little of that product either.
But "he liked selling it," his wife, Joyce Krekeler, recalled Tuesday.
Mr. Krekeler owned Mound City Industries Inc., at one time one of the oldest cigarette distributors in the country and described as the largest in St. Louis.
He died Friday (March 18, 2011) at his home in Warson Woods. He was 68 and had battled bile duct and liver cancer since December, his family said.
In 1975, Mr. Krekeler helped start the first major food bank in the metropolitan area after the broadcasting of a documentary series by Channel 4's Al Wiman titled "Hunger: A St. Louis Emergency."
Mr. Krekeler later got a call from Monsignor John Schocklee of the St. Louis Archdiocesan Human Rights Commission. He wanted to know what happened to unused supermarket food.
Mr. Krekeler had spent most of his life in the distribution business and he knew just what to do.
He arranged a meeting with representatives of groceries and local food suppliers. Some of them were sending leftover food to landfills.
Mr. Krekeler and others said a better use would be feeding the needy.
That was the start of the Food Crisis Network.
Today, it operates as the St. Louis Area Food Bank. It distributed more than 23 million pounds of food last year in 26 counties.
Mr. Krekeler grew up in south St. Louis, the youngest of six children. His grandfather and father started a wholesale food distribution company.
When the family moved to a farm in Chesterfield, he switched from Chaminade to Parkway High School, where he graduated in 1961.
He met his future wife on a blind date on a toboggan ride at his family's farm. They married in 1964. He later studied business at Washington University and St. Louis University.
Mr. Krekeler started in the family business and in 1977 left to became president and then owner of Mound City. The company sold cigarettes and candy to nearly 2,000 grocers, convenience stores, theaters and hospitals.
Aware of the dangers of smoking, he quit during the 1980s. He sometimes avoided the subject of tobacco by telling people that he was in the candy business.
But he also fought for the right to smoke and against those who would tax cigarettes out of existence.
Mr. Krekeler retired and dissolved his company in 2006. He served during the 1970s as a Warson Woods alderman.
A memorial Mass will held at 5 p.m. today at Ste. Genevieve du Bois Catholic Church, 1575 North Woodlawn Avenue, Warson Woods. Burial will be private at St. Peter's Cemetery in Kirkwood.
Survivors, in addition to his wife, include two daughters, Margaret Cox of University City and Amy Krekeler of Brentwood; a brother, Gregory Krekeler of Chesterfield; three sisters, Joann Reardon of Frontenac, Delores Chivetta of Ladue and Sally Knoll of Chesterfield; and three grandchildren.

Cutting cigarette tax makes matters worse

With the state facing a large budget deficit that threatens to undermine state services and shift millions in costs to local government, cutting the state tax on cigarettes is simply a bad idea.
As we reported last week, the House endorsed cutting the tax, 236-93, and the chief budget writer in the state Senate predicted they would likely go along with the idea.
Cutting the tobacco tax by 10 cents per pack is likely to cause a significant drop in state revenue, despite claims to the contrary. New Hampshire’s tax, even at its current level, is well below neighboring states and still gives New Hampshire a competitive advantage.

Supporters of cutting the cigarette tax argue that the current levy is decreasing sales, but experience shows that every time the state has increased the tax, revenue has gone up.
In this case, past experience is a good indicator of future outcomes. As Rep. Christine Hamm, D-Hopkinton, pointed out during the floor debate, every time the state has raised the tax, it has brought in more revenue, sometimes much more than forecast.

Cutting the tax could cost the state as much as $9 million in lost revenue next year, compounding an already difficult situation.
Frank Chaloupka, an economics professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, to the Associated Press that it is unusual for states to lower the tax because experience has shown that the sales increase is not enough to offset the drop in tax revenue.

When states raise the tax, revenue goes up even though sales decline, Chaloupka told the AP.
Gov. John Lynch has opposed raising business taxes, but he’s consistently championed increasing a cigarette tax that was 80 cents per pack when he took office. At $1.78 per pack, the New Hampshire levy is still well below the $2.51 in Massachusetts, $2 in Maine and $2.24 in Vermont. All three states also have sales taxes that are added to the cost of cigarettes bought there.
It’s hard to imagine that current pricing is driving cigarette smokers away from New Hampshire.

Still, experts hired by the New Hampshire Grocers Association argue cutting the tax would raise up to $13 million in additional tax revenue for the state. Considering the source of the study, those numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt.
Grocers along the New Hampshire border make a lot of money selling cigarettes to out-of-state residents, and a lower price would increase their sales, which is good for them. The grocers make more money when they sell more cigarettes, even if the state makes less money on the taxes, so it’s no surprise the grocers association is lobbying hard on this one.
Rep. Stephen Stepanek, R-Amherst, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, calls the tax cut proposal “a pro-business, pro-growth, pro-jobs bill,” when in fact it is a revenue drain that will only force more budget cuts at a time when $500 million in state services are already on the chopping block.
New Hampshire already has some of the highest health care costs in the nation, and making cigarettes cheaper is certainly not going to help on that front.
The current cigarette tax in New Hampshire has provided a reliable revenue source, while ensuring that the state retains its competitive position in New England. With draconian budget cuts on the table, now is not the time to make a bad situation even worse.

Cullerton’s Puzzling Focus On Cigarette Tax Hike

A big question on a lot of Statehouse minds right now is: Why would Senate President John Cullerton all of a sudden decide to string out his members yet again on a dollar a pack cigarette tax hike when he surely knows that the House will kill it for the umpteenth time?

Cullerton wants to raise money from the cigarette tax so he can kill off the controversial law legalizing video gaming in taverns, clubs and truck stops. Video gaming proceeds are supposed to subsidize part of the state's massive capital construction plan, but the video gaming program hasn't got off the ground after two years of preparations because the Illinois Gaming Board is taking its time to develop strict standards.

Part of the answer is that Cullerton loves the cigarette tax hike idea in and of itself. The man just downright loathes cigarettes and believes that raising the tax would cause people to stop smoking and prevent kids from starting.

But when the four legislative leaders sit down to cut a deal, they're supposed to stick to that deal unless the other leaders go along. The capital plan was just such an agreement. Breaking a pact like that is just not done. Ever.

You rarely see stories about the tax and fee hikes that fund the state's construction program, and you don't see many articles about some of the more questionable projects in the package. That's because all the leaders vowed to each other that they wouldn't stir up any trouble. Those vows are usually as solemn as any priest's, so they're never violated, but Cullerton is now doing it. Why?

Cullerton is said to be tired of Democrats being blamed for the video poker law, which has been blasted by most editorial pages in the state. "Maybe now they'll understand that it was the Republicans who wanted this, not us," explained a Cullerton aide last week.

The Republicans actually came up with the idea of legalizing video gaming in taverns, clubs and truck stops. But the Democrats have worn the jacket for the much-maligned program because they're in the majority and the hugely controversial Cook County Democratic Party Chairman Joe Berrios was one of the top lobbyists for the video gaming industry.

It didn't help matters much when former mobster turned government informant Frank Calabrese, Jr. told Fox Chicago the other day that he believed infiltrating the video poker industry would be a piece of cake.

"I mean, I laughed when I seen that," Calabrese told Fox's Dane Placko about the video poker legalization measure. "I mean, really. Why? I could go back there and show you how fast I could get in the middle of it," he said from his Arizona house.

"It's math 101, okay? I'm not gonna go in there and put my name on a license and buy a bar and ask for three machines. I'm coming to you who's totally legit and say you're gonna buy the machines from this guy, and this is what you're gonna pay him and that guy's gonna help me in some way," Calabrese said.

In the same story, former FBI organized crime director Tom Bourgeois told the channel that the General Assembly had opened the doors to the Outfit. "You're just providing an avenue for organized crime to re-root itself and find ways to become more powerful. It's just too easy to do that and of course, the legislation provides opportunity for very little oversight," Bourgeois claimed.

In reality, neither Calabrese nor Bourgeois are likely correct. For one thing, the current "amusement purposes only" video poker machines (most of which actually pay out in the real world) are already connected to the mob in one way or another. Legalization is seen by proponents as a way to get the mob out, not let them in.

Anti-smoking group: Cigarette tax hike must be larger

The Coalition for a Tobacco Free Vermont applauds a proposal to raise the tax on cigarettes, but argued Monday the 27-cent increase isn’t enough.

The cigarette tax increase was included in a tax bill recommended by the House Ways and Means Committee. It would raise $24 million from a package of tax changes, including the proposed 27-cent increase in the cigarette tax.

The coalition — American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, and Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids — suggests a one-dollar increase would have an impact on public health by reducing smoking rates and preventing some young people from starting to smoke.

“Given that the average pack price in Vermont is currently $6.50, the proposed 27-cent increase would not be expected to produce any benefit for public health. While Vermont used to be a leader in protecting kids from tobacco initiation, we now have fallen behind most of our neighbors and have not passed a significant increase in the cigarette excise tax since 2006,” Tina Zuk, coalition coordinator, wrote in a statement.

The bigger increase would provide more money to deal with the state’s current financial problems and help the state saving health care dollars in the future by reducing the number of smokers, anti-smoking advocates argued.

The 27-cent increase would raise $3.66 million in new taxes, while a dollar increase would raise about $10 million.