One cigarette can do a world of damage

I saw a killer in action last week.
I saw a driver toss a burning cigarette.
When Texas is windy and tinderbox-dry, any spark can burn a town, taking with it homes, dreams and, sometimes, firefighters' lives.
The cigarette landed just shy of grass. It could have easily flared up like in Fort Davis, or near Possum Kingdom Lake, or near Gorman.
If that driver had waved a loaded gun, police could have arrested him.
But in Texas, the punishment for tossing a lit cigarette is only a littering ticket.
That's not enough.
Lubbock fire officials are already cracking down. With West Texas and the South Plains burning around them, they warned last week that anyone carelessly tossing a cigarette that starts a fire might face trial on an arson charge, a state jail felony punishable by up to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
"A guy flicked a cigarette in front of me the other day, and it exploded in sparks," Deputy Chief Chris Angerer said.
"I couldn't believe someone would toss out a burning object."
Two weeks ago, he said, a reckless smoker started a fire that burned a fast-food restaurant.
Nobody died. But Lubbock firefighters risked their lives. Workers lost jobs. The city will lose tax money while the restaurant rebuilds.
Humans start 9 in 10 wildfires, according to the Texas Forest Service.
Texas' arson law includes felony punishment for anyone whose cigarette recklessly sets fire to a building or injures anyone.
That is, if prosecutors can find who tossed the cigarette.
Tossed cigarettes aren't simply a fire risk. They're expensive.
The Texas Department of Transportation has campaigned against cigarette litter through its "Don't Mess With Texas" campaign.
About half of Texas' litter involves cigarettes, wrappers, cigars or matches, according to the department.
Cleanup cost: $23 million a year.
Doris Howdeshell of the department is retiring after 32 years, including 23 with "Mess."
"People don't realize a cigarette can cost somebody their house and everything they own," she said.
She knows.
A cousin lost her home last week near Snyder.
"Even if they don't start fires, the cigarettes wash into our water," she said.
"I just cannot believe anyone would throw out a lit cigarette."

Senate Passes 53-Cent Tax Increase On Cigarettes

Vermont lawmakers who rejected a proposal to jack up the state's per-pack cigarette tax by a dollar have OK'd a smaller increase - 53 cents.
The state Senate voted in favor of the smaller amount Friday, a day after defeating the $1-a-pack increase amid worries that it would drive cigarette buyers to neighboring states and also cut the business Vermont gets from New York and Massachusetts cigarette buyers.
State officials say the 53-cent hike would raise about $5.9 million annually.
Supporters say adding taxes to cigarettes can help discourage people from smoking and at the same time raise money for the state.

DRS reminds retailers against cigarette making machines

The Connecticut Department of Revenue Services (DRS) today reminded cigarette and tobacco retailers that the use of commercial cigarette-making machines by unlicensed manufacturers is illegal. Commercial cigarette making machines require a Connecticut cigarette manufacturer’s license and compliance with fire-safety, packaging, and other requirements. Retailers that continue to offer the use of such commercial “roll-your-own” cigarette machines may be charged with a misdemeanor and subject to arrest.

DRS Commissioner Kevin Sullivan said, “Connecticut is one of a number of states that have concluded that the use of commercial cigarette-making machines at retail establishments constitutes the illegal manufacture and sale of cigarettes. Issues that range from the proper licensing of the retailer and compliance with the Connecticut Tobacco Directory, to the ingredients in the tobacco and fire safety of the cigarettes, make this a practice that cannot be allowed in Connecticut.”

Commissioner Sullivan said DRS issued Policy Statement 2011(1), “The Use of Commercial Cigarette-Making Machine in a Retail Establishment,” to explain the agency’s position on the matter and outline the penalties for non-compliance. In addition to facing thousands of dollars in fines and potential arrest, retailers that defy the law may also lose their cigarette or tobacco products license and could face federal penalties.

“This is a no win situation for merchants who think they can get around state tax law to sell cheaper cigarettes,” Commissioner Sullivan said. “By manufacturing cigarettes on their premises, these businesses are actually exposing themselves to a host of rules and regulations they never anticipated. It just isn’t worth it.”

'Hangover Part II' monkey is not addicted to cigarettes

That little monkey in "The Hangover Part II" isn't just stirring up trouble on-screen.

Director Todd Phillips has landed in hot water after saying that he got Crystal the capuchin hooked on cigarettes.

“I wanted the monkey to smoke so we had to train her to," he told Total Film Magazine, according to Movieline. "Now I have PETA after me because the monkey's become addicted to cigarettes. She was just shooting Cameron Crowe's movie 'We Bought a Zoo.' And the monkey won't stop smoking."

After alarming animal lovers with his comments, Phillips made it clear that he was kidding.

"If you read the story, it doesn't even make sense. 'On the set of her new film, she won't stop smoking cigarettes.' Umm. Really? Maybe just take them away from her," Phillips told Movieline. "Or at least take her money away so she can't buy them any longer."

Phillips added that he told the story simply to switch things up after being asked the same questions by journalists.

"Obviously, the monkey in the film NEVER smoked a single cigarette. There are people on set whose sole job is to protect that monkey," he said. "Even if I wanted her to smoke it wouldn't be allowed. By the way, she also appears to do cocaine in the movie, but I guarantee you that she didn't do that either (I can't, however, comment on Ken Jeong's cocaine use in the film)."

"The Hangover Part II," starring Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, and Justin Bartha, opens May 26.

Violent criminals expand into cigarettes

A recent wave of state tobacco tax increases, designed to pump revenue into cash-strapped local governments, is inspiring an increasingly dangerous cigarette smuggling industry where big profits lure violent criminal gangs and drug traffickers into the booming illegal market, according to law enforcement officials and court records.

Larry Penninger, acting director of the tobacco diversion unit of theBureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), says investigations and prosecutions involving tobacco trafficking have been increasing as smugglers flood high-tax states with cigarettes from low-tax states.

From 2007 to last year, 27 states raised their cigarette taxes, according to Michigan’s Mackinac Center for Public Policy, which closely tracks tobacco tax rates across the country. Mackinac describes tobacco smuggling as an “unintended consequence of high cigarette taxes.”

There is so much illicit money to be made, Penninger says, that some drug and weapon trafficking organizations are adding tobacco to their product lines to boost profits. For example, in low-tax states such as Virginia, where cigarettes cost about $4.50 a pack, smugglers can sell a truckload (typically 800 cases) in New York at $13 a pack. New York is the highest tobacco taxing jurisdiction in the country.
Smuggling costs states and the federal government about $5 billion, according to U.S. government estimates. “Everybody out there (involved in illegal trafficking operations) is tapping into tobacco,’’ Penninger says.
Since 9/11, much of federal law enforcement has focused on terrorism, but tobacco smuggling is attracting fresh interest.
•Last year, the ATF reported 357 open cases involving tobacco smuggling, compared with a handful a decade earlier.
•During the 2010 fiscal year, the Justice Department reported 71 new prosecutions referred by the bureau, a 39% increase from the year before, according to records compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University in New York.
•Seizures of cash and property also have been rising, from $11 million in the 2007 fiscal year to $31.5 million in the 2009 fiscal year.

Lower cigarette tax will cost state

The cost of cutting cigarette taxes by a dime, as the House of Representative would like, will undoubtedly cost New Hampshire much more than the loss of $9 million in revenue.

Encouraging smoking by reducing the cost will pose a significant and long-term health-care cost to the state, especially as it relates to pregnant women and children.

Consider that the first-year medical costs alone of a premature birth are about 10 times greater ($32,325) than that of an uncomplicated full-term birth ($3,325).

Smoking directly affects fetal growth and, as a result, increases the risk of a baby being born smaller or with low birth weight. So how many more women will be induced to smoke if cigarette taxes drop? It is a tough question, but the tobacco lobby clearly believes lower taxes will create more smokers.

It is estimated that about 165,000 people smoke in New Hampshire. Unfortunately, many of these are pregnant women who are increasing their odds of a premature delivery by smoking. And many of those pregnant women's deliveries and care will be paid for through Medicaid.

State budget writers need to consider that pregnant women on Medicaid are 2.5 times more likely than other pregnant women to smoke, according to Medicaid data analyzed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Moreover, joint estimates by the CDC and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, have found that smoking-attributable neonatal health care costs for Medicaid total almost $228 million, or about $738 per pregnant smoker.

In fact, clinical trials have shown that, for every $1 invested in smoking cessation programs for pregnant women, $7.75 is saved in short-term medical costs and an additional $7.63 (in 2002 dollars) is saved in long-term costs by preventing disability among low birth-weight infants who survive.

A drop in the cigarette tax will have the opposite effect: increasing smoking rates among pregnant women which will cost everyone more.

Studies show that women who stop smoking before or early in pregnancy decrease their risk of having a low birth-weight baby to nearly that of women who have never smoked. Women who stop smoking later in pregnancy can still significantly increase their chances of a healthy birth outcome.

So why would our state want to take steps to encourage pregnant women to smoke by making cigarettes more affordable? The cost is simply too high for taxpayers and children.

Five Pleasanton businesses cited for selling cigarettes to minors

Five Pleasanton businesses were cited over the weekend for selling cigarettes to underage police decoys.
On Saturday Pleasanton police cited the Vista Bottle Shop on West Las Positas Boulevard, Beverages and More on Johnson Drive, Chevron on Hopyard Road, Union 76 on First Street and Shell on Hopyard Road for selling cigarettes to someone under 18.
According to a press statements, plainclothes officers and decoys visited a total of 38 businesses. The other 33 establishments visited did not sell cigarettes to minors.
Violators are subjected to either a misdemeanor or a civil action, police said. Fines for a first offense start at $200.
Officers also checked to make sure each business had a valid tobacco retail license, and that they had posted mandatory signs that say selling tobacco to people under 18 is prohibited.
The sting was in conjunction with the Alameda County Public Health Department.