Simpsonville council to take another look at smoking ban

Simpsonville smokers and nonsmokers alike may be waiting with bated breath while the City Council reviews the proposed smoking ordinance.

After changes were made to a proposed smoking ordinance, the council voted 5-2 to table the ordinance so it could review it further. Council members Julius Welborn and Geneva Lawrence voted against tabling it.

The ordinance as proposed encompasses all public places and places of employment, said Russell Hawes, city administrator.

“The effect of this, really, is if it’s a place of employment, it would have to be smoke-free,” Hawes said. “If it’s a public gathering area, be it outside, inside, whatever — smoke-free. That is the major change. ”

City Attorney David Holmes said the ordinance was expanded because “if it is a public health issue, the question then becomes why should the prohibition be limited or restricted to a few places and not others.”

Craig Boatman said the ordinance was so different from the first reading, it should be considered a first reading. Boatman spoke in opposition of the ordinance before the changes were presented.

Councilman Brown Garrett echoed the sentiment.

“I would like to see us at least give this thing two weeks for the people of the city to see the changes that have been made in this ordinance instead of voting it through tonight,” Garrett said.

Councilman Matthew Gooch said he wanted time to dig through the ordinance.

“I’m not going to get into what’s right and what’s wrong, is it bad or is it good. Smoking’s bad, of course, we all know that,” Gooch said. “I want a little time to dig through this to make sure I know what I’m voting for before I say yes or no on it.”

Councilwoman Sylvia Lockaby said she’d received input from both sides of the issue. Councilman George Curtis said he’d received calls as well, with more being against it than for it.

Lawrence said a Bryson Elementary class wrote letters to council, with the majority being in favor of the ordinance.

Garrett said he’d received more input about this ordinance than anything else in his nine years on council.

“We’ve done a lot of things that I thought would be more controversial than this, but this seems to take the cake,” he said.

Great tobacco cover-up beginning in superstores

Supermarkets are beginning to hide away tobacco products before the ban on cigarette displays comes into force on Friday.

The restriction means all shops over 3,000 sq ft must remove packets of cigarettes, cigars, pipe and rolling tobacco from view.

It has been introduced as part of the 2009 Health Act to help cut the number of people who smoke in the UK from 20 per cent to 18.5 per cent of the population by 2015.

In future, shoppers in supermarkets will have to ask to see a price list of products and an assistant will have to open the display before selling tobacco.

The Sainsbury's supermarket in Oadby converted its tobacco kiosk last week.

Amanda Richardson, the store's commercial manager, said: "We implemented the changes to our tobacco kiosk after hours.

"We placed sliding doors in front of the displays and removed other tobacco products from view."

She said: "From now on people will have to request to see a price sheet and prove their age before the sales assistant goes to the cabinet to obtain the product and sell it."

The first supermarket in the country to implement the ban was the Tesco store in The Square, Market Harborough.

It was run as a pilot scheme to be rolled out to its 2,865 stores across the UK before the ban came into force. However, Tesco refused to comment on how the trial went.

The display ban will be extended to small shops in April 2015.

Raj Aggarwal, owner of Londis, in Queens Drive, Wigston, said: "We shall have to see what impact the ban will have on supermarkets. It is the law but it will cost me a lot of money to adjust the counter.

"I think the move will drive more people, including children into the arms of the black market."

The British Retail Consortium estimated that large retailers nationwide would have spent £15 million hiding cigarettes away when the ban becomes operational. It is opposed to the ban. Spokeswoman Sarah Cordey said: "We promote the responsible sale of tobacco products.

"But the Government is also consulting on plain packaging for tobacco products which would make the display ban irrelevant."

Amanda Sandford, a spokeswoman for anti-smoking group Ash, said evidence from Australia and Canada showed banning displays led to fewer young people taking up smoking.

Why govt should get rid of its stake in tobacco co ITC

Should the government take a moral stand and get rid of its stake in tobacco companies like ITC ?

Questions have been raised over why the government has kept ‘strategic’ stakes in some corporate entitities. The government is expected to soon dissolve the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India (SUUTI).
The government reportedly now plans to establish a National Asset Management Co (NAMC) that would sell the government’s stake held through SUUTI in companies like ITC Ltd and use the proceeds for state-run companies.

In 2010 around 5.5 lakh people died due to cancer, the highest number due to tobacco consumption. A debate on CNBC-Awaaz argues that for a government that spends crores on public health, also treating cancer patients, should it hold on to stake in a conglomerate whose chief source of revenue is a tobacco-related product?

Anil Singhvi, chairman of Ican Investment Advisors, said that the chief source of income for the conglomerate continues to be tobacco related products.

“If you say that ITC is in agriculture and running hotels it is merely eyewash, the major source of their income continues to be tobacco,” Singhvi said.

Singhvi pointed out that the Indian government is perhaps one of the only governments in the world which has a strategic stake in a tobacco company and ironically even it’s insurance company Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), which provides life insurance policies, has a stake in the conglomerate.

Dr PC Gupta, of anti-tobacco advocacy group Healis also argued there can be no debate about recent statistics that show that a majority of cancer related deaths are connected to tobacco consumption.

YK Sapru, Cancer Patients Aid Association also said there is no rationale in the government holding stake in a cigarette manufacturing firm given that they spend a lot more on public health in treating patients through the public health system.

Anti-smoking ads ignite desire to quit

They're graphic, disturbing and painful to watch, but they're working. New anti-smoking ads are out, showing real people and the very real damage smoking has caused.

"My fingers started to go, piece by piece," says a woman in one television ad.

In another ad, former smokers with throat cancer are featured, saying "when you have a hole in your neck, don't face the water. Suction out your tube before you eat."

"You're hearing them more and more every single day on the radio, on TV and everytime I hear it, I think 'oh great' you know, here it is again," says James Lavine, a smoker in Tampa.

James Lavine promised to kick the habit after his father, who smoked for decades, got sick.

"I know it's unhealthy. I really do want to try to quit because I don't like it," Lavine said.

Many others are trying too.

"Most smokers I know do want to quit eventually. It's just something they took up and they can't stop," said smoker Francesca Martin.

But for many smokers, these ads are doing the trick. Just two weeks after hitting the air, the Centers for Disease Control says calls to the CDC's Quit Hotline more than doubled, hitting a record high last month.

"I think they're over the top really. They're just for shock value," says smoker Dan Sutter. "I think it's more of a personal choice. I don't think you should be swayed either way by some scary ad on television."

Dan Sutter says he smokes a pack a day, which he admits is too much.

Even so, he's not ready to quit.

"Every day I get a little bit closer. I cut down. Sometimes I stop for a few days and pick it back up," he says.

The new ads aren't just on television. They're on the radio, billboards, newspapers and here online. You can expect to see them for the next couple of months.

Tobacco Worth U.S.$135 Million Auctioned

ABOUT 36 million kg of flue cured tobacco worth US$135 million have been auctioned at an average price

of US$3,70 per kg since the tobacco marketing season started in February. Last year 30 million kg with a value of US$91m had been auctioned during the same period at an average price of US$3,03 per kg.

This marks a 20,88 percent increase in deliveries and a 47,93 percent rise in the earnings.

A total of 471 087 bales have since been laid while 444 389 bales were sold with the remaining 21 525 bales getting rejected.

In the 2011 season a total of 405 509 bales had been laid at this time with 372 219 bales going under the hammer while 33 290 bales were rejected.

The four auction floors have all auctioned 15 million kg of tobacco worth US$55m.

The average price was US$3,66 per kg. All the floors have so far laid 228 413 bales, sold 211 054 bales and rejected 12 186 bales.

On the contract side a total of 21 million kilogrammes with a value of US$80m have been sold so far. The average price was US$3,74 per kg.
A total of 242 674 bales have also been laid while 233 335 bales have been sold with 9 339 bales being rejected. Tobacco Sales Floor has so far auctioned 5 million kg of tobacco with a value of US$19m.

The average price was US$3,69 per kg. TSF laid 76 404 bales, sold 70 104 bales and rejected 6 300 bales in the process. On the other hand Boka Tobacco Floors has sold 5 million kg of tobacco worth US$18m. BTF's average price was US$3,59 per kg.

BTF has laid 77 280 bales and sold 72 107 bales while 5 173 bales have been rejected. Millennium Tobacco Floors on the other hand have sold a total of 2 million kg of tobacco worth US$9m. The average price was US$3,71 per kg.

MTF laid 35 396 bales, sold 32 748 bales and rejected 2 648 bales.

Premier Tobacco Floors have sold a total of 3 million kg of tobacco worth US$9m. PTF's average price was US$3,68 per kg.

PTF laid 39 333 bales and sold 36 095 bales with 3 238 bales being rejected.

Tobacco volumes have been rising in the past few days - something analysts have attributed to a desire by farmers to sell before the Easter Holiday.

This season has seen a marked improvement in service delivery with the long queues that had become characteristic of every selling season disappearing.

Marijuana advocates vow to reopen 'Princeton of Pot' after raid

Medical marijuana advocates on Tuesday vowed to reopen a San Francisco-area college devoted to cannabis cultivation and known as the "Princeton of Pot" a day after federal agents shut down the school in a raid.

Hundreds of protesters rallied in front of San Francisco's City Hall, some on crutches and in wheelchairs and smoking hand-rolled joints. The demonstrators carried signs that said, "Cannabis is medicine; let states regulate" and chanting "Feds off my meds."

Monday's raid on Oaksterdam University, which offers courses on growing and dispensing of marijuana, turned the Oakland-based school into the latest flashpoint between federal law enforcement and medical cannabis advocates in states where pot has been decriminalized for medicinal purposes.

Federal authorities also searched the home of veteranmedical marijuana activist and Oaksterdam founder Richard Lee, as well as a nearby medical marijuana dispensary he runs.

Lee, confined to a wheelchair by a spinal injury, was a leading proponent behind a failed California ballot initiative in 2010 that would have legalized possession and cultivation of small amounts of marijuana in the state for recreational use.

"In a wheelchair, he's a threat," Wayne Justmann, an adviser for medical pot supply shops, said facetiously as he spoke to Reuters at the rally. "He's a guy who's helped so many people."

Rather than targeting Lee, Justmann added, "Go after that guy who killed seven and injured three." He was referring to the former student of a private, Christian college who killed seven people and wounded three others in a shooting rampage on Monday.

Lee himself said he worried that he might be prosecuted.

"They can indict me any day," he said, recounting how he was awakened by federal agents armed with assault rifles appearing at his Oakland apartment with a search warrant. "They can arrest me any day." Agents briefly detained but did not arrest Lee.

The school was closed after agents searched it, but it will reopen Wednesday, Lee's lawyer, Laurence Jeffrey Lichter said.

Although marijuana remains classified as an illegal narcotic under federal law, 16 states and the District of Columbia have enacted some sort of legalized medical-cannabis statutes, according to the Drug Policy Alliance.

In those states, including California, the U.S. government has sought in recent months to shut down storefront dispensaries and greenhouses deemed by federal investigators to be drug-trafficking fronts, as well as those that are located close to schools and parks.

The Obama administration has said it would not single out individual patients who possess or grow their own marijuana in states with medical pot statutes. But federal prosecutors have warned they will continue to go after operations that support for-profit, illegal drug dealing under the guise of medical pot.

Federal action has led to dozens of medical marijuana dispensaries being shut down in California, but so far no one has been charged with criminal activity in connection with the crackdown, Lichter said.

Oaksterdam, widely referred to as the "Harvard of Hemp" and the "Princeton of Pot," opened in 2007 and bills itself as the first cannabis college in the United States.

"Two universities were struck yesterday," said Dale Sky Jones, executive director of Oaksterdam, referring to Monday's raid on her school at the same time a gunman opened fire at the nearby Oikos University. "Federal resources are wasted on failed policy while our cities beg for help with gun violence."

Report shows obesity on rise, smoking slightly down

Counties are being encouraged to compare how they score on a report card issued by the Florida Public Health Institute on Tuesday that measures a county’s health.

The report shows that St Johns, Seminole and Sarasota counties are the healthiest counties based on life expectancy and how healthy people are while they are alive. Putnam, Dixie and Union are some of the most unhealthy counties.

The overall ranking is a reflection of two main categories of health: the mortality rate -- how long someone lives -- and the morbidity rate, which is how healthy they are while alive. The morbidity rate takes several categories into consideration including socioeconomic factors, as well as smoking status, level of exercise and obesity. A new category taken into consideration was the number of fast food restaurants in a county

The analysis is conducted by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and, in Florida, distributed in Florida by the Florida Public Health Institute.

In general, the lower the ratio of doctors and dentists to patients and the lower the uninsured population, the higher the county ranked in health. Counties with higher income levels and higher educational levels also scored better than their counterparts.

The analysis shows that obesity levels are up. Overall an average 24 percent of the population was obese in 2011 compared to an average 26 percent in 2012. Hamilton County has the most obese population, according to the analysis, with 38 percent of the population exceeding acceptable height-to-weight charts.

The analysis shows that the percent of uninsured residents in the state is an average 25 percent. Leon County and St Johns County have the lowest percentage of uninsured residents, with 17 percent of the population without coverage. Hendry has the highest percentage of residents without insurance, with 37 percent of the population under age 65 without insurance.

Residents in Alachua County -- the home of Shands Healthcare -- have have the most physicians per resident with one doctor for every 381 residents. Leon County has the second most number of primary care doctors to patients with one doctor for every 633 residents.

Overall, an average 19 percent of the population smokes. Miami Dade county has the least number of smokers with just 14 percent having a smoking habit while Taylor County leads the state in smoking population. Thirty-two percent of Taylor County residents smoke.

The statewide average of 19 percent is actually a dip from 20 percent in 2011 and 21 percent in 2010.