30 juin 2008
No smoking in Amsterdam
LONDON -- Starting July 1, the Netherlands will banish tobacco smoke from restaurants and all other public places. But in a bizarre twist, patrons of certain coffee shops where marijuana is sold over the counter can still light up their cannabis joints.
Possessing the weed is illegal in the Netherlands, but smoking it is tolerated.
Owners say the tobacco ban -- an increasingly widespread trend in Europe -- could be a threat to the specially licensed coffee houses, because patrons traditionally prefer their cannabis joints mixed with tobacco.
"As this is a ban on tobacco smoke, most coffee shops will allow customers to smoke pure weed, but not tobacco, and this will be potentially really difficult to regulate," said Lorna Clay, manager of the Cannabis College in Amsterdam, a nonprofit organization that distributes information about cannabis usage.
"Will the staff have to watch people make their joints to be sure no tobacco has been used?" Clay said some of Amsterdam's 226 coffee shops have invested in new kinds of pipes and vaporizers to encourage pure cannabis use.
But she said other coffee house owners have no intention of stopping customers from smoking mixed joints.
These owners argue that the city's renowned coffee shops are one of the main reasons many tourists visit.
The new law comes on the heels of another change in what's thought to be a major Dutch tourist draw -- legalized prostitution.
The sex trade is regulated and is mostly confined to red-light districts.
City officials announced last year that they would tighten rules in an effort to stop money laundering and trafficking in women.
Officials began shutting the famous brothels
that display lingerie-clad women in shopfront windows, and there are 400 window
brothels now, down from 478
in
Over 90% of county businesses comply with tobacco laws
During a recent tobacco enforcement “sting” in Delta County, slightly more than 90 percent of Delta County businesses passed with flying colors — refusing to sell cigarettes or chewing tobacco without proper identification.
On July 1, a
The new legislation clarifies previous regulations which stated that anyone who
“knowingly” sells tobacco products to anyone under the age of 18 could be held
criminally liable.
According to Larry Mullen, a criminal investigator with the state
liquor/tobacco enforcement unit, a Palisade woman who was cited for unlawfully
selling tobacco to a minor claimed she did not do so “knowingly” because she
never asked the customer for identification.
The employee who violates the law can be fined for the sale, as well as the
failure to ask for ID, Mullen said.
Mullen was a speaker at a Delta County Tobacco Education Coalition meeting on
Friday, June 20.
Earlier in the meeting, Karen O’Brien, tobacco education coordinator for Delta
County, gave an overview of the many incentives offered to teens, new moms and
adults who want to quit smoking.
“Those are the carrots,” Mullen said. “My job is the stick side.”
During the course of his career with the Colorado Department of Revenue, the
former cop has visited virtually every store on the Western Slope which sells
tobacco products. He uses teens under the legal age of 18 as decoys in his
“sting” operations. In Delta County, he sent females into the stores to try to
purchase cigarettes.
“Delta County did much better than I expected,” he said, adding that females
tend to be turned down more than males.
As a state, Colorado has to demonstrate that 80 percent of the time underage
purchases of tobacco products are denied. The requirement stems from the
tobacco litigation which resulted in billions of dollars targeted for tobacco
education and cessation. The states involved in the settlement, including
Colorado, must demonstrate that a significant portion of the settlement funds
are being used to attack the public health problem posed by tobacco use.
Mullen says his enforcement team visits every store in Delta County at least
once year, and returns in 90 days to re-check violators.
According to the Healthy Kids survey conducted in Delta County last fall, 50
percent of middle and high schoolers find it’s pretty easy to purchase tobacco.
20 juin 2008
Councillors call for cigarette licensing
Cigarette sales will be licensed in the same
way as alcohol is, if an influential group of Cumbria
A new council report puts the case for stricter controls on tobacco sales and tougher sanctions on shopkeepers that flout the rules.
It is likely to form the basis of a county council response to a Government consultation on smoking, which could in turn lead to a change in the law.
Cleator Moor South and Egremont county councillor Simon Leyton chaired a group of councillors that drew up the report, The Last Gasp.
He said: “Licensing tobacco products would act as a powerful deterrent against the sale of cigarettes to children.
“Alcohol is licensed and there is no reason why the sale of tobacco should not be subject to similar regulation.”
The Last Gasp argues that, if retailers were licensed, those who sold cigarettes to children or traded in bootleg tobacco products could have their licences revoked.
It also calls for shops to be allowed to sell nicotine replacement products more widely alongside cigarettes.
Both measures would require changes in the law.
The report was approved by the council’s health and wellbeing scrutiny committee this week and goes before the full council next Thursday.
Councillors took evidence from a range of experts.
They also commissioned the Cumbria Youth Alliance to survey attitudes to smoking among 2,000 young people.
Indonesian NGOs Sue President Over Tobacco Treaty
Cigarettes in Indonesia, the world's fifth
largest cigarette market, are among the cheapest in the world with a pack
costing around $1.
Four Indonesian NGOs filed a lawsuit against the president and parliament on Thursday for not signing a global tobacco treaty, saying the high level of tobacco use was forcing millions into poverty.
The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) along with three other NGOs slammed the government for not taking stronger measures to increase cigarette prices while prices of basic needs such as food have risen after fuel prices were hiked nearly 30 percent in May.
Cigarettes in Indonesia, the world's fifth largest cigarette market, are among the cheapest in the world with a pack costing around $1.
Although smoking has taken a toll on the health of Indonesians and pushed millions further into poverty, Indonesia is reluctant to sign the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) aimed at cutting cigarette consumption because of concerns about the developing country's economy.
The World Health Organization's FCTC aims to reduce tobacco consumption, including through a ban on advertising and promotion.
China, which is the world's largest cigarette producer, is among the 168 signatories to the treaty.
Indonesia's $8-billion tobacco industry is big business which provides jobs for 7 million people and contributes about 10 percent to the government's coffers.
"We demand the Indonesian president ratify FCTC because it can protect people from the bad impact of tobacco," Tulus Abadi, an anti-tobacco activist at YLKI, told reporters after the case was filed against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in a Jakarta court.
"The majority of smokers are poor people who allocate more money for cigarettes than for education and food."
Most Indonesians smoke traditional clove cigarettes which were invented in the late 19th century to ward off illnesses.
Called "kretek" for the crackling sound they make when they burn, the cigarettes usually contain added flavours such as chocolate and dried fruits. Some taste sweet, others spicy, but they are all distinctly Indonesian.
Some big cities in Indonesia, including Jakarta, have banned smoking in public areas, but these local regulations are still not implemented, Tubagus Haryo Karbyanto, an activist of the Jakarta citizens forum, told reporters.
04 juin 2008
City to Pay Workers $1,000 to Quit Smoking
METROPOLIS, Ill. — Illinois' adopted home of Superman considers cigarettes an enemy, and it's ready to pay a handsome reward to any city employee who can vanquish their smoking habit.
The southern Illinois tourist trap said it will pay city workers $1,000 apiece if they can stay off smokes for a year.
Mayor Billy McDaniel said the city has been looking for a way to get its employees off cigarettes for good. So far, McDaniel said, 15 people have signed up for the program that began Monday.
The plan calls for random nicotine tests to identify cheaters. Nicotine patches and gum will not affect those tests.
McDaniel hopes the program leads to healthier employees, lower insurance premiums and lower labor costs.
Plain packages for cigarettes could snuff out big profits
British cigarette makers face a new and serious risk to their profits if the U.K. government rules that all brands should have plain packaging, analysts said yesterday.
The industry offset lower sales by raising prices when England imposed smoking bans in bars last year, but a move to plain packaging would sway smokers to switch to cheaper brands, they said.
The U.K. has begun a three-month public consultation on a number of measures to cut the number of smokers. The most serious for industry profits is the move to ban branding.
All U.K. packs would be white, with brand names printed in plain black type. The only colour on the packages would be graphic health warnings.
Plain packaging would require new legislation, and likely wouldn't reach shelves until 2010.
U.K. market leader is Imperial Tobacco, with a 46.1 per cent share. An analyst said it nets 96 pence ($1.89) a pack for top-priced Embassy, but only 70p from mid-priced Lambert and Butler and much less for discounted brands.
Analysts say the premium brands may taste different, but the range in quality is barely perceptible.