HC directive to snuff out tobacco use among kids

The Kerala High Court on Monday directed the state government to set up School Protection Committees (SPCs) to tackle tobacco use among children. “The use of tobacco products is rampant among children and adolescents who are below the poverty line,” the court observed.

The SPCs, comprising representatives of parents and teachers, should be headed by the head of an institution. The school leader and the local station house officer will also be part of the team.��� The court has also asked the state to form a District Level Monitoring committee (DMC) under the chairmanship of the respective District Collectors.

The monitoring committees, including the District Educational Officer, District Medical Officer and the District Police Chief will periodically supervise the functioning of the school protection committee in the district and initiate necessary action.� The committee shall meet at least once every three months. The DMCs shall educate school children on the evil effects of the tobacco and its allied products, through seminars and other methods.

The court also directed the state to strictly implement the provisions with regard to the prohibition of sale of cigarettes and tobacco products around education institutions.
The committee can also recommend action against schools that violate the court directive. The district-level committees shall have powers to conduct surprise inspections at any school and surroundings to ensure that these directions are complied.
There shall be a state-level committee chaired by the home secretary to monitor the District Committee.

Furthermore, the HC directed the Central and state governments and the Central Board of Film Certification to ensure that films, tele-serials and other visual media do not include scenes which may encourage the use of tobaccos. The court said that no scenes are to be depicted which would violate the provisions laid under the Cigarettes & Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003.

Revenue department shuts down 'roll-your-own' cigarette machines

Agents with the Kansas Department of Revenue shut down “roll your own” cigarette machines across the state last week, including those at Pack Rat Smokes in Salina, until the cigarettes produced by the machines are certified as meeting state fire safety standards.

Seth Valerius, assistant Kansas attorney general and general counsel for the Kansas State Fire Marshal’s Office, said the cigarettes produced by the machines must comply with a state statute that went into effect July 1, 2008, requiring cigarette manufacturers to have their products certified as fire standard compliant.

He said vendors who supply tobacco, rolling paper and machines people can use to roll as many as 200 cigarettes in eight minutes would meet the definition of a cigarette manufacturer. He said people who maintain small at-home machines for personal use are less of a concern.

“One guy going in and buying rolling papers and a little machine — that’s less of an issue than these places that can roll thousands of cigarettes a day,” Valerius said.
An employee at Pack Rat Smokes, 695 S. Broadway, contacted Monday afternoon, said the store manager had just left. A message from the Journal seeking comment was not returned.

Supreme court refuses tobacco firm appeal in smoker case

The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it will not hear an appeal by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co in a Florida case in which it was ordered to pay $28.3 million to a woman whose husband died of lung cancer after decades of smoking its cigarettes.
The justices refused an appeal by the Reynolds American Inc unit, which argued that its constitutional due process rights had been violated and that the issue could affect thousands of pending cases in Florida against tobacco companies.

In 2009, a state trial court in Pensacola, Florida, ordered Reynolds to pay more than $3.3 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages to Mathilde Martin.
Her husband, Benny Martin, died in 1995 of lung cancer that she blamed on his long-time smoking of Reynolds' Lucky Strike cigarettes.
The jury found that Reynolds was 66 percent responsible for his death and that Martin, who started smoking in the 1940s before cigarette packages had health warnings, was 34 percent responsible.

The lawsuit stemmed from the so-called "Engle progeny" cases filed against tobacco companies by sick Florida smokers or their relatives. A class-action lawsuit filed in 1994 by a pediatrician, the late Dr. Howard Engle, produced a $145 billion judgment against cigarette makers six years later.
The Florida Supreme Court overturned the Engle award in 2006 and ruled that the state's smokers could not sue as a class.

Native American inmates challenging tobacco ban

Opening arguments are scheduled Tuesday in a federal lawsuit filed by a group of Native American inmates saying a state prison policy that bans the use of tobacco during religious ceremonies is discriminatory.

The Native American Council of Tribes based at the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls wants the U.S. District Court to prevent the policy from being enforced.

Inmate Blaine Brings Plenty said in the complaint that for Native American prayer to be effective, "it must be embodied in 'tobacco' and offered within a ceremonial framework."

The state prison system went tobacco free in 2000 but made an exception for tobacco used in Native American ceremonies. It later reversed the exception, saying tobacco was becoming increasingly abused and inmates were separating it from their pipe and tie mixtures.

Martinsville Memorial Hospital goes smoke-free

No more smoke breaks at a hospital in Southern Virgina.

Memorial Hospital in Martinsville is banning all tobacco use on its property.

That includes in parked cars and outside medical office buildings.

"If I can't smoke all day here at work, then I just need to stop smoking period," said longtime smoker and employee of the hospital Carol Blades.

Hospital CEO Skip Philips says the idea came from a staff meeting on healthy lifestyles.

"There was three initiatives that came out of that. One was to work on exercise and healthy eating, one was to work on healthy eating habits, and the third was to becoming tobacco free as a campus," Philips said.

According to the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association Memorial Hospital is one of the last in the state to become smoke free.

Ministry Intensifies Efforts To Ban Smoking In Public Space

The Ministry of Health is working feverishly to make a submission to Cabinet to receive approval for the passing of the Tobacco bill, designed to implement a ban on smoking in public places, including work places.

Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson made the announcement on Thursday while delivering the main address at the National launch of the Jamaica Association of Administrative Professionals, JAAP LINAC Project at the Cornwall Regional Hospital, Montego Bay.

He made announcement against the backdrop of the results of research showing increases in the incidence of cancers associated with the smoking of cigarettes.

"When we look at what is taking place in relation to the number of persons in terms of cardiovascular- related diseases and the contribution to that by cigarette smoking and also the number of persons who are getting cancer from passive smoking. We are committed to a bill and an act that will ban smoking in public places, and also one that will ban smoking in work places."

Minister Ferguson said while this was going to be a challenge based on the fact that tobacco lobbyists are very vibrant and vociferous, he was adamant that the bill would be passed and implemented under his watch.

Preventing cancers

"A major legislative framework in the form of the Tobacco Bill is part of governmental intervention that is designed to, among other things, prevent cancers associated with the use of tobacco. We have been talking about this a long time we are now on the final stretch to take the submission to Cabinet."

He argued that cigarette smoking has a serious impact on the health sector, government and good governance must be about protecting people even from themselves.

Minister Ferguson said hospitals are now seeing an increase in persons seeking oncology services at the Kingston Public and Cornwall Regional hospitals.

Social disapproval, not fear, motivates smokers to quit

“In 2008, the United Kingdom became one of the first countries in Europe to make it mandatory for cigarette packets sold within the U.K. to display fear-provoking, graphic anti-smoking images, founded on the assumption that the use of fear is an effective method to encourage smokers to quit,” says Scitechdaily.com. “However, in contrast to the assumed effects of fear on quitting intentions, a series of experiments conducted by [psychologists at Canterbury Christ Church University] consistently revealed that fear provoked by graphic images had no effect on smokers’ intentions to stop smoking. Instead, the researchers found that smokers were more willing to consider quitting if they accepted non-smokers’ negative attitudes toward their habit.”

Relax to fight temptation

“If you are trying to avoid temptation, stop fighting it and just relax,” says Psych Central. “In a new study, researchers from the University of Illinois found that people who are ‘actively’ motivated to change bad habits may actually be setting themselves up for not only failure but to act impulsively. But those who used ‘inaction’ words, such as ‘stop’ or ‘pause,’ are more relaxed and, ultimately, more successful. ‘Our research suggests that the relaxed state is better at inhibiting the pull of temptations,’ said University of Illinois psychology professor Dr. Dolores Albarracin.”

The power of friendship

“The gravitational pull of individual friendships can have an enormous cumulative effect on the quality of our lives,” U.S. News reports. “With growing numbers of people living alone, either by choice or circumstance, friendships can occupy the emotional space that other people fill with spouses or significant others. … At the end of the day, a friend can be the emotional oasis that makes all the difference. ‘Friends are what make us uniquely human,’ says James Fowler, professor of medical genetics and political science at the University of California at San Diego. ‘There is no other species that interacts so widely with other members of their species.’ ”

The appeal of tragedy

“Why do we willingly subject ourselves, again and again, to … sad stories?” asks Miller-McCune.com. “Researchers led by Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick of Ohio State University have tentatively proposed some answers. In the journal Communication Research, they present evidence that watching tragedy inspires self-reflection, which allows us to refocus on the people in our lives we might otherwise take for granted. The melancholy emotions these tales arouse ultimately provoke pleasant feelings of gratitude. ‘Psychological research suggests that close relationships make people happy and fulfilled,’ they write. ‘Tragedies appear to be an excellent means to reinforcing pro-social values that make these relationships steady and meaningful, as they celebrate enduring love, friendship and compassion even in ultimate agony and suffering.’ ”

Wheeze, Asthma in Children Linked to Passive Smoke Exposure

Children who are exposed to tobacco smoke prenatally or in their home after birth are at least 20% more likely to have wheezing episodes or develop asthma. The magnitude of the risks is higher than seen in previous estimates, according to a meta-analysis published online March 19 in Pediatrics.

Hannah Burke, BMBS, from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, and colleagues conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 71 prospective epidemiologic studies that examined the association between passive smoke exposure and the incidence of pediatric wheeze and asthma.

After conducting an extensive literature search that included Medline, Embase, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, as well as conference abstracts, they identified and screened 5074 articles, yielding 70 articles with a total of 71 studies.

"We included all prospective epidemiologic studies assessing the association between passive smoke exposure and incidence of asthma or wheeze in children or young people up to the age of 18 years in which participants were free of disease (asthma or wheeze) at the start of the study and passive smoke exposure was documented at a time point before the incidence of disease was determined," the authors write.

The researchers analyzed the effects of 4 different types of smoke exposure on the development of wheezing and asthma: prenatal maternal smoking, maternal smoking, paternal smoking, and household smoke exposure.

Medical marijuana prognosis looks good

Nearly three years have passed since House and Senate lawmakers first approved a medical marijuana bill to protect patients with debilitating illnesses in New Hampshire.
That bill fell just short of becoming law in 2009, when an effort to override Gov. John Lynch’s veto passed the House but failed by only two votes in the Senate.
When the 2010 election resulted in Republican supermajorities in both chambers of the General Court, many felt this issue would be placed on hold for two years. On the contrary, last year the GOP-dominated House showed it wasn’t at all afraid to pass medical marijuana, voting to approve the measure in a 221-96 landslide.
Last year’s bill reached a stalemate in the Senate, when senators voted to table the bill rather than casting an up-or-down vote, but this year patients and their advocates are feeling more optimistic than ever about their chances. Their new bill features three Republican senators as sponsors.
So what objections remain?
First, the attorney general’s office points out that marijuana remains illegal under federal law and says the program could lead to interventions in New Hampshire by federal agents. Second, it observes that, in a few states, badly implemented medical marijuana laws have led to undesirable outcomes.
When considering the merits of these objections, New Hampshire legislators should focus on two very useful counterexamples: Vermont and Maine.
Vermont and Maine have been protecting medical marijuana patients from arrest since 2004 and 1999, respectively. There have been no federal raids on patients or caregivers in either state, and the laws continue to enjoy strong public support.
After years of allowing patients and their caregivers to grow their own marijuana, both states recently approved the addition of state-regulated dispensaries to improve patients’ access.
Have these reforms led to increased rates of recreational marijuana use and teen use in Maine and Vermont? According to government surveys, they have not. In fact, the federal government’s own data shows that teens and adults use marijuana at a nearly identical rate in all three states.
Unfortunately, the U.S. attorney for New Hampshire has indicated that dispensaries here would not necessarily be safe from federal prosecution. Thus, Granite State lawmakers appear to be left with two policy options: they can continue leaving desperate patients to fend for themselves on the black market, or they can acknowledge their plight and permit them to simply take care of themselves.
SB 409 would protect patients from arrest and give them a way to access marijuana safely, legally and unobtrusively. A 2008 Mason-Dixon poll showed 71 percent of New Hampshire voters agree, with only 21 percent opposed.
Will 2012 be the year that public opinion finally translates into public policy?

MU students seek smoke-free campus, sooner

Student leaders at the University of Missouri want the school to speed up its move to a smoke-free campus.
The Columbia Daily Tribune reports that the Missouri Students Association is asking Mizzou administrators to ban smoking on campus starting in January. The current plan calls for a completely smoke-free campus starting in 2014.
The UM system's flagship campus has been phasing out public smoking since 2006. Current rules provide for designated smoking areas, but student government president Xavier Billingsley says that student smokers don't abide by those rules.

SMOKING FACES BAN IN ALLERDALE PLAY PARKS

Allerdale Council is considering outlawing lighting up in areas designed for youngsters.

Any new rules would cover places including Workington, Maryport, Cockermouth, Keswick, Wigton and Aspatria.

Carni McCarron-Holmes, the councillor responsible for health in the borough, said: “Essentially the idea is that a voluntary ban will be introduced into play areas to encourage parents not to smoke in front of their children or other children.

“Research shows that reducing child exposure to smoking decreases the uptake of smoking among young people in the long term.

“Children learn their behaviour from adults and so it’s essential that in our communities tobacco use is not seen as part of everyday life.”

People in Allerdale will be asked their views on the proposals in a survey being carried out to coincide with National Non-Smoking Day tomorrow.

The council is carrying out the work – between midday and 1pm – in conjunction with NHS Cumbria.

It is not the first time that a notion of a park smoking ban has been mooted in the county.

Last year, Bill Wearing, the county councillor who chairs Cumbria’s influential health and wellbeing scrutiny committee, urged local authorities to make it illegal to smoke there.

He argued that passive smoking was a health risk, even in open spaces.

Then, it appeared to have little initial support for immediate action from the district councils in charge of parks throughout the county.

Surveys will be carried out in play areas.

Apponequet High aims to kick the smoking habit

Apponequet Regional High School is trying to reduce the number of students smoking on school grounds, and is contemplating strategies to kick more butts out of school.
The school is also looking to better educate students who are addicted to nicotine, and are not just smoking for social reasons.
Principal Jill Proulx said smoking in school is not a new problem at Apponequet, but the school still has worked hard to curtail the number of smoking incidents.
Proulx said the administration took a proactive approach this year and even looked into developing smaller, airport-style bathrooms for easier detection. However, the school could not come up with the $30,000 needed to develop this type of bathroom.
She told school authorities and parents at a School Committee meeting last week that the school also closed down some bathrooms this year. But that method prompted parent telephone calls to the state Department of Public Health. She said it also prompted students to escape to a stairwell area and smoke there instead.
Proulx said the school has also tried to eliminate down time for smoking and have had meetings with students who are suspended for the infraction. Proulx said the school nurse also administers nicotine patches.
Superintendent John McCarthy said he soon plans on having lunch with a group of student smokers.
McCarthy told school officials last Wednesday that he interviewed a student in an advanced placement biology class about the problem, and that student told McCarthy that smoking is part of the school’s culture.
Marc Christiansen, a student representative to the School Committee, agreed with that assessment.
Christiansen said some students smoke for “social reasons” but are likely not addicted. However, he said there are still a large number of students with an addiction and these students need serious help.
“It is part of some of the culture, not the whole culture. There are social smokers and then there are addicted smokers. Some people ... use smoking as a thing they can have in common with another kid. For them, feeling not part of the school community, this is their attempt to be a part of the community,” Christiansen said.

Visitor Tries to Pass Marijuana to Inmate

A Broome County inmate and his visitor are charged after the visitor tried to sneak marijuana to the inmate during visiting hours.
Inmate Rashawn Smith, 19 and his visitor Tybeca Smith, 40 were both charged with promoting prison contraband.
Rashawn Smith is in the Broome County Jail on two felony counts of assault and one count of criminal possession of a weapon.
During visitation time, an officer saw Tybeca Smith handing Rashawn Smith a plastic bag filled with a green leafy substance.
The substance was later identified as a synthetic form of Marijuana.
The officer on duty caught the exchange.
Both men are set to appear in the Town of Dickinson Court at a later date.

Police discover marijuana plants in NMB apartment

When police arrived in response to a call about two stolen portable air conditioning units at an apartment in the 900 block of Northeast 160th Street, they also discovered several marijuana plants. The tenant was arrested. The incident occurred between 7 p.m. Feb. 22 and 7 a.m. Feb. 24.

NORTH MIAMI BEACH

A thief stole a laptop computer valued at $550 between 6:30 and 7:45 p.m. Feb. 24 in the 18400 block of Northeast 19th Court.

MIAMI BEACH

A thief stole flu medication and two bottles of vitamins between 11:30 and 11:45 a.m. Feb. 25 from a pharmacy in the 1000 Alton Road. Police caught and arrested the thief. The stolen items were valued at $30.

A thief stole an Audemars Piguet watch valued at $26,000 plus $5,000 in cash from a hotel room while the victim was asleep in the room between 4:30 and 10 a.m. Feb. 25 in the 2200 block of Collins Avenue.

A thief made purchased food at a Miami Beach restaurant in the 700 block of Ocean Drive using a stolen credit card between noon Dec. 22 and noon Dec. 23. The theft was reported about 1:50 p.m. Feb. 25. The amount purchased was not disclosed.

A vandal damaged the driver’s side door lock of a car between 8 p.m. Feb. 24 and 12:30 p.m. Feb. 25 in the 600 block of 17th Street.

Three thieves stole $5,000 in cash from an apartment in the 1500 block of Bay Road about 2:30 p.m. Feb. 25. One of the thieves punched the victim in the face and then held him in a chokehold on the floor of the apartment. The other two stole the money in the meantime. All three then fled the scene. No arrests had been made at the time of the report.

State Smoking Ban Means Little Change For Fort Wayne

The State Senate passed the smoking ban bill Wednesday excluding bars from the proposed ban.
The bill already exempts casinos, cigar bars, tobacco shops and private clubs. Although lawmakers are working hard to pass this bill it could mean little change in Fort Wayne.
"As we understand it as it is today, it wouldn't effect what is already in place in Fort Wayne," said Frank Suarez, Director of Public Information, City of Fort Wayne.
The City has had a smoking ban in place for years. Their ban includes more places than the current state version. Right now, the legislation state lawmakers are looking at would exempt certain places, like bars and taverns.
"If you go to a bar and there is smoking there, and somebody doesn't smoke, that's on them, they want to go there, they want to breathe in the smoke, that's on them,” said Heather Kelley, Fort Wayne.
Some people think Fort Wayne's ban has been the perfect solution, others like the plan lawmakers in Indianapolis are working on better.
“Well they have got to give some exemptions, because there has to be some place to smoke,” said A.J. Stopperich, Fort Wayne.
“As a smoker, and I'm a smoker, and I wanna smoke when I'm in a bar but second hand smoke in critical, my uncle died from cancer, and cancer is serious,” said Gordache Fields, Fort Wayne.
“I think our policy has worked, I think it was tested through the court system, and it was successful,” said Suarez.
There is still more discussion going on in Indianapolis with this legislation but if the exceptions stay, it would mean the City of Fort Wayne's ban could stay in effect.

SCAT books man on marijuana charges

A West Monroe man was arrested Wednesday when Ouachita Parish Sheriff's Office S.C.A.T. deputies executed a search warrant. Matthew Scott Wall, 20, 317 Lea Drive, West Monroe, was charged with possession with intent to distribute marijuana, simple possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The arrest affidavit stated deputies found several potted marijuana plants and other equipment used to manufacture marijuana, including heavy duty lamps and fertilizer. Reports stated the suspect admitted the plants were his and for his personal use.

Wall told police the address where he was arrested and plants were found, 2815 Louisiana 15, Lot 39, was not his address, that he rents the trailer to grow the pot.

The arrest report stated Wall told OPSO that there were more narcotics-related items at his home. There deputies found a clear plastic bag of suspected marijuana and several glass pipes.

He was held without bond at Ouachita Parish Correctional Center.

Tax Hikes Break Smoking Habit

The number of young smokers in New Zealand is falling to an all time low, as increasing tobacco taxes push cigarettes out of the reach of teenagers.

The latest research conducted by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and released on March 2nd, indicates that the number of 14 to 15 year olds in New Zealand who smoke daily fell to 4.1 percent in 2011, compared to 5.5 percent in 2010. Approximately 8.2 percent of respondents claimed to be regular smokers, down 1.8 percent from the number of regular smokers indicated in the results of the same survey conducted in 2010.

The director of ASH Ben Youdan said that the significant drop in smoking rates amongst young New Zealnders is due to the recent price increases of tobacco products because of hikes in excise duties. He explained that taxes on tobacco products have gone up by approximately 30 percent in the last two and a half years, which has been one of the major driving factors behind smokers quitting or young people never smoking at all.

The Associate Health Minister and Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia also commented on the results of the survey, saying that she is delighted with the current situation outlined in the report. She referred to the government’s actions to fight smoking, saying “ …it is an absolute success, one that I am proud to have worked towards.”

Big tobacco snuffs out new cigarette warnings, for now

In Susan Richards's experience, fear can be a lifesaver.
Richards is an instructor with Teen SmokeStoppers, a program that tries to alert young people to the dangers of smoking. The program is run through the SWIM Across the Sound program at St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport.
Richards said she and other instructors often use shock value to illustrate how life threatening tobacco use can be. For instance, they've shown students a diseased lung in a jar.
"We'll show them anything we think will work," Richards said. "We have a jar of phlegm to show them how COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) patients can't cough up phlegm. I don't think of it as (using) fear. I think of it as showing them reality."
Thus, she was in favor of the graphic cigarette labels the Food and Drug Administration unveiled in June, which were supposed to be carried on all cigarette packs starting in September of this year. The labels used disturbing photos -- including a picture of a man smoking through a tracheotomy hole in his throat -- in addition to written warnings meant to dissuade smokers. While anti-smoking advocates such as Richards cheered the new labels, tobacco companies were, not surprisingly, perturbed by them.
This week, the tobacco companies gained a victory, as U.S. District Judge Richard Leon issued a 19-page ruling that found the labels violate free-speech protection. Leon agreed with the defendants that the packaging was forcing tobacco companies to serve as an "unwilling mouthpiece" for the FDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
"The graphic images here were neither designed to protect the consumer from confusion or deception, nor to increase consumer awareness of smoking risks," wrote Leon in his ruling. "Rather, they were crafted to evoke a strong emotional response calculated to provoke the viewer to quit or never start smoking."
This is the second time Leon has ruled with the tobacco companies, having granted a temporary injunction against the FDA labels in November. The FDA appealed that decision, and the government seemed poised to take issue with this latest ruling as well.
On Thursday morning, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued a brief statement saying President Barack Obama's administration is "determined to do everything we can to warn young people about the dangers of smoking, which remains the leading cause of preventable death in America." She added that the administration is "confident that efforts to stop these important warnings from going forward will ultimately fail."
Locally, the ruling upset some anti-smoking advocates, including Richards.
"I'm disappointed," she said. "Even if they just help save one person, then those labels are useful."
Pamela Mautte, director of BHCare's Valley Substance Abuse Action Council in Ansonia, agreed.
"I do think the labels would be very helpful," she said. "A lot of smokers and former smokers I've come into contact with say they think it would be a great deterrent."
However, both Richards and Mautte, like Sebelius, said they are confident the decision will be overturned and that the labels will eventually end up on cigarette packs.
"I think it's going to happen," Richards said.
Steven A. Raucher, chairman of the department of communication, film and theatre at the University of New Haven in West Haven, said he believes the FDA will, eventually, get the support of the courts. But, he said, Leon's ruling makes some cogent points about whether the FDA has the right to force companies to put the new labels on their products.
"Is protecting the health of children an overriding issue? Absolutely," Raucher said. "However, is this law narrowly tailored to meet this standard? That's the question."
Raucher said he doesn't find the pictures on the labels as problematic as the text. He said Canada and some European countries have used vivid graphics for years. Raucher said the inclusion of a smoking cessation hot line (1-800-QUIT-NOW) within the textual warning is likely more offensive to tobacco companies than the pictures. Indeed, Leon's ruling took issue with the inclusion of the phone number.
"The images, coupled with the placement of the toll-free number, do not `promote informed choice' but, instead, advocate to consumers that they should `QUIT NOW,' " the ruling reads.
Meanwhile, some believe it doesn't matter whether the labels end up on cigarette packs. Bruce Butler runs the Bridgeport Avenue Shell Station in Shelton, where he sells a variety of tobacco products. Even if the ruling is overturned and smokers are greeted with images of rotten lungs and bodies on autopsy tables, Butler said it probably won't make a difference. He compared the labels to the state's ever-rising cigarette taxes.
"Typically, sales are hit hard immediately after (the tax takes effect), then they ramp right back up again," Butler said. "This is just one more blip on the radar."

LITH Businesses Pass Tobacco Compliance Checks

The Lake in the Hills Police Department announces the recent results of its tobacco compliance checks that were held the past week.

These compliance checks are performed to determine if local tobacco retailers are complying with state and local minimum-age tobacco laws which prohibit the sale of tobacco to minors.

With the help from a grant awarded by the Illinois Liquor Control Commission’s “Kids Can’t Buy ‘Em Here” Tobacco Enforcement Program, Lake in the Hills has been educating tobacco retailers on minimum-age tobacco laws and the importance of verifying the age of their customers while conducting compliance checks of area tobacco retailers.

A total of eleven retailers were inspected and all of them were found to be compliant.

Recreational marijuana measure to be put to voters

Colorado voters will be asked to decide whether to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in a November ballot measure, setting up a potential showdown with the federal government over America's most commonly used illicit drug.

The measure, which would legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana by adults, is one of two that will go to voters in November after a Washington state initiative to legalize pot earned enough signatures last month to qualify for the ballot there.

"This could be a watershed year in the decades-long struggle to end marijuana prohibition in this country," Art Way, Colorado manager of the Drug Policy Alliance, said in a statement. The Alliance supports the initiative.

"Marijuana prohibition is counterproductive to the health and public safety of our communities. It fuels a massive, increasingly brutal underground economy, wastes billions of dollars in scarce law enforcement resources, and makes criminals out of millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens."

Colorado is one of 16 states and the nation's capital that already allow marijuana use for medical purposes even as cannabis remains classified as an illegal narcotic under federal law - and public opinion is sharply divided on the merits of full legalization.

No states allow marijuana for recreational use, and California voters turned back a ballot initiative to legalize the drug for such use in 2010, in part because of concerns about how production and sale of the drug would be regulated.

Since then, the U.S. Department of Justice has cracked down on medical cannabis operations in several mostly western states including Colorado and Washington, raiding dispensaries and growing operations and threatening landlords with prosecution.

A spokesman for Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said on Monday that the office opposes the legalization proposal.

"The attorney general will oppose any measure that makes marijuana more accessible," spokesman Mike Saccone said.

The Colorado measure, if approved by voters, would legalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana or up to six plants for cultivation, said Mason Tvert, co-founder of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol.

It would also set up a regulatory framework for the sale of cannabis products and the application of sales and excise taxes, in addition to legalizing the cultivation of industrial hemp.

WOULD EARMARK TAX REVENUE FOR SCHOOLS

A provision of the measure would also annually earmark the first $40 million in tax revenue generated from pot sales to fund public school construction, Tvert said, although he could not estimate how many tax dollars would be generated.

Any remaining money over $40 million would go to the state's general fund, he said.

Colorado voters rejected a measure to legalize small amounts of cannabis in 2006, but Tvert said the new proposal with its taxing provision, and potential jobs created through the marijuana industry and peripheral businesses would make it more palatable to voters.

"The time is right," he said, citing a December poll by Public Policy Polling that showed 49 percent of Colorado voters now support legalization.

Nationwide, an October 2011 Gallup Poll that found a record 50 percent of Americans polled supported legalizing marijuana use, up from 36 percent five years earlier.

Under a medical marijuana law enacted in 2000, Colorado currently maintains a registry of more than 80,000 card-carrying patients and rules governing how physicians and distributors operate.

However, federal prosecutors launched a crackdown last month against nearly two dozen medical marijuana dispensaries located within 1,000 feet of schools, giving proprietors 45 days to cease operations or face civil and criminal penalties. That deadline lapsed on Monday.

Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver, said an investigation was underway to determine if the alleged violators complied with the ultimatum.

A second round of notifications to other pot dispensaries who federal authorities said were in violation of the 1,000-foot law will be notified "sooner rather than later," Dorschner said.

Proponents of legalized recreational possession initially submitted more than 163,000 signatures on a petition to place their measure on the ballot, but the state's secretary of state declared the petition insufficient on February 3.

Advocates then submitted an additional 14,000 signatures two weeks ago, and after a second review, the state certified that the proposal would qualify for the general election ballot on November 6, 2012.