Tobacco Ban

You can find pipes, cigarettes and tobacco for sale at Walgreens pharmacy. The city will issue an order banning sales of smoking products at all pharmacies.

Now Walgreen Co is asking a state court to block the ban complaining the new law is anticompetitive and unconstitutional. Walgreen Co answers prohibitions are not in place at grocery stores and whole clubs like Sam’s and Costco that also have drugstores. All 52 Walgreen chemist’s shops in the city would be affected. The city is also preparing to enact regulations that would ban the sale of tobacco products at college campuses and pharmacies aimed at reducing smoking among youth.

The San Francisco city board of supervisors in two 8-3 votes, made the city the first in the country to stop the sale of cigarettes at drugstores. The legislation is modeled on the ban already in place in eight Canadian provinces and is supported by the California Medical Association and the American Cancer Society. The legislators felt that sick people getting prescriptions filled should not be faced with health destroying tobacco products at the drugstore. Besides Boston, expect Illinois, New York, Rhode Island and Tennessee to consider tobacco-sale prohibitions this year.

The authority hopes to reduce premature death, smoking-related illnesses and the cost to public health caused by tobacco, which kills more than 1.4 million every year according to the WHO (World Health Organization).

Stop Selling Tobacco Products to Minors

Scientists investigated Lompoc and Solvang because they suspected that in these cities tobacco products are selling to minors. In Santa Barbara County officials have released the results of the annual secret "tobacco buy" operations. The results indicate that sales to minors are down from last year in Goleta and the unincorporated areas of Santa Barbara County, and that no sales to minors occurred from undercover buys in Lompoc or Solvang. The Public Health Department collaborated with the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department for to conduct annual undercover buys in which youths, ages 15 or 16, act as undercover operatives and try to purchase tobacco products.

Results from the recent buys show that the unincorporated area’s rates are down to 10 percent this year from 15 percent last year. Researchers also found in the city of Goleta a decrease to 13 percent this year from 19 percent last year. The city of Santa Barbara had an 18 percent rate this year, up slightly from last year’s rate of 16 percent.

Tobacco licensing laws exist in Santa Barbara and Goleta and in the unincorporated areas of the county too. Licensing laws require businesses that sell tobacco products to obtain an annual permit and wait by all tobacco related laws, especially those concerning sales to minors. Public Health and Sheriff Department officials attribute the results to the licensing laws and consistent enforcement over time. Undercover tobacco buys were also conducted in other states too such as Carpentaria, resulting in a 24 percent illegal sales rate, Buellton with a 17 percent illegal sales rate, Guadalupe, where rates were 14 percent and Santa Maria at 13 percent.

After a full investigation researchers found that none of the tobacco retailers in Solvang and Lompoc sold tobacco products to the teen decoy during the annual checks. Also was found that in each of the communities, 84 percent to 100 percent of all tobacco retail outlets were shopped, with the exception of Santa Barbara, where 33 percent of the stores were visited. Sales of tobacco products to minors are monitored through routine unannounced enforcement operations. As a result of these local buys, five merchants face a potential 30-day suspension of the license.

The aim of anti-tobacco researchers is to stop selling tobacco products to minors.

EXOTIC TOBACCO PRODUCTS POPULAR WITH MINORITY YOUTH

According to a study of New Jersey middle- and high-schoolers, flavored Asian cigarettes, even worse than regular ones, are gaining popularity among minority youth. The exotic cigarettes from India and Southeast Asia, called “bidis,” are manufactured of tobacco wrapped in a leaf and tied with a string. For the U.S. market, cherry, root beer, vanilla, or other aromas are added.

After sampling the New Jersey young people, Mary Hrywna, M.P.H., and colleagues found that about 34 percent of high school kids and 12 percent of middle school students used any kind of tobacco. But, 9 percent of high school and 5 percent of the middle-schoolers said they used “bidis”.

Black high school students were more likely to smoke “bidis” than white students. In middle school, black and Hispanic students were more than twice as likely as whites to use them.

Bidis’ candy-like taste and a street reputation as “natural” products lead youth, especially minorities, to consider them safer than ordinary cigarettes.
The study showed young people who believed that “bidis” were safer were more likely to use them, as were users of other tobacco products.

But “bidis” deliver more nicotine than usual cigarettes, increasing the likelihood of addiction and raising the risk of cancers of the mouth, lungs, throat, stomach, esophagus and liver, say the researchers.

Because enforcement of laws governing tobacco sales to minors concentrates on cigarettes, products like snuff or “bidis” are easier to buy. Other researchers have discovered that “bidis” are often sold without tax stamps, suggesting they are imported illegally and thus can be sold more cheaply than usual tobacco products.

A complete approach to youth tobacco prevention and cessation campaigns should address other tobacco products as well as cigarettes. Those approaches should also pay attention to groups like black youth, who use “bidis”, cigarettes and cigars about equally.

Future study should try to understand just why young people are so attracted to “bidis”. Tobacco control efforts must also combat the illusion that they are not as bad as regular cigarettes. Public health messages aimed at youth must dispel the dangerous myth that other tobacco products like “bidis” and cigars are safer than usual cigarettes.

Information Provided by: Very Cheap Cigarettes

Cigarettes and Tobacco Online purchase.

At least four hundred sites on the World Wide Web offer cigarettes and tobacco without asking the age of customers. It should be noted that even the porn site owners interested in the age of buyers.

An interesting experiment was held by Kurt Ribisl in the University of North Carolina. Young volunteers were able to order cigarettes and tobacco products from the WWW. 83 attempts were taken, 92% of them were successful. Upon delivery of purchases, packages of cigarettes were often simply delivered to the customer's door.

Interesting fact, isn't it ?