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More than a third of businesses that officials recently checked in southwest North Dakota sold discount cigarette online to minors, according to information released by the Southwestern District Health Unit on Friday.“We were very, very surprised when we saw the results,” said Tammy Hovet, Tobacco Prevention and Control project coordinator for SWDHU.Twenty-two of 63 businesses checked in eight counties sold online cigarettes to minors in September and October, she said. The data shows a sharp spike in illegal sales, since a check of 65 businesses in the same counties in June turned up...
There is a certain irony to it, some have said.Smokers in Alexandria will have to leave local discount cigarettes stores to light up the products they just bought there.At least 25 feet from the stores to be exact, starting Jan. 1 after the Alexandria City Council passed an ordinance Oct. 4 banning smoking cigarettes in businesses previously exempt from state and local smoking cigarettes bans, including bars and buy cigarettes stores.And some tobacco users are not happy."They think the City Council way overstepped their boundaries," said Vonne Neal, owner of Alexandria's Smoke Shop." With...
All of Southern University’s campuses will ban cigarettes store starting in January, the Southern Board of Supervisors decided.The move makes Southern the first college system in Louisiana to ban all cigarettes products. Nicholls State University became the first public college in Louisiana to become tobacco free at the beginning of this calendar year.Southern University System President Ronald Mason Jr. said the new policy is about promoting healthy lifestyles and setting a quality standard for all of higher education.“We’re going to look at it as the beginning of a cultural...
Little cigars, which are taking increasing space on area tobacco-shop shelves, are shaped and smoked just like cigarettes. But because New Jersey taxes them differently, they cost nearly one-third the price.Over the past several years, increased state and federal taxes have helped turn some smokers on to less-taxed cigarettes store products, local shop owners and anti-smoking cigarettes groups say.New Jersey has a $2.70 tax per cigarette pack, and the federal government has a $1.01 excise tax it enacted two years ago.That sixth-highest cigarette tax in the country may entice more smokers to...
Quitting smoking cigarettes just got a little easier. For a limited time, the California Smokers' Helpline is sending callers from Nevada County free nicotine patches. Eligible cigarettes store users who call 1-800-NO-BUTTS and enroll in the free telephone-based cessation program will receive a free two-week starter kit of patches, while supplies last.The patches are an FDA-approved treatment proven to help smokers kick the habit. They release nicotine into the bloodstream through the skin, reducing withdrawal symptoms and slowly weaning smokers off nicotine. Nevada County was one of 34...
Ohioans agreed in 2006 that smoking cigarettes indoors is a threat to public health and voted to ban it in public places.
While most businesses are complying with the law, those that don't are doing so largely without consequences. Of $2.2 million levied in smoking cigarettes-ban fines since enforcement began in May 2007, only about $700,000 has been collected.
Last year, three-quarters of the fines assessed went uncollected.
Beside the unfairness of scofflaws going unpunished, the lack of collection likely feeds a downward spiral of weak enforcement, because 90 percent of that uncollected fine money would be going to local health departments' enforcement efforts.
When the Ohio Department of Health receives an allegation from a local department that a business has violated the smoking cigarettes ban, it sends out an invoice for the applicable fine. If no one pays it in 45 days, it is referred to the attorney general's office. If the business doesn't pay through the attorney general's office, the case might be referred to a special counsel. Of more than 2,300 citations, 339 have been referred.
Clearly, if the smoking cigarettes ban is to be enforced, the state needs to put some teeth in it.
One avenue seems obvious: Virtually every violator is a bar or restaurant or other holder of a liquor license, available only through the state.
Perhaps the health department could report smoking cigarettes-ban violations to the Division of Liquor Control, and license holders could be required to pay any outstanding fines before a license can be renewed. Whether an establishment respects the law of the state regarding indoor smoking cigarettes should be as important in awarding liquor licenses as other important considerations, such as whether the establishment is a good neighbor or a nuisance.
Encumbering its liquor license might make the smoking cigarettes ban look a lot more important to places such as The Wing House, which has been assessed $13,100 in fines in six citations, and has paid only $170.
Some other action might be a better enforcement tool, but state officials should start looking for something.
Meaningful penalties for blowing off smoking cigarettes-ban fines probably would require law changes. Legislators should consult with those in the field - local and state health departments and the attorney general's office, and perhaps some bar owners who are committed to complying - to learn what would work best.
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