TONY Abbott has refused to back Kevin Rudd’s $5 billion tobacco crackdown – a push to ban brand logos from cigarette packs and increase tax by more than $2 a packet – arguing it is just a ”panic tax” by a government addicted to spending. Smokers were hit with a tax rise of 25 per cent from midnight yesterday, as outraged tobacco firms threatened to fight the plan in the courts and seek compensation, and retailers cr ... Jump to full article >>

Kadima MK Yoel Hasson tabled a private member’s bill on Monday that, if passed, would be the world’s first law barring the sale of tobacco products containing addictive substances such as nicotine, or other substances, such as menthol and ammonia, that make nicotine more addictive, The Jerusalem Post has learned. If tobacco were not addictive, the smoking rate would quickly decline (from the present 23 percent). People already addicted to ni ... Jump to full article >>