CHARLESTON — Health advocates and industry leaders lined up Wednesday to both praise and denounce an attempt to impose huge taxes on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. A packed House chamber lent itself to a hearing on HB2973, which would elevate the tax on cigarettes from 55 cents to $1.55 per pack. Spit tobacco would jump from 7 percent of the wholesale price to 50 percent. One in four West Virginians lights up regularly, and 22 percent of hi ... Jump to full article >>

ALBANY — The proposed state budget assumes the state will collect $130 million in excise taxes on cigarettes sold by Indian retailers, making Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo the fifth governor vowing to end tax-free tobacco sales. The governor hasn’t specified how or when he might try to begin collecting the tax, and leaders of the Seneca Nation quickly vowed to fight any state effort. “This is nothing new, and nothing has changed,” ... Jump to full article >>

OTTAWA — Most young Canadian smokers are “very familiar” with black-market cigarettes and many even support their sale. And they’re deeply skeptical of government assertions that contraband cigarettes are linked to organized crime. So says research commissioned last year by the Canada Revenue Agency in advance of a planned $5-million advertising campaign designed to educate the public and raise awareness of the problem. The agency hired ... Jump to full article >>

A narrowly divided state Supreme Court has voided a 4-year-old city ordinance that was designed to curtail the use of cigars, cigarettes, rolling papers and other tobacco products as vehicles for marijuana and other illegal drugs, the court announced Thursday. The state’s high court ruled 4-3 that the ordinance, sponsored by Councilman Brian O’Neill, was inconsistent with state law regulating tobacco products and drug paraphernalia. ... Jump to full article >>

Seven men were arrested after 8m counterfeit cigarettes were seized near the border in Co Armagh. The cigarettes, which are worth an estimated €2.85m, were discovered hidden in a shipment of under-floor heating pipes. Five of the men arrested are from Co Louth, one is from Co Limerick and the other is from Co Armagh. The cigarettes are thought to have originated in China. They were found inside a 40ft container in Forkhill when commercial prem ... Jump to full article >>

A national study of state tobacco taxes, released Thursday, found that a lower rate on smokeless products could encourage users to switch from cigarettes. According to the National Center for Policy Analysis, six states — Iowa, Maine, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming — have a higher tax on smokeless tobacco than cigarettes. In North Carolina, smokeless tobacco is taxed at 10 percent of the wholesale price of a product. By comparison, t ... Jump to full article >>

INDIANAPOLIS – A House committee plans to exempt casinos from a bill imposing a statewide smoking ban after an analyst said the state could lose nearly $200 million annually if customers can’t smoke at gambling venues. The Health Committee took more than two hours of testimony on House Bill 1018 and then delayed a vote to next week. But Chairman Tim Brown, R-Crawfordsville, said the bill won’t move forward unless the casino exemption is ad ... Jump to full article >>

We’re all for raising the tax on cigarettes by $1 a pack. In our view, anything that makes cigarettes more expensive accomplishes the goal of keeping people — young people, especially — from taking up the habit. And as cigarettes become more of a drain on their daily finances, more and more smokers decide to give it up. Often, cost is the last straw that pushes longtime smokers to finally accomplish what they had procrastinated doing for m ... Jump to full article >>

It’s a sad indication of the North Dakota Legislature’s indifference to public health that a tobacco prevention coalition won’t even try to raise the state’s low tobacco tax in the upcoming session. It’s a sad indication of the North Dakota Legislature’s indifference to public health that a tobacco prevention coalition won’t even try to raise the state’s low tobacco tax in the upcoming session. North Dakota’s Center for Tobac ... Jump to full article >>

Smokers are to be given free nicotine patches on the NHS. They will be handed out by surgeries and pharmacies as part of a £250 million Government drive to help people kick the habit. The patches give smokers a gradual release of nicotine through the skin enabling them to get their ‘fix’ without the cancer-causing substances such as tar and carbon monoxide found in cigarettes. As people become less addicted, they gradually use less ... Jump to full article >>