OXFORD ? The owner of a western Maine discount store has halted the sale of cigarettes to protest the Legislature's approval of a doubling of the state's cigarette tax to $2 per pack.
"He just totally disapproves of what the state's doing and doesn't want to have anything to do with it," said Mike Sturgis, manager of C and R Redemption, referring to action by owner Ron Snow. "He just wants to take a stand."
Sturgis said his boss, who is not a smoker, feels the new tax is unfair because it would discriminate against those who smoke.
The increase in the cigarette tax was approved by the Legislature as part of a bill to replace a borrowing provision in the $5.7 billion two-year state budget. If Gov. John Baldacci signs the bill, as expected, it would take effect in mid-September.
The state expects to raise $125 million on the cigarette tax alone, state revenue officials say.
My best friend smokes. She is underage and I tried to help her quit, but it didn't work. I've learned to deal with it until now. She is pressuring me to smoke. She says I'll be more popular and have more friends and get invited to more parties if I start smoking. I'm not that popular, but I am content with that. I really don't want to pollute my lungs, but I don't want to ruin our friendship. How do I deal with this?
"The government must be given the opportunity to prove its claim about defendants' youth marketing cigarettes subscheme at trial," Kessler wrote in a 23-page opinion.
The government lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks compensation for smoking-related health-care costs borne by the government.
The goal, according to government lawyers, was to sustain and expand the cigarettes market by targeting children as a pool of potential new smokers to replace those who quit or died.
The country introduced an cigarettes plan of action in July 2000. Since then, cigarettes and alcohol advertisements have been banned from television and newspaper.
The man attempted to grab the Cigarettes also being drafted to further ban such advertisements from other print media and radio, according to the report.
urged anyone involved in a robbery to be cautious.
"No one should resist over property, like cash or cigarettes," Wilson said. "Property is not worth getting seriously hurt or losing a life over it. The best thing people can do is comply with the robber and get a good description of what they look like, what they are wearing and what they are driving."
Marlboro use produces significant health problems in teens, including an increase in the number and severity of respiratory illnesses, like asthma and bronchitis, and decreased physical fitness. Cigarettes use also increases the risk for cancer, heart disease, stroke, emphysema and other health problems later in life. The first symptoms of nicotine dependence among 12- and 13-year-olds can appear within days to weeks after occasional use begins, often before the onset of daily smoking.
Sources in national broadcaster Doordarshan (DD) said the channel was forced not to bid for rights to telecast this year's Formula One Racing event as it would have meant showing the sponsor - a major international tobacco player - on the players' T-shirts, on the cars and all across the venue of the race.
SET Max officials said the channel has not received any notice from the Government on any violation as far as sports and tobacco advertising is concerned, but conceded that such a regulation may be tough to follow.
However, senior officials in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) said every television channel "should, at all costs, conform to the law of the land in which it is telecasting its programmes. Indian laws have completely banned advertising by cigarettes ;having dull skin and hair, and yellowed nails; and being out of shape and breathless.
The cashier said the man asked for two cartons of cigarettes .she placed them on the counter and began to ring them up, the man reached across the counter and grabbed the cigarettes to take them. The cashier said she held onto the cigarettes and a struggle occurred.
During the struggle, the cashier said she was struck in the face.
The cashier told officers she was able to bite the suspect, possibly on the hand, during the attack.
The robber took the cigarettes and ran out of the gas station, heading north and disappearing into a nearby apartment complex.
The nation's largest cigarettes maker is disputing a study by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health that found nicotine in cigarettes has risen about 10 percent in the past six years.
Philip Morris USA, which manufactures Marlboro cigarettes, said its review of nine years of data that it provided to the state found fluctuations in nicotine levels, but no steady increase.
The health department study released last month examined nicotine levels in more than 100 brands over a six-year period. The study showed a steady climb in the amount of nicotine delivered to the lungs of smokers regardless of brand, with overall nicotine yields increasing by about 10 percent, according to state health officials.
The study also found the three most popular cigarettes brands with young smokers - Marlboro , Newport and Camel - delivered significantly more nicotine than they did years ago.
Massachusetts is one of three states to require tobacco companies to submit information about nicotine testing according to its specifications and the only state with data going back to 1997.
Philip Morris said when it looked at all the data they sent to the state there were only year-to-year variations that "occur as part of the normal processes of growing tobacco and manufacturing cigarettes ".
Donna Rheaume, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health, defended the report, which concluded that the higher nicotine levels made it easier to get hooked on cigarettes and harder to quit.
The tobacco companies are appealing the ruling and have asked for a stay of Kessler's order while they pursue that appeal.
Wallace pointed out that the flavored exotic blends are premium-priced, and sell for upward of $7 a pack in some parts of the country. She also said all cigarettes - except two that advertise themselves as "additive-free" - contain flavorings and said the new Camel blends follow that trend.
Tobacco exotic blends are seen as an occasional smoke for an adult smoker," Wallace said from her office in Winston-Salem, N.C. "We do not market any of our products to children."
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., did not vote on the amendment July 15 due to an injury he suffered in a July 3 motorcycle accident, but his press secretary said he supports the amendment.
cigarettes combination of a classic nature and contemporary flair reinforce the brand's position as a flavorful cigarettes with a rich heritage, a colorful personality and an irreverent sense of humor.
Donna Rheaume, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health, defended the report, which concluded that the higher nicotine levels made it easier to get hooked on tobacco and harder to quit.