Puffers fuming over planned ban

Sure, it may be legal, healthy, even inevitable, but to many smokers in South Boston’s Old Colony development, a ban on cigarettes is positively un-American.
“It’s against your rights,” said resident Wayne Pemberton, 58, as he puffed on a Marlboro at the entrance of his building. “I’ve been smoking for a long time and lived here too long. This is America. If I can’t smoke in my house, it’s wrong. This is a free world, I thought.”
The Boston Housing Authority plans to open more than 100 smoke-free public housing units in a rebuilt section of Old Colony slated for completion in 2012, in keeping with a vow by Mayor Thomas M. Menino to have entirely smoke-free public housing by 2014.
But Southie smokers have a message for the mayor: You can pry those cigarettes out of our cold, dead hands.
“I try to quit somewhat for my health,” Matthew Tilton, 21, told the Herald, leaning out of his building’s window after stubbing out a Newport. “But if they force it to, ‘If you’re gonna smoke, you can’t live here,’ then that’s not right.”
Yet, not all smokers were feeling the hate. Some ruefully embrace the ban.
“I’d go for a new unit,” said Veronica Szwanke, 27, of Old Colony where, she said, people chain-smoke in the hallways. “I’d quit if I had to,” the Newport smoker said.
Five-year resident and 13-year smoker Benito Diaz, 56, said he’d welcome the ban, too - for safety and olfactory reasons.
“Some people, they could smoke and fall asleep with the cigarette or something,” Diaz said. “It’s bad, and I don’t like the smell.”
But those concerns mean nothing to those defending what they regard as a fundamental right.
“They’re taking our freedom,” Tilton said. “You should be able to smoke in the house. If I’m paying an arm and a leg (for rent), I expect to smoke.”

Smuggled cigarettes and ammunition seized in Strazhitsa

Police have seized smuggled cigarettes and ammunition in Strazhitsa, the Regional Directorate of Interior Ministry of Veliko Tarnovo reported. On Friday the police carried out raid in two homes on the territory of the Regional Management of MI - Strazhitsa where found and seized: 2 g of cannabis, two amphetamine pills, 3 cartridges of Kalashnikov rifles, 4 cartridges with shot from the front, a cartridge 22 c., 8 - mm pistol and 11 boxes of cigarettes without excise labels.

Suspected heroin just tobacco at Columbia Point Marina

A specially packaged bundle of suspected heroin found in a bathroom at Columbia Point Marina turned out to be a block of chewing tobacco.
The package was found Tuesday when a maintenance worker bumped into the ventilation screen inside the bathroom, Richland police Capt. Mike Cobb said.
Officers initially thought the package had six, 1-ounce bindles of heroin and speculated it was left there for someone on a state Department of Corrections work crew to pick up, he said. 
About 90 seconds after it was found, a van of inmates from Coyote Ridge Corrections Center pulled into the marina for a break, Cobb said. The inmates had been picking up litter along Highway 240.
Further testing showed the package contained a block of chewing tobacco that has the same consistency and appearance of black tar heroin, Cobb said.
Investigators still have no proof the package was left for a Coyote Ridge work crew inmate, but Cobb suspects it was.
"Who else would treat that as contraband other than someone in the penal system?" Cobb said. "It's the only reasonable explanation I can think of."

Tobacco seized at city ferry port

CUSTOMS officials are investigating an alleged attempt to smuggle around 400 kilos of tobacco into Plymouth.
A 46-year-old man and a 71-year-old woman, both from the Durham area, were arrested at Plymouth ferry port on Saturday.
They were subsequently interviewed by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) investigators.
UK Border Agency officers say they uncovered the haul in a people-carrier vehicle disembarking a ferry from Roscoff, France.
The tobacco was enough to make 800,000 cigarettes.Both people have been released on police bail until January 26, 2010.
The case is being handled by HMRC criminal investigators and inquiries are ongoing.The revenue allegedly evaded is estimated at around £46,000.

Bill McKewin: The outrageous tax on tobacco

So there's a proposal in the Wisconsin State Senate to raise the liquor tax 50 cents per liter.
Wow! That's a drop in the shot glass compared to the tobacco tax that amounts to more than the product itself is worth. Of course, we're well aware of all the problems tobacco causes. Just ask the police, especially the overnight shift, how many tobacco related calls they answer and how many vehicle crashes were due to someone smoking too many cigarettes.
It's common knowledge, family violence and divorce are directly linked to tobacco misuse. There's no question, nursing homes are full of 80- and 90-year-old smokers collecting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Scientific evidence suggests that tobacco, not vehicle emissions and coal fired industrial plants, are causing severe environmental damage.
Destroyed friendships, impaired thinking, poor job performance and even termination - yup, not alcohol, that's all on tobacco. Vandalism, burglary, rape and murder, in many cases, could be prevented if people weren't messed up on tobacco. And how many tax dollars go to rehab centers treating tobacco addiction?
BUTT - Bureaucrats for Universal Tobacco Taxation - recommends taxing tobacco users to the point of cessation because they can no longer afford the product. That will cause the pool of tobacco users to shrink and, in turn, will cause a shortfall in tax revenue, which will have to be made up by increasing the tax on those remaining users.
Eventually, because of financial hardship, the pool of tobacco users will be reduced to a single smoker who will be responsible for all the revenue. Of course, with only one smoker left on earth, the egregious problems caused by tobacco will have been all but eliminated and the complaints will be a barely audible squawk in the night - ingenious!

Four million cigarettes uncovered

A Hungarian lorry driver has been arrested after more than four million cigarettes were found at Dover.
Customs officers who stopped a Hungarian-registered lorry at the Kent port on Thursday found an estimated £708,000 worth of cigarettes. 
The 35-year-old driver from Wekerle near Budapest, was arrested, questioned and bailed pending further inquiries. 
Bob Gaiger of HM Revenue & Customs said: "We take a very serious view of cigarette and tobacco smuggling."

Rome woman charged with using stolen credit cards

A 29-year-old Rome woman is facing several charges after she allegedly used a stolen credit card to purchase cigarettes at Walmart earlier this month, New Hartford police said. 
Scarlet Gies was charged Thursday with fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and second-degree forgery, both felonies, as well as misdemeanor petit larceny, Officer Shane Yoxall said. 
According to police, Gies entered the Walmart store in Consumer Square on Sept. 3 and attempted to purchase two carts of Newport cigarettes using three different credit cards, Yoxall said. Gies was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a baseball cap. 
After the first two credit cards were declined, Gies then used a third card to complete the transaction, Yoxall said. When Gies left the store, the Walmart employee followed Gies into the parking lot and wrote down her vehicle’s license plate number. The employee then reported the suspicious incident to New Hartford police.
Following a joint investigation by the New Hartford police, Rome police, and the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office, it was later determined that the credit card Gies used to buy the cigarettes had been stolen earlier that day from a vehicle in the outer district of Rome, Yoxall said. 
Gies was arraigned and released, and she is due to appear in New Hartford Town Court on Oct. 1 to answer the charges.

Campus smoking ban eliminates student rights

Another smoking ban? Here we go again. Enough is enough. First came taxes, then came designated areas, and now here comes Bellarmine University with a smoking ban.
Nobody in their right mind denies the risks of smoking tobacco products. Smoking cigarettes undoubtedly causes lung cancer and other health problems. For this reason, I absolutely agree that this health risk should be combated with the full force of education. 
In the same vein, secondhand smoke absolutely remains a considerable health risk for non-smokers. Given the risk of second-hand smoke, designated areas for smoking makes sense for the protection of non-smokers. But a campus-wide smoking ban is frankly ridiculous.
Are we supposed to believe that non-smokers do not have the sense to protect their own health by staying away from non-smoking areas? Do they have the sense to come out of the rain? 
A campus-wide smoking ban takes a good idea and makes it oppressive. Smokers make up 25% of the population, which is the quarter of the American people whose rights no longer seem to be of any importance to the remaining 75% of our society*.
Already society regulates smokers to separate areas, and taxes them an arm and a leg for their cigarettes. Society has done enough to stop the effects of smoking. Now is the time to draw the line. 
Smoking 15 feet away from the exits of all Bellarmine buildings does no one any harm except the smokers themselves. 
When it comes to smokers' health as far as the University is concerned, if they are over 18 that is their business. To ban smoking from the entire campus implies the act of smoking is sinful. 
Smoking cigarettes hurts health, but give me a break. We live in a society founded on the basis of individual rights. 
The ability to smoke cigarettes is not a privilege it is a right. Citizens have the right to choose whether they want to smoke or not, and the University should not interfere so long as no innocents are hurt. The ban is excessive and I disagree with the University's decision to enact it.

How Do Electronic Cigarettes Compare To The Real Thing?

Most resistance from smokers of regular tobacco-based cigarettes comes from the fact they believe the so-called smoke-less, or electronic cigarettes, won't taste the same. Truth is, the electronic cigarettes have been designed to be a real alternative, both in taste and feel, to a regular cigarette while instantly providing the smoker with the same degree of nicotine they expect with each drag.
Smoking an electronic cigarette involves a slightly different technique, similar to that of pipe smoking. Once the smoker takes a drag, nicotine is released directly into a mist and the sensation of it hitting the lungs is virtually identical to it's tobacco based counterpart. Nicotine, on average, reaches the lungs within five to ten seconds.
Afterward, smokers of the electronic cigarette typically don't complain of the soreness that typically accompanies smoking a regular cigarette, although some do experience a slight dryness from the propylene glycol; but this quickly passes. 
Some manufacturers of the electronic cigarette have striven to mimic traditional brands of regular tobacco based cigarettes. The NJOY electronic cigarette, for example, comes in four strengths, zero (no nicotine) through strong (Marlboro) as well as flavored brands including menthol, apple or strawberry.
Another big difference between tobacco and electronic cigarettes is price. To get started, a starter kit is priced at about $110. A replacement (rechargeable) battery runs about $15, and the nicotine cartridges cost $25 for a set of five. Each set is equivalent to about two packs of cigarettes. Dollar for dollar, the electronic cigarette is actually cheaper than their unhealthy counterparts over time.
Most users polled the electronic cigarette is as close to the real things by as much as 90-95%. The vapor actually looks like smoke but is made up of water and other ingredients generally regarded as safe. The cartridges contain no tobacco nor do they produce tobacco smoke or smoke of any kind.
Another pleasant difference between electronic cigarettes and tobacco cigarettes is the incredible strength of the smell of stale tobacco given off by smokers. The smell permeates clothes, cars, carpets and drapes. This vanishes completely with electronic cigarettes, since there is no actual fire or burning tobacco. You're not inhaling (nor exhaling) all the oxidized compounds, therefore there's nothing left to cause an odor.
The downside in all of this, as if there were any, is the electronic cigarette will more than likely ruin the smoker's desire to return to typical tobacco based products. After using the smokeless electronic cigarette, taste buds regenerate. After a few months, if an electronic smoker picks up a regular cigarette it will more than likely taste vile. 
An added benefit is the ability for the electronic smoker to smoke in virtually any place or environment. Pubs, Clubs, restaurants, theaters and airplanes, places which have banned cigarette smoke for decades are completely legal for electronic smokers since the e-cigarette produces no illegal by-products, and therefore no secondhand smoke.