Tobacco earnings projection revised

This year's tobacco sales will earn farmers much lower than earlier estimated, with a shortfall of up to US$30 million, Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) has said ahead of the closing of the market this month end.

In an interview with the press in Mangochi on Monday, TCC Chief Executive Officer Bruce Munthali disclosed that the development is due to lower prices than expected towards the end of this year's market, although the prices are relatively higher than before.

"We have revised the earnings; we will not realise the US$300 million as we projected earlier. The market will be getting about US$270 million, but indications are that we might get up to US$280 million looking at how the market is performing," said Munthali.

During a similar period last year, the market realised about US$410 million at a unit price of US$190 dollars per kilogram from the same volumes, according to TCC.

The market is yet to sell the remaining 15 million kilograms which Munthali said could be finished by 30 November as President Bingu wa Muthalika is said to have issued a directive that all the tobacco on the market should be sold either by the traditional buyers or government.

TCC chairperson Gamaliel Bandawe, in a separate interview, said this year's sales low earnings have not just affected the farmers but they have affected other markets that benefit from tobacco.

"Farmers have not bought items as they used to do during the market season and that for sure has affected the economy at large," said Gamaliel.

However, the TCC CEO said the issue of poor tobacco prices has not affected the Malawi market only as other neighbouring countries have witnessed the worst prices as evidenced by the influx of tobacco volumes from there.

The tobacco farmers are expected to produce a maximum of 160 kilograms of burley and a maximum of 25 million kilograms for the next season, as TCC expects better prices due to production as required by the demand.

Tobacco's beneficial uses give farmers hope

Warning: The subject of this exploration will constrict your blood vessels, choke your windpipe and dispatch you to an early grave, 5 million of you a year. The most lucrative crop the Americas have ever seen, it kept the British at bay, kept the enslaved entrapped, kept Hollywood sexy. Until it didn't anymore.

Stipulation: Deep bows to the great public health triumph of wrestling Big Tobacco to the mat and changing human behavior. Never before were millions persuaded to give up a highly pleasurable, relatively cheap habit because it was bad for them. And never since.

But: Tobacco itself refuses to die. It's stubborn. It's meant to grow here. The seeds are tiny as a flea and germinate like crazy. In less than a month, you can have a robust green crop that's good for much more than smoking. You can grow vaccines in it. Extract protein from it. Make drugs from it.

Ten years after Maryland became the only state to use its tobacco settlement money to pay hundreds of farmers to quit growing the evil sot-weed, it's turning out that tobacco has redemptive virtues. Nobody needed to bother exploiting them before; the stuff was so fabulously successful for 400 years as a vice. Even nicotine, the natural and highly addictive chemical in tobacco, has its benefits.

People smoked in part because a cigarette could calm you down and pep you up. Now research studies are exploring exactly how nicotine may safely halt cognitive decline and help those with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, depression, schizophrenia and attention problems. The pure nicotine in the smoking cessation patch used in these studies is extracted from an American product that American farmers know how to grow.

If you drive around Southern Maryland, you can still spy it. Amid the corn mazes and alpaca petting opportunities, the pick-your-own peppers and the thick crop of McMansions, there'll be a couple acres of plants that look like soldiers — upright, sturdy, tall as a man, with bushy leaves bigger than the blade on a ceiling fan.

You'll come upon a weathered barn, with some of its boards missing. But on closer examination, you'll see the slats are opened with a precise symmetry. They let in the air that cures the tobacco hung on its stalks up in the rafters.

Inside the barn, the sheaves, as it has been said, feel like velvet and smell like money.

Today's Featured Tobacco Winner

Lorillard Inc (LO) pushed the Tobacco industry higher today making it today's featured tobacco winner. The industry as a whole closed the day down 0.5%. By the end of trading, Lorillard Inc rose 73 cents (0.7%) to $108.69 on light volume. Throughout the day, 909,219 shares of Lorillard Inc exchanged hands as compared to its average daily volume of 1.8 million shares. The stock ranged in a price between $106.64-$109.51 after having opened the day at $107.23 as compared to the previous trading day's close of $107.96. Other companies within the Tobacco industry that increased today were: Star Scientific Inc (CIGX), up 1.7% and Vector Group (VGR), up 1.6%.

Lorillard, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of cigarettes in the United States. The company offers 43 different product offerings under the Newport, Kent, True, Maverick, and Old Gold brand names. Lorillard, Inc. Lorillard Inc has a market cap of $14.64 billion and is part of the consumer goods sector. The company has a P/E ratio of 14.6, equal to the average tobacco industry P/E ratio and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Shares are up 31.6% year to date as of the close of trading on Tuesday.

TheStreet Ratings rates Lorillard as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, growth in earnings per share, revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and expanding profit margins. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income.

Conn's Blumenthal praises smokeless tobacco rules

Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is praising baseball's new labor deal that will limit players' use of smokeless tobacco.

The agreement does not ban smokeless tobacco during games, but players agreed not to carry tobacco packages and tins in their back pockets when fans are allowed in in the ballpark. They've also agreed not to use smokeless tobacco during pregame or postgame interviews, and at team functions.
Blumenthal was among four senators who urged the union to adopt a ban.
Blumenthal said Tuesday that the decision "is a step toward putting MLB on the right side of history and public health."

He said professional baseball players should be positive role models and not celebrity endorsers of what he calls "an addictive product that kills."

WHO Applauds Australia's New Tobacco Packaging Legislation

"Australia has every reason to be proud of this historic accomplishment," says Dr Shin Young-soo, the World Health Organization's Regional Director for the Western Pacific. "The legislation sets a new global standard for the control of a product that accounts for nearly 6 million deaths each year. It also reinforces Australia's compliance with its obligations under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the guidelines to which encourage countries to restrict or ban the use of logos, colours and brand images. The legislation will save lives, and it solidifies Australia's well-deserved reputation as a leader in tobacco control. All countries and areas in the Western Pacific Region should follow Australia's good example."

Australia's Parliament passed the legislation on 21 November 2011. Beginning on 1 December 2012, all tobacco products sold in Australia will have to be in the same standard dark brown packaging with matte finish.

Tobacco giant Philip Morris International has threatened to sue Australia to prevent the country from implementing the plain packaging legislation.

"It's typical of the tobacco industry to respond aggressively with lawsuits and threats of lawsuits whenever a new tobacco control measure, evidence-based and protective of the public's health, threatens to reduce its profits," Dr Shin says. "We urge the industry to accept the judgment of Australia's Parliament."

Tobacco use is one of the leading causes of preventable death. In the World Health Organization Western Pacific Region, it is estimated that two people die every minute from a tobacco-related disease. Of the world's cigarettes, one in three is smoked in the Region.

On World No Tobacco Day 2011 (31 May), WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan bestowed a special award to Australian Health and Ageing Minister Nicola Roxon for her tireless leadership in tobacco control, in particular her efforts to make plain packaging for tobacco products a reality in Australia. Dr Chan has chosen "tobacco industry interference" as the theme of World No Tobacco Day 2012.

Cigarette Smoking Leads to Coke?

Cigarette smokers may be more inclined to crave cocaine, according to a study published this week (November 2) in Science Translational Medicine, which found that the nicotine can result in gene regulation changes that boost the response of mouse brains to the drug.

Scientists have long recognized the trend that drug users tend to start with cigarettes and alcohol before moving on to harder drugs, thus tagging the legal substances with the label “gateway drugs.” But there was no mechanism to explain the trend, and the idea has been a continued source of controversy.

In the current study, epidemiologist Denise Kandel at Columbia University, New York, who originally reported on the “gateway drug” idea in 1975, and her husband Eric, a Nobel Prize-winning neurobiologist who spoke with The Scientist just last month about his research, teamed up with other colleagues to see if there was a molecular basis for the theory. The researchers found that mice first treated with nicotine showed enhanced addiction-related behaviors in response to cocaine—specifically, they were 78 percent more likely to go to locations where they had received cocaine previously and 98 percent more active overall. “We found that nicotine works on the DNA-packaging system, known as chromatin,” lead author Amir Levine of Columbia told Nature, resulting in the increased expression of drug-addiction-related gene called FosB.

The researchers also analyzed epidemiological data of 1,160 high school students and found that most cocaine users begin using coke after they start smoking, and that smoking increased the risk of addiction to the drug.

“This paper is exciting because it is one of the first well-defined characterizations of gene priming by a drug,” neurobiologist Alfred Robison of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York told Nature.

Excise Tax on Cigarettes in Albania Could Be Raised to Curb Smoking

The excise tax on cigarettes in Albania could be raised by 20 Leks per pack from currently 70 Leks to 90 Leks per pack in 2012, daily Standard reports citing sources from Albania’s Ministry of Finances. The draft is being completed and will soon go to Parliament for voting.

The increase of the excise tax is seen by authorities as a preventive measure to keep people away from smoking. It is estimated that around 40% of Albanians smoke regularly.

Muhammadiyah: No Smoking Area is a Must

Jakarta Provincial Government commitment in enforcing law in no smoking area (KDM) received support from many sides. One of them is from Muhammadiyah which is now applying no smoking area in all Muhammadiyah area. Therefore, all Muhammadiyah offices, from charitable institution, schools, and official forums of this institution are free from cigarettes.

“If residents start aware of the health importance, so residents’ life quality will increase,” stated Syafiq A Mughni, Head of PP Muhammadiyah of Health Sector, during Launching No Smoking Area National in All Facilities Environment and Muhammadiyah Forum, in Muhammadiyah Central Building, Jakarta, Monday (11/14).

He explained this policy is relevant with Act No.36/2009 about health development which aims to improve awareness, desire and society healthy life as an investment for human resources. “This is as form of Muhammadiyah seriousness in supporting healthy life movement,” he told.

He urged that Muhammadiyah people especially to apply healthy lifestyle by not smoking because this smoking lifestyle affects much towards socio-economy society. “Based on Survey socio-economy BPS shown, cigarette consumption is at the second position after rice. This is clearly concerning, because many other necessities that more important than cigarettes and better,” he added.

He explained that recently, Muhammadiyah has 500 healthcare facilities such as hospital or clinic, 15,000 schools from kindergarten up to Senior High School, 200 high education institutions and 350 social institutions in Indonesia. Therefore, Muhammadiyah people as well as non Muhammadiyah must obey the rules in Muhammadiyah buildings.

Head of Jakarta Health Department, Dien Emawati added that Jakarta Provincial Government continuously commits to realize Jakarta towards smoke free, among them is Governor Regulation No. 75/2005 about No Smoking Area and Bylaw No. 2 /2005 about Air Pollution Handling. In Governor Regulation No. 75/2005, several areas are set as smoke free area such as public area, healthcare facility, teaching-learning area (school), kid’s activity area, worship area and public transport.

This is strengthened with the Governor Regulation No.88/2010 mentioned that, smoking room inside building is abolished. Thus, the smoker must do smoke outside building. Moreover, Jakarta Provincial Government has also held socialization about Governor Regulation No. 88/2010.

Meanwhile, based on the data of smoking prevalence from Demographic Institute of Indonesia University stated that the number of smokers in Jakarta is increasing. Every year, it can increase about 1 percent or more. In 2001, the number of smokers in Jakarta reached 27.7 percent. It is increased into 31.2 percent in 2004. From this number shows female smokers increased. Then, it is increased again in 2008 into 35 percent from population of 9.057 million people and female smokers reached 8 percent from the total of active smoker.

From the result of this research, from 25 types of household expenditure, in fact expenditure for cigarette is ranked in the second position after rice expenditure which ranked in the first position. Evidently, four out of ten poor households have highest in cigarette expenditure than rich household category.

As for the average number of smoker household expenditures is reached Rp 113 thousand per month in distributing cigarette. It is higher than the direct cash assistance (BLT) which given to give subsidy for poor household amounting to Rp 100 thousand per month.

Cigotine Holds Cigarette Butt Cleanup at Occupy Wall Street

"Cigotine supports the 99%," said Steve Bayonne, President, Cigotine LLC, in reference to the predominant Occupy Wall Street slogan. "We know that a demonstration of this magnitude is an incredible test of will and character. We wanted to do our part to make the conditions better for those who are standing up for what they believe in."
Throughout the day, volunteers of the "Cigotine Clean-Up Crew" walked through Zuccotti Park where the demonstration is held, picking up cigarette butts and speaking with the protesters.
"More than a month later, the protesters' passion is undeniable," said Bayonne. "But after so much time, with so many inhabitants, the park is understandably cluttered and messy. We hope that our cleanup efforts and distribution of GO disposables made a positive difference in the surroundings."
While performing the cleanup, the team also distributed free Cigotine GO disposable e-cigarettes to smokers, in hopes of getting them to refrain from using traditional cigarettes in the public park, which is illegal throughout New York City. The GO disposable is a one-time use product that lasts for approximately the equivalent of 1-2 packs of traditional cigarettes. Once finished, it can easily be disposed without mess, or risk of fire, odor or other negative effects.
"This protest is about doing what's right," Bayonne added. "Cigarettes are banned in public parks, and of course, littering is never encouraged. By using the GO instead of a regular cigarette, smokers will not only improve the demonstration environment, but they'll also be able to satisfy their cravings within the confines of the law."
Cigotine's proprietary design and function offers the same tactile experience as traditional cigarettes, but does not need to be burned, and does not give off ash, smoke or residual odor that could harm other protesters or make them uncomfortable.
Nationwide, users have begun using Cigotine smoking devices in places where tobacco products are not allowed, and as a full-time alternative to traditional cigarettes.

Supplier, Distributors Charged In Marijuana Ring

Thomasville officers, along with NC ALE agents and Davidson County Sheriff's Deputies, arrested 5 people involved in a marijuana distribution ring, on November 3rd.

After obtaining search warrants, officers searched a residence on Carolina Avenue and found over 12 ounces of marijuana.

The homeowner, Chad Keever, was charged with possession with intent to sell and distribute marijuana, maintaining a dwelling to keep controlled substances and possession of marijuana.

Further investigation led officers to a residence on Walker Road, just miles down the road, where marijuana was found packaged for the purpose of sale.

In this incident, Vickie and Randy Freeman were charged with possession with intent to sell and distribute marijuana, maintaining a dwelling to keep controlled substances and possession of marijuana.

A third search warrant was executed for another residence on Walker Avenue, just houses away. The homeowners, Tyler Freeman and Cynthia Watts, were charged after over 12 ounces of marijuana were found in the house.

Freeman is the son of the couple charged with marijuana possesion in the previous Walker Road residence.

Tyler Freeman and Cynthia Watts were charged with possession with intent to sell and distribute marijuana, maintaining a dwelling to keep controlled substances and possession of marijuana.

This investigation was conducted based on complaints from the community.

The ALE Special Agent In-Charge said it is always outstanding when law enforcement can locate the main source and supplier of the controlled substances; this was a team effort to improve the quality of life for the community.

Smoke shop to open next week despite Tobacco Tax Act

A Dakota First Nation VLT lounge and smoke shop will open Wednesday in southwestern Manitoba, confirmed Canupawakpa Chief Frank Brown -- with or without the VLTs.
"We're going to go with what is there on the 9th," Brown said Friday. "They're expected to come before then, but they may not be. We're crossing our fingers that they will be."
Brown and members of the non-treaty Dakota First Nation plan to sell Mohawk cigarettes at a shop located on the site of a former general store near Pipestone, about 100 kilometres southwest of Brandon.
The Mohawk cigarettes would be sold at approximately one-third the total cost of a provincially taxed cigarette, with taxes collected on behalf of the Dakota First Nation, not the province.
The smoke shop is to be combined with a temporary casino establishment that Brown says will help fund the construction of a permanent casino at Oak Island Resort in Oak Lake.
Once up and running, Brown said the gaming lounge will eventually hold between 75 and 100 VLTs, which have been purchased from the United States.
Brown had to postpone the original Nov. 1 opening date, citing a delay in finalizing its First Nation-created gaming licence and tobacco sales regulations, and a "minor" detail that needed to be worked out with the Mohawk nation, though he wouldn't provide specific details.
Brown confirmed Friday that both operations will open together next Wednesday at noon in the same building, and invited the public to attend.
"It's open to whoever wants to come," Brown said.
"It's an open invitation."
To mark the event, he has also sent invitations to several federal and provincial ministers, including Dave Chomiak, Manitoba's minister responsible for gaming.
The provincial government has maintained that the Tobacco Tax Act applies province-wide -- including on First Nations -- and prohibits the sale of non-Manitoba-marked tobacco products.
Three Manitoba Dakota First Nations -- Sioux Valley, Dakota Plains and Canupawakpa -- filed a comprehensive claim in federal court in 2009 against the federal government, alleging the Dakota were wrongly labelled as refugees in Canada.

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Tobacco smuggling into Japan surges after disaster

Tobacco smuggling into Japan surged in the April-June period as domestic stocks ran short after the March 11 disaster, with around 300,000 illegally imported cigarettes seized by authorities, a roughly 8.7-fold increase from a year earlier, the Finance Ministry said Monday.

Many cases involved individuals hiding tobacco inside their suitcases, while Tokyo Customs detected a group in May which attempted to smuggle some 30,000 cigarettes from the Philippines, according to the ministry.

The ministry also reported 4,226 businesses failed to declare a total of 193.3 billion yen of tariffs and consumption tax imposed on imported goods in the year from July 2010 through June this year, leading the authorities to impose some 13.5 billion yen of back tax.