Roll-Your-Own Cigarette Shop Operations Halted

Just when Port's Smoke Shack owner Corey Judson thought all would return to normal with his Roll-Your-Own cigarette shop, a court decision again put the brakes on his operation. After getting word on Aug. 17 that pending legal action would allow him to operate without manufacturers' license — a requirement created under a law passed in July as part of the federal transportation bill, one that RYO stores hired attorneys and created a petition to overturn — Judson said he had his store ready to start operating RYO machines by Aug. 20. But on Aug. 20, Judson learned that the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on a different case from 2010 that again classified RYO cigarette shops as manufacturers, and that he would now have until Aug. 27 to stop operating his machines without that license.

"We find that the Highway Act mooted the underlying controversy with regard to roll-your-own tobacco," judges wrote in their ruling. Requiring RYO cigarette shops to have manufacturer licensing means they are required to pay the same taxes and obtain the same permits as big-name tobacco manufacturers to continue allowing customers to use rolling machines on the premises. Judson said that means the carton of 200 self-rolled cigarettes that did cost $33.50 would have a $22.50 tax applied to it. Judson said a group of RYO stores in Wisconsin planned to have a conference call with attorneys Monday afternoon to make a plan to continue fighting the change.

The first time Judson's operations were halted, he came up with a temporary means to helping his business survive: selling RYO machines for $85 each that people can use in their homes; in the first week of that plan, he sold out of his six machines. He also sells roll-your-own supplies, candles and a few other miscellaneous items.

EU Probes Cigarette Deal That May Have Aided Syria

The European Union is investigating whether its Syrian sanctions were violated by the sale of cigarettes to a firm linked to cousins of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to corporate documents seen by The Wall Street Journal. The sale by a Switzerland-based unit of Japan Tobacco Inc. 2914.TO +0.30% in May 2011 went to a firm then at least partly owned by the Makhlouf family, according to the documents. The Makhloufs, first cousins of Mr. Assad, are helping finance his bloody crackdown on the Syrian uprising, according to both the U.S. and the EU. Syrian dissidents said this sale and a larger one involving millions of cartons to the Syrian state tobacco company provided the regime with a cash infusion at a time of growing economic isolation, because the cigarettes could be resold for much more than they cost.

The dissidents added that the Assad government uses cigarettes as a form of payment for the irregular military forces and militias, known as the shabeeha, who have had a central role in its violent crackdown. "Cigarettes are a favorite form of payment for the shabeeha," said Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian dissident and human-rights activist based in Washington. Businessman Rami Makhlouf is the scion of the family and widely regarded as Syria's richest man. The EU placed financial sanctions on him, as well as on his brothers Iyad and Ihab, on May 23, 2011, for their alleged role in helping to finance Mr. Assad's actions.

Four days later, the corporate documents show, Japan Tobacco International SA, or JTI, delivered 450,000 cartons of cigarettes through a Cyprus-based distributor to a firm called Syria Duty Free Shops Ltd. that JTI acknowledges was then at least partly Makhlouf-owned. The EU's antifraud office, OLAF, confirmed it is investigating the business of JTI, which is based in Geneva, but declined to provide any details. Guy Côté, a spokesman for JTI, said it strictly adheres to all EU sanctions and is cooperating with the investigation. "We have not processed any sales to Syria Duty Free since May 19, 2011," he said. This would have been four days before the EU imposed sanctions on the Makhloufs. Mr. Côté said that the EU has never banned trade with Syria Duty Free Shops itself, and that Rami Makhlouf was removed from the list of that firm's owners in 2008.

Mr. Côté confirmed that Syria Duty Free Shops documents showed that one Makhlouf brother, Ihab, was among its owners last year. "After the arrival of that single shipment, we learned that one of the owners was on the sanctions list," Mr. Côté said. He said JTI stopped all cigarette sales to anyone in Syria this past February. Syria Duty Free Shops has subsequently been sold to a Kuwaiti company, according to Arab media reports. JTI parent Japan Tobacco Inc. is 50%-owned by the Japanese government. An official at the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Middle East section said that "we are not aware of" an EU investigation or JTI's cigarette shipments to Syria.

A Syrian embassy spokeswoman in Washington declined to comment. Attempts to reach Rami Makhlouf were unsuccessful. Japan has imposed its own Syrian sanctions. It placed sanctions on Rami Makhlouf and his father in the second half of 2011. U.S. and EU sanctions against Syria focus especially on energy and finance. The Journal reported last week that the Syrian regime had laid plans to use Russian banks as part of an effort to avoid these sanctions and export some of its oil to raise hard currency. Russia and China have blocked attempts at the United Nations Security Council to pass similar international sanctions.

Some fighters in the rebel Free Syrian Army also are paid in cigarettes. "If you can't provide your people with cigarettes, they won't stay with you," said Louay Sakka of the Syrian Support Group, which lobbies for the Free Syrian Army. On the same day in May 2011 when JTI cigarettes were delivered to the Makhlouf-linked company at the Syrian port of Latakia, JTI delivered 4.2 million cartons of Winstons to Syria's state-owned tobacco company, General Organization of Tobacco, or GOT, according to the documents seen by the Journal. GOT wasn't on the EU's sanctions list at the time; it has since been added. GOT paid roughly 24 cents a pack—an average reduced by some 160,000 10-pack cartons of Winstons provided free to the state company—according to the documents, which JTI didn't dispute.

Greek study finds e-cigarettes no threat to heart

Electronic cigarettes, an increasingly popular option among smokers trying to quit, do not appear to pose a threat to the heart, according to results of a clinical study presented on Saturday. Greek researchers said e-cigarettes - battery-powered metal tubes that transform liquid laced with nicotine into vapour - had no adverse effects on cardiac function in their small trial.

"Electronic cigarettes are not a healthy habit but they are a safer alternative to tobacco cigarettes," Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos from the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center in Athens told the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology. "Considering the extreme hazards associated with cigarette smoking, currently available data suggest that electronic cigarettes are far less harmful and substituting tobacco with electronic cigarettes may be beneficial to health." Farsalinos and his team examined the heart function of 20 young smokers before and after smoking one tobacco cigarette against that of 22 e-cigarette users before and after using the device for seven minutes.

While the tobacco smokers suffered significant heart dysfunction, including raised blood pressure and heart rate, those using e-cigarettes had only a slight elevation in pressure. The Greek clinical study was the first in the world to look at the cardiac effects of e-cigarettes. Another small study, also in Greece, reported earlier this year the devices had little impact on lung function. Farsalinos acknowledged bigger studies were still needed to examine the possible long-term effects of e-cigarettes, while other doctors attending the medical meeting in Munich were cautious about giving them a clean bill of health just yet.

"Obviously, the e-cigarette has the advantage of not having the thousands of other chemicals, besides nicotine, that a real cigarette has," said Dr Russell Luepker of the University of Minnesota. "I don't think it's conclusive but there's no doubt if you expose someone to fewer bioactive chemical compounds there is going to be less effect." E-cigarettes were first made in China in 2003 but are now sold around the world and used by millions of people.

Tobacco Companies Broke Law by Selling Untaxed Cigarettes

A federal judge ruled last week that two tobacco wholesalers illegally skirted paying millions of dollars in taxes by selling truckloads of untaxed cigarettes to retailers on an American Indian reservation on Long Island, which then resold them in the city at cut-rate prices. The judgment, which could cost the wholesalers up to $15 million in penalties, was the latest victory in a battle that the city and state have waged for years to collect taxes on cigarettes sold by Indian-owned businesses to non-Indians.

The city has argued that the availability of cheaper cigarettes is a public health concern because taxes were in part a way to discourage smoking. Cigarette tax stamps are $43.50 per carton in New York; thus, a pack of cigarettes — about $12 to $14 — includes $4.35 in taxes. Federal law prohibits wholesalers from selling large quantities of cigarettes without paying state or local taxes on the goods. Wholesalers selling to Indian retailers are exempt from paying the tax if the cigarettes are resold only to other Indians. In 2006, the city sued three wholesalers — which buy the cigarettes from the manufacturer and resell them to retailers — for violating the law.

One of those, a Long Island company, Mauro Pennisi, sold more than 11 million cartons of unstamped cigarettes to Indian retailers from May 2008 to January 2011, mostly on the Poospatuck Reservation, where fewer than 500 people live, according to the written opinion of Judge Carol B. Amon of the Eastern District of New York. A Queens company, Gutlove & Shirvint, sold more than 10 million cartons during that period to the same tribe, including nearly 400,000 in one month alone. (The city estimated that the tribe’s average demand for one month would be 270 cartons.)

After the lawsuit was filed, the defendants voluntarily stopped selling to the Indian retailers, a move that took place not long after new state legislation clarified the circumstances under which cigarettes sold on Indian reservations were exempt from taxes. But Judge Amon ruled that the companies should have stopped selling long before. “The vast majority, if not all, of the unstamped cigarettes the defendants sold to reservation retailers were resold to and consumed by non-Native Americans,” Judge Amon wrote in her decision. “Any reasonable wholesaler would have been well aware of that fact.”

The judge found that the city did not prove its case against a third company, Day Wholesale. The companies’ lawyers did not return calls seeking comment. “This decision demonstrates the strong legal basis for the city’s efforts to curb illegal tobacco sales,” Michael A. Cardozo, head of the city’s Law Department, said in a statement released on Wednesday.

Cigarette makers win label challenge

The federal government can't require tobacco companies to put large graphic health warnings on cigarette packages to show that smoking can disfigure and even kill people, a divided federal appeals court panel ruled Friday. In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington affirmed a lower court ruling that the requirement ran afoul of the First Amendment's free speech protections. The appeals court tossed out the requirement and told the Food and Drug Administration to go back to the drawing board. The decision is considered a blow to one of the Obama administration's major public health initiatives, raises the prospect of another U.S. Supreme Court tobacco battle and opens the door to further challenges of FDA's regulatory scheme. Some of the nation's largest tobacco companies, including R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., sued to block the mandate to include warnings to show the dangers of smoking and encourage smokers to quit lighting up. They argued that the proposed warnings went beyond factual information into anti-smoking advocacy. The government argued the photos of dead and diseased smokers are factual in conveying the dangers of tobacco, which is responsible for about 443,000 deaths in the U.S. a year. The nine graphic warnings proposed by the FDA include color images of a man exhaling cigarette smoke through a tracheotomy hole in his throat, and a plume of cigarette smoke enveloping an infant receiving a mother's kiss. These are accompanied by language that says smoking causes cancer and can harm fetuses. The warnings were to cover the entire top half of cigarette packs, front and back, and include the phone number for a stop-smoking hotline, 1-800-QUIT-NOW. In the majority opinion, the appeals court wrote that the case raises "novel questions about the scope of the government's authority to force the manufacturer of a product to go beyond making purely factual and accurate commercial disclosures and undermine its own economic interest — in this case, by making 'every single pack of cigarettes in the country (a) mini billboard' for the government's anti-smoking message."

EU considering cigarette logo ban to deter smoking

The European Union is considering banning logos on cigarette packs as part of an upcoming review of its law to deter smoking, a spokesman said on Thursday, a day after Australia's highest court upheld a similar ban. The Australian court dismissed a legal challenge to the government's ban, in a case filed by British American Tobacco , Britain's Imperial Tobacco, Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco. The ruling means that starting in December, all cigarette packs sold in Australia will brandish plain olive packaging.

The EU will publish a draft revision to its 2001 Tobacco Products Directive in the fall, and may introduce more stringent rules on packaging as well as extend legislation to newer tobacco products such as electronic cigarettes. "Many things are being discussed, including the possibility of plain packaging," Antonio Gravili, a spokesperson for the European Commission, told a news briefing. Printing larger graphic images on cigarette packs of the diseases linked to smoking is another option, Gravili said. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says smoking is "one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced". Smoking causes lung cancer, which is often fatal, as well as other chronic respiratory diseases.

It is also a major risk factor for heart diseases, the world's number one killers. The WHO predicts smoking could kill 8 million people every year by 2030 if governments don't take more action to help people quit. The EU's 2001 Directive required all member states to ensure that cigarette packs carry text health warnings and in 2005 the Commission recommended a series of graphic images to illustrate health risks. Most EU countries have since adopted these pictures. Once the directive's revision is completed, it will need the approval of the EU's 27 countries and over 700 members of the European Parliament before it can become law.

Anti-smoking lobbies in Brussels say plain packaging could prevent the young from getting hooked because a cigarette brand can become a badge in the same way that sports shoes and mobile phones can. Tobacco firms say a packaging ban would infringe on their intellectual-property rights and boost sales of fake or illegally imported cigarettes. In the EU, Britain has worked the most to make plain packaging national law. The British government finished a four-month consultation on plain packaging last week. It is expected to make a decision on whether to push ahead with legislation this year.

A lawyer who advises companies on the draft legislation said companies could oppose the ban on grounds that it prevents free trade because manufacturers outside Britain would have to change packaging for the British market. "If there was a European-wide initiative on plain packaging then this would reduce the scope of a challenge," said lawyer Paul Medlicott at law firm Addleshaw Goddard. Figures from the Global Tobacco Surveillance System, a group set up by the WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, show that Europe has the world's highest rate of smokers aged 13-15.

No-smoking rules in city parks not always followed

Two moms — who sat on either side of a small no-smoking sign — lit up Monday in Austin Park. One of them was relaxed on a park bench while the other one sat on the cool grass beneath a tree. Both were watching their children splash around in the spray park and claimed they had not seen the sign. All city parks are tobacco-free since City Council banned smoking a year ago. The sign reminds visitors that there are “Young Lungs at Play” and that the park is a tobacco-free zone. But since it depends on smokers to voluntarily abide, the policy has not been fully effective.

“If I was more aware of it I would have no problem going across the street,” said one mom who asked not to be identified. “It will definitely make me want to look up the law now. I’m not the only one, there were others smoking.” Penelope, who asked that her last name not be used, said that she had smoked while on the bench. She too said she was not aware of the policy and took out a small plastic pouch to show that she had not littered with the butts. Neither woman was familiar with Batavia, with one being from Wyoming County and the other a new resident. “I like the fact that you can’t smoke near the hospital or on school grounds,” Penelope said.

“If someone told me about (the policy) I would put out my cigarette.” Kiersten Richenberg, who was babysitting for neighbors, noticed the smoking, she said. She also did not know of the city’s policy but didn’t think that would matter. She doubted she’d go over to a stranger to remind them. She was in favor of the ban. “There are a lot of little kids around,” she said. Kevin Keenan, coordinator of Smoke-Free NOW at GCASA, said he has been concerned about the policy since it passed last July. “We need to get more signs,” he said. “

Some people are smoking still. We could use a little education from the city. I think at this point it’s out of sight out of mind.” City Councilwoman Rose Mary Christian, who did not vote for the ban, said the city has got enough to worry about right now. “Smoking signs are the least of my problem to think about. I can tell you that neighborhoods and all residential properties are concerns to everyone. We also have many streets in the city that need repairs,” she said.

“The railroad tracks on Swan Street are horrible. The drugs sold in the city happens to be another problem. People are suffering domestic abuse. Our police department needs people to be vigilant and report any suspicious people in neighborhoods. Churches have been vandalized, cars broken into and home burglaries have occurred. We need to have infrastructure and neighborhoods safe for residents in the city.”

Tobacco tax, St. Louis police change will be on ballot

Missouri voters will see proposals to tax tobacco and turn over control of St. Louis police to local authorities in November, but they will not vote on payday loan regulation or a minimum wage hike, Secretary of State Robin Carnahan announced Tuesday. The payday loan initiative fell 270 signatures short of the number needed in the First Congressional District, according to figures released by Carnahan’s office. The minimum wage proposal was 510 signatures short in the Third District and 1,091 short in the First.

The tobacco tax proposal would add 73 cents to a pack of cigarettes, 25 percent to the cost of loose tobacco for cigarettes and 15 percent to all other tobacco products. The money raised, an estimated $283 million to $423 million annually, would be divided among public schools, higher education and smoking eradication programs. The St. Louis measure would repeal a Civil War-era law that puts the police under the control of a Board of Police Commissioners appointed by the governor. The rulings Tuesday on the petitions seem likely to set off a new round of litigation.

The ballot language written by Carnahan and State Auditor Tom Schweich was approved last week by the Missouri Supreme Court for the tobacco tax, payday loan and minimum wage proposals. The payday loan and minimum wage initiatives were pushed as a coordinated campaign for both measures by a coalition of community, faith, labor and student groups, said Sean Soendker Nicholson, director of Progress Missouri. They intend to go to court to force another look at the signatures submitted in St. Louis, where only 49 percent of the signatures submitted were counted, he said.

According to figures Nicholson said came from Carnahan’s office, 76 percent of the signatures submitted in Boone County were found to be valid and 80 percent of the signatures submitted in Jefferson County were valid. Jefferson County is part of the Third Congressional District, where the minimum wage proposal fell 510 signatures short. “We are going to fight in court to make sure the valid signatures are counted,” Nicholson said. The payday loan proposal would cap interest on the short-term loans at 36 percent. The minimum wage proposal would increase the wage to $8.25 an hour and require an annual adjustment based on price levels.

Report Reveals 'Horror' of Tobacco Farming

Tobacco farming is harmful to the environment and to the farm workers with multinational tobacco companies contributing to the problem by exploiting local farmers, new research has revealed. A recent review of research on the environmental health impact of tobacco farming found that it degrades the environment, harms workers, and ultimately leads to the loss of land resources and biodiversity. The article in the journal Tobacco Control highlights tobacco farming problems, such as excessive use of chemicals and extensive deforestation, and found that multinational tobacco companies' actions contribute to these problems.

In South Africa, about 13 234 hectares of arable land is taken up by tobacco plantation, and the country produces around 16 000 metric tons of tobacco a year. Most of the world's tobacco farming takes place in the developing world, with Malawi being the largest producer in Africa, assigning 183 052 hectares of land to tobacco (a staggering amount considering the small size of the country).

The second biggest producer in Africa is Zimbabwe which grows tobacco on 79 917 hectares of arable land. The biggest producer in the world is China which uses 1 266 113 hectares for growing tobacco. For the study, Natacha Lecours from the Non-Communicable Disease Prevention programme in Canada, and colleagues reviewed 45 scientific articles on the topic. They found that tobacco farming causes green tobacco sickness (GTS) in farm workers who absorb nicotine through the skin when handling wet tobacco.

GTS causes muscle weakness, headache, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, abdominal cramps, breathing difficulty, diarrhoea, chills, fluctuations in blood pressure or heart rate, and increased perspiration and salivation. "As a monocrop, tobacco plants are vulnerable to a variety of pests and diseases, which require the application of large quantities of chemicals," the authors wrote. Pesticide poisoning is common among workers and those living near tobacco-growing fields. Exposure to these chemicals causes respiratory, neurological, and psychological problems. Studies have found pesticide sprayers in this industry are at increased risk for neurological and psychological conditions due to poor protection practices.

 Apart from deforestation and soil degradation, cigarettes farming is also associated with the destruction of ground water resources, sedimentation of rivers, reservoirs and irrigation systems, climate change, and species extinction due to habitat fragmentation and overexploitation, said the authors. "Tobacco absorbs more nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium than other major food and cash crops, and therefore, tobacco growing decreases soil fertility more rapidly than other crops." In Bangladesh and Kenya, researchers found that expanding tobacco production displaces farming of traditional food crops, a practice that can lead to food insecurity. The research also revealed that tobacco companies engage in contract farming - a system through which tobacco firms deal directly with local farmers.

Contract farming creates a cycle of indebtedness for farmers, who find themselves owing companies significant sums for payments advanced as agricultural inputs year after year. "For many tobacco growers in India and Bangladesh, the income gained from this system is barely enough to sustain themselves, or is insufficient to meet the most basic needs," the authors wrote. In many countries tobacco companies also control the production and the sale of agrochemicals, which the authors claim further creates a cycle of indebtedness for farmers and encourages the use of harmful chemicals. "Tobacco company practices disadvantage farmers by locking them into a supply and compensation system controlled by the tobacco companies."

In the commentary to the article, the editor points out that tobacco companies lure governments and other leaders into believing that tobacco is an economically viable crop and a major source of revenue, while hiding the truth about the accompanying environmental and health losses. "For example, while Tanzania earns about US $50 million annually from tobacco revenue, more than US $40 million is spent to treat tobacco-related cancers alone."

What have the tobacco and pharma industries got in common?

The tragicomic potential of this scenario makes it sound like a scriptwriter’s dream. There’s the pharma marketing exec pondering how to maximise the market for the company’s smoking cessation products. And then there’s the tobacco chief strategising a “mutually beneficial” alliance with a company that profits from helping smokers to quit. Now for the reality… Marita Hefler, a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney and News Editor for the BMJ journal Tobacco Control, has been investigating recent revelations of an alliance of interests between the pharmaceutical and tobacco industries.

A recent report by medical journalist Michael Woodhead in the health practitioner newsletter 6 minutes exposed how the pharmaceutical and tobacco industries are active members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a powerful right-wing lobby group which opposes Australia’s introduction of cigarette plain packaging. In the US, ALEC works closely with legislators to advance the interests of its corporate members and ensure laws favourable to America’s biggest corporations. Its members consist of legislators and the private sector, although 98% of its funding is from corporations, trade associations and corporate foundations.

 Members of ALEC’s Private Enterprise Board which provides input to ‘model legislation’ include representatives of Altria (think Marlboro) and Reynolds American (Camel cigarettes), together with pharmaceutical companies Pfizer Inc, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Bayer and industry lobby group the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

ALEC’s lobbying extends beyond the US through its International Relations Task Force, co-chaired by a representative of Philip Morris International. ALEC has acted as a defacto front group for the tobacco industry in the US as part of a relationship dating back to 1979. It has been diligent in opposing regulatory restrictions and supporting strategies to improve public perceptions of tobacco companies.

Beech Grove rejects smoking ban, welcomes Indy smokers

Beech Grove will keep its smoke-filled bars for as long as possible. The City Council voted 5-2 Monday night against a proposed smoking ban identical to those passed in Indianapolis and Lawrence. The council approved the ban on first reading July 23, said Mayor Dennis Buckley, but four bar owners speaking against the ban convinced the council Monday that a ban would hurt their business. Buckley supported the ban, and at one time, he said, so did most of Beech Grove’s bar owners. Then smokers started congregating in the city.

“At the time Indianapolis imposed it, three bar owners here were ready to do the ban also,” Buckley said Tuesday. “But after the city of Indianapolis imposed the ban, these bars got busy. The bar owners had a change of heart and decided their financial worth was of much greater importance than the health of patrons.” Beech Grove’s ban would have affected five bars and four fraternal clubs, he said. A statewide law already bans smoking in most other types of businesses.

“I’m going to say about 80 percent of people in Beech Grove probably desired to have the ban in place,” said Buckley, who estimated he had heard Tuesday from about 200 people disappointed by the council’s action. “I would have voted for it if I was on the council. Bar owners have already made arrangements for outside areas for smokers.” One local bar owner, however, said smoking bans deprive business owners of their rightful freedoms.

“A lot of our customers who don’t smoke still want this to be a place where people have a choice,” said Jan Oates, 54, Beech Grove. She co-owns Harvey’s Tavern in the 600 block of Main Street. The mayor, Oates said, should be doing everything possible to sustain businesses rather than supporting proposals that, in her opinion, would hurt them.

“He’s just going to be the mayor of Amtrak and the Speedway gas station if he’s not careful,” she said, “because we won’t have any other businesses left.” Her bar has operated since 1949, when her business partner’s parents opened it, she said. The other four bars in Beech Grove are The Grove Tavern, Lucky’s Pub, O’Gara’s Pub and the Silver Bullet.

ConCourt upholds smoke ad ban

The Constitutional Court has turned down a legal challenge against a ban on smoking advertisements, the National Council Against Smoking (NCAS) said on Tuesday. The court declined a request by British American Tobacco SA (Batsa) to hear an appeal of a judgment upholding the ban by the Supreme Court of Appeal in June of this year, NCAS said in a statement.

"After examining the cigarette company's application for leave to appeal the judgment it 'concluded that the application should be dismissed with costs, as there are no prospects of success'," the council said. It had joined the court case between Batsa and the government with a "friend of the court" brief. NCAS executive director Yussuf Saloojee said he welcomed the Constitutional Court decision and argued that it confirmed that the country's tobacco laws were fair and based on science.

"The freedom of teenagers to grow up healthily is more important than the freedom of the tobacco companies to advertise a deadly addiction," Saloojee said. The NCAS said the recent court case stemmed from a challenge that began in 2009 to a ban on using social media and one-on-one advertising for tobacco companies.

It said Batsa had wanted the courts to find the extension of the advertising ban to social media and one-on-one to be unconstitutional. Saloojee argued that challenges to laws to curtail smoking were an "on-going struggle" with court challenges from tobacco companies. "Yet, on the only occasion that the courts have actually tested the tobacco law it has been [found] to be reasonable and justifiable," Saloojee said.

Sunnyvale Bans Smoking in Parks, Town Facilities

After much debate, Sunnyvale is taking its smoking ban to the next level by banning smoking in all park spaces and town facilities. The Town Council voted 3-2 to ban smoking in all parks and town property such as City Hall and the library -- including in vehicles in the parking lots of those facilities. "It is certainly a health issue, and we have folks who want to come to the park and enjoy the park without having to deal with the issues of secondhand smoke," Town Manager Scott Campbell said.

The Town Council agreed on a ban on park properties, but the question came down to whether or not residents would be allowed to smoke in their cars while parked at parks and town facilities. "How would we enforce that? It was really about being too difficult to enforce if we did it any other way," Campbell said. Christopher Wand, a smoker, said the ordinance goes too far. "Around here, I think like a 50 foot away from an entrance or that would be OK to limit, but in my own vehicle or on my own property -- that a little too harsh," he said.

"It's taking control of something that I should be in control off." But Kellie Nelson said she welcomes the smoking ban. "The smoking has gotten really really bad lately," she said. "They'll be smoking all kinds of weird things, and the smell drifts into play area where all the kids are playing, and I have asthma and I don't want to be around that." The Town Council will light up more debate as it looks at a possible smoke ban in other public areas, such as restaurants. Officials are working on a survey to find out how people would feel about a smoking ban in all public areas.