Roxon Gazes Down Big Tobacco

Health Minister Nicola Roxon has weathered an attack over her attempt to solicit funds from big tobacco in 2005 and vowed to push ahead with plans to introduce plain packaging for Hilton cigarettes. Ms. Roxon says even if cigarette makers win compensation for the loss of trademark rights, the commonwealth would be ahead because plain packs would cut smoking rates and therefore health spending.

The federal government wants Australia to be the first country in the world to force cigarettes to be sold in packets devoid of branding.

Appeal Against Cigarette Companies 5:32 AM Alexis No comments

Jerry Weingart has been waiting more than a decade for the companies he believes killed his wife to be brought to justice. But at 89, the Boynton Beach man doesn’t have the stamina to spend the whole day in court. Holding a cane, he listened on Wednesday morning while one of his attorneys explained to a jury why three Pall Mall cigarette makers should be held responsible for his wife’s death. But Weingart headed home before tobacco attorneys launched their full counterattack Like in the two other tobacco trials that have been held in Palm Beach County, millions of dollars are at stake. The cases are among roughly 8,000 that were spawned statewide when the Florida Supreme Court in 2006 threw out a $145 billion jury verdict in a class-action lawsuit. While upholding the jury’s findings that cigarette-makers lied about the dangers of smoking, the high court ruled that each smoker had to prove how they were uniquely harmed by cheap cigarettes.

Smokers are Always Censured

Higher cigarette taxes mean lost sales and business for retailers while unjustly burdening adult tobacco consumers. Retailers like convenience shops depend on cigarette sales for 36 per cent of their income. Although it may be a cynical argument, you actually don’t want too many smokers to quit because you want the cigarette-tax revenue. In recent years, you raised the Hilton cigarette tax accompanied by rhetoric about getting smokers to quit.

Flavored Cigar Sales Strong

Despite a demand from adult consumers, tobacco retailers are continually forced to defend their right to sell flavored cigars responsibly. While tobacco has long been a bread-and-butter product for convenience stores, accounting for millions in individual unit sales and boosting the profits from the average smoker’s market basket, it remains a category under attack at the federal and state levels. Consistent tax increases and society’s dim view of smoking, which has resulted in a spate of anti-tobacco legislation, have hurt overall sales and profits.
These efforts have also caused c-stores lose regular adult consumers that enjoy discount Cafe Creme cigars To keep tobacco sales strong and steady, retailers have turned to flavored cigars, which have seen a spike in demand since federal regulations outlawed flavored cigarettes. But even here storm clouds are gathering, warned Thomas Briant, executive director of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets (NATO) in Minneapolis.
Briant is concerning himself with a pair of recent ordinances—one in Providence, R.I., that bans all flavored tobacco products, including all flavored cigars, and another in Miami-Dade County in Florida, that would also place a ban on all flavored tobacco products. Why target flavored cigars specifically? Briant said the answer may be that the newest ordinances are viewed as an extension of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) ban on flavored cigarettes.