Bethel-based coalition to offer tobacco education programs

The Housatonic Valley Coalition Against Substance Abuse on Stony Hill Road will provide tobacco prevention programs this summer in its 22 area towns.
The Connecticut Prevention Network, the state's network of 13 Regional Action Councils for substance abuse prevention and wellness, received the Department of Public Health's Innovative Tobacco Use Prevention Programs for Youth in Connecticut Grant.

The grant will give programs throughout the state a total $168,774 for their activity-based tobacco education curriculums for youth ages 5 to 14.
The Housatonic coalition will implement the statewide tobacco education program in five one-hour sessions in various settings, including summer camps, positive youth development programs, boys and girls clubs and traditional classroom locations.

Tobacco-Maker Lorillard Among Companies Whose Lobby Pays Off for Investors

Tobacco-maker Lorillard Inc. (LO), facing the prospect that the government might ban its top product, made a bet on Washington lobbying that paid off for shareholders.
The Greensboro, North-Carolina-based company spent $900,000 in its efforts to sway regulators and lawmakers. When an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March stopped short of recommending an outright ban on menthol cigarettes, which make up 90 percent Lorillard’s sales, the stock price surged.

The benefit to the maker of Newport cigarettes will likely last a couple more years, according to Strategas Research Partners. The New York-based institutional broker dealer says that shares of companies that spend on lobbying rise more than the broader market.
The 50 companies with the most intense lobbying efforts have outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index an average 12.4 percent each year since 2002, according to Strategas. Daniel Clifton, the company’s head of policy research, said the company measures lobbying intensity by comparing what the company spends to its size. He declined to give the exact formula because Strategas has a proprietary lobbying index.
“There’s a reason that corporations invest in lobbying Congress: They see a return, and it’s good for their bottom line,” says Mary Boyle, vice president of communications at Common Cause, a Washington-based advocacy group that tracks money in politics.
Playing Offense
Legislation and regulation play a huge role in the success of a company, Clifton says. Corporations use lobbying to play offense and try to secure changes in laws that will help them, and defense, to prevent damage from new proposals.
Lorillard is trying to prevent the FDA from banning menthol flavoring in cigarettes. The company’s Newport brand of menthols generated 90 percent of its revenue last year. Lorillard paid the lobbying firm Dickstein Shapiro $900,000 in this year’s first quarter, about half of what it spent on lobbying in all of 2010, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
That put it at the top of the Strategas lobbying index for the quarter, which ended March 31. The investment firm includes the 50 companies with the most intense lobbying and updates the list each quarter when new lobbying disclosures are released. At the end of each year, the list is frozen and that index remains in place for two more years. Strategas right now has indexes for 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Tobacco Forges an Electronic Transformation

While electronic cigarettes show promise as a growing tobacco subcategory, two issues are threatening its widespread growth.

One is the looming threat of government regulation, which most agree is inevitable, but at least a year or two away. The other involves ongoing research intent on poking holes in e-cigs’ claim that they are a safer alternative to conventional cigarettes.

Cigarettes, Not Devices
Health questions aside, electronic cigarettes are an emerging cigarette alternative for millions of Americans. As such, lawmakers are attempting to define precisely what e-cigarettes are and are not, so they can begin to pile on regulations. A uniform standard has yet to be applied. Some states consider e-cigarettes to be tobacco products while others don’t.

For example, some states tax electronic cigarettes at the other tobacco products (OTP) tax rate, while others have an ad valorem tax, which is a percentage of the wholesale price. So if, on electronic cigarettes, a kit costs $50 and a state’s OTP tax rate is 20%, then the tax is $10.

“I think the biggest news is that the FDA indicated that it is going to be treating electronic or alternative cigarettes as cigarettes rather than delivery devices,” said Lyle Beckwith, senior vice president of government relations for NACS. “The concern was that they going to regulate them as drug-delivery devices.”

In April, FDA announced it would not appeal the recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Sottera Inc. vs. FDA, stating that e-cigarettes and other products are not drugs/devices unless they are marketed for therapeutic purposes, but that products “made or derived from tobacco” can be regulated as “tobacco products” under the FD&C Act.

FDA officials noted they are “aware that certain products made or derived from tobacco, such as electronic cigarettes, are not currently subject to pre-market review requirements of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. FDA is developing a strategy to regulate this emerging class of devices as tobacco products under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.”

Beckwith called FDA’s position a responsible one to take. “A lot of questions remain, though. For instance, are they going to be taxed like cigarettes? Are they going to require warning labels like cigarettes? There is a lot of uncertainty, things we just don’t know yet,” he said.

Clininc offering tobacco cessation programs

The Little Clinic has begun offering the SmartPath Tobacco Cessation Program at five of its Memphis area Kroger locations.

The clinic is trying to help some of America’s 45 million smokers kick the habit by making the SmartPath Tobacco Cessation Program available seven days a week with no appointment needed.

“Counseling and medication have been shown to increase the chance that a person who tries to quit will succeed,” said Dr. Kenneth Patric, chief medical officer for The Little Clinic. “The Little Clinic recognizes that in order to have a solid foundation for health, tobacco user need motivation and assistance.”

The SmartPath® Tobacco Cessation Program offers a two-visit program. In the first visit the patient’s health and nicotine dependence are evaluated and the following visit focuses on tips to stay tobacco-free. The two-visit program is offered for $29 and a $29 charge for each additional coaching session.

Tobacco shop, bath salts robbery arrest in Bloomington

Local police teamed up with the U.S. Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force to arrest 24-year-old John A. Harness. He was arrested Friday in Normal on a warrant charging him with armed robbery. Police say Harness is accused of robbing Global Tobacco at gunpoint, taking money and bath salts. State officials have been investigating the so-called bath salts, which can be abused and snorted to get high.

Money to curb smoking is cut from state budget

Money aimed at preventing tobacco use in Ohio will run out in a year unless the state reverses course on planned budget cuts.

Gov. John Kasich's budget has proposed cutting tobacco-use prevention funds to $1million in fiscal year 2012 and wiping out the fund for the fiscal year after that.

But the Ohio Department of Health says it needs $1million per year just to enforce the state smoking ban and $2 million to keep the quit-line program going.

Director Theodore Wymyslo, who was appointed by Kasich in January, testified before a Senate committee this month that the cuts also will affect how the statewide smoking ban is enforced.
"Without funds for this program, we will no longer be able to inspect bars and restaurants to ensure the smoking ban enacted by the voters of Ohio is implemented," Wymyslo said.

Anti-smoking advocates agree that the cuts are excessive.

"The enforcement dollars are crucial," said Marianne Farmer, policy director for the East Central Division of the American Cancer Society.

"Even though the majority of businesses in Ohio comply with the law, for the few business that don't, they will even have less of an incentive if they know there isn't going to be enforcement."

The agency held a news conference at the Statehouse yesterday to protest the cuts.

"Tobacco is the No. 1 cause of preventable death in our state," said Shelly Kiser, director of advocacy for the American Lung Association of Ohio. "We've already seen the smoking rate stall after budget cuts this year."

From 2002 to 2008, the Ohio Tobacco Foundation orchestrated state prevention efforts with a $300 million endowment from a $10.1billion lawsuit settlement with tobacco companies. But in recent years, the settlement money was diverted to fill budget holes.

Wymyslo said that going forward, programs to prevent tobacco use should be funded by the $922 million in tobacco taxes Ohio collects each year. That money currently goes to the state's general-revenue fund.

Approximately 9,300 cases of lung cancer are diagnosed in Ohio every year, and about 7,400 people die of the disease statewide, according to the American Cancer Society.

Kiser said the smoking ban, which was enacted in May 2007, has likely helped curb cigarette use. She said the proposed cuts could hurt enforcement efforts.

Most enforcement is done by local health departments. But a recent Dayton Daily News analysis found that, although violators face $2.2million in fines, $1.5million has yet to be collected.

Franklin County Health Commissioner Susan Tilgner said the state currently reimburses local health departments $125 per enforcement investigation, up to $5,600 each year. Anything beyond that is paid for with fines.

Since enforcement began, Franklin County has collected nearly $22,000 in fines. An additional $19,000 has not been collected.

Education and cessation programs also could be cut, Farmer said.

"If this budget passes, Ohio will be the only state in the nation that doesn't have a quit line," Farmer said.

The quit line arranges nicotine patches and five sessions with a specialist. The program serves 20,000 Ohioans a year and costs $215 per client.

Wymyslo said the program saves employers $2,600 per employee in otherwise lost productivity.

"Clearly, this is an economic benefit to Ohio employers," he said during his testimony.

The Ohio Department of Health currently receives $1.3 million annually from the national Centers for Disease Control for tobacco-use prevention and is exploring other funding options, said spokeswoman Jen House.

Children of tobacco farmers get scholarship grants

National Tobacco Administration (NTA) manager Esmeralda G. Valera announced that the office has allocated 11 slots of scholarship grants to children of tobacco farmers in the province for school year 2011-2012.
Since the announcement came a bit late, Valera instructed interested applicants who are qualified to avail of the said scholarship program to act fast and coordinate with their respective agricultural technicians assigned in their municipality as well as in the Abra State Institute of Science and Technology (ASIST), the only agricultural college in the province.

At least eight slots for four-year courses or bachelor’s degrees and three vocational courses are available for this year.
The NTA scholarship grant is given to poor but deserving student-children of registered tobacco farmers in Abra, which means that the applicant must have a general minimum weighted passing average and must be able to finish the course he is going to enroll within the prescribed curriculum year.

The primary criterion for granting the scholarship program is the willingness of the student-applicant to take up agriculture-related courses.
Other qualifications for the scholarship program are: the applicant must have graduated in high school and must be an incoming first year college student this current school year.

The NTA scholar is given P3,000 for tuition fees per semester. A scholarship contract must be signed between the NTA and the scholar.
Meanwhile, Valera reminded the tobacco farmers of their unpaid amortizations of their loans for the tobacco production. Otherwise, they will not be able to avail of the loan for their rice production this coming cropping season.