With Michigan’s workplace smoking ban set to take effect May 1, Bay City business owner Brian Ross hopes he can give cigarette smokers reason to celebrate.Ross has opened Let’s Roll Tobacco, a tobacco smoking lounge and shop in Bangor Township that he’s equipped with two $31,000 automated machines to roll low-cost smokes.
While name-brand cigarettes cost $55 or more a carton, Ross offers use of the machines, tobacco (either ultra light, light or full flavor) and filters for $25 plus sales tax.
“It’s really cool. I mean, especially for people with the economy and people wanting to save money,” said Ross, 29, a smoker himself.
The machines weigh out the tobacco selected by the customer, then compress and inject it into empty paper tubes to create each cigarette.
“We guarantee them 190 cigarettes and it takes eight minutes to roll them,” Ross said. “Everybody that rolls their own does it and hates the fact that it takes so long to do it and that they’re paying the extra money for the time they’re sitting there — an hour for a carton.”
The machines, called RYO Filling Stations, are a new phase in rolling cigarettes, according to Phil Accordino, president of the Ohio-based RYO Machine Rental Inc.
“The only difference between this and a hand table top model is that it’s much more precise and a little bit faster,” said Accordino, who has patents pending on the filling stations. “The table top models have been around for so long the patents have actually expired ... They have been constantly working on improving the apparatus.”
Ross is one of about six stores in Michigan to have the filling stations, according to Accordino.
Ross said smokers who buy manufactured cigarettes can save about 50 percent by “renting,” or using, his rolling stations in the store at 3968 Wilder.
Ross, offers customers a sample cigarette to make sure they like the specific tobacco blend before they buy. He hopes the idea catches on and he can expand into other locations.
понедельник, 29 марта 2010 г.
понедельник, 15 марта 2010 г.
Georgia cigarette tax hike may help some kick habit
They stand waiting at the Manna House for a free lunch.
They wait outside the Salvation Army for bed.
Some don't know where their next dollar is coming from.
The cigarettes smoking between their fingers suggests how some spent their money.
And now, some Georgia legislators want to get even more. A $1 tax on each pack of cigarettes would raise $354 million a year to help plug a big budget hole, they say. Others say no tax is a good tax.
With the price of popular brands going to nearly $6 a pack, you figure some people would quit or cut back.
People do cut back, said Sameer Jessani, who runs a family-owned RaceWay convenience store at the Interstate 95-U.S. 341 interchange. For a while.
"It would kill us," he said of sales.
(You want to say, "So would smoking," but you bite your tongue.)
"The first time taxes went up, we lost 25 percent ... but they came back," he said.
Sales are about what they were before because, to smokers, Georgia is like a last chance gas station in the desert.
"People going to Florida stop and stock up,'' on cheaper cigarettes, Jessani said.
But they get used to the pain, especially the three-pack-a-day chain smokers and go back to their old puff rates.
Al Lecounte of Brunswick quit years ago. Told the prices may go up a buck, Lecounte said, "I'm glad I quit. That was a good move, for my health and the price."
Everyone remembers where they were when they learned of the Challenger explosion and JFK's assassination. Lecounte remembers his last cigarette. It was in December 1999.
"I was over in Darien," he said. "I smoked half of it, put it out and put it back in the pack." He threw the pack away months later, that half still unsmoked.
Another customer, who overheard the mention of cigarettes, said, "Smoking will kill you. Ask my father. He has stage 4 ..."
Her voice trailed off as she left. It doesn't matter what illness she was talking about. Stage 4 of anything is bad.
Taking an afternoon cigarette break at her Brunswick restaurant, Nancy Melcher said a $1 jump would make her buy fewer cigarettes. She smokes about half a pack a day.
Asked if she felt picked on, she said, no because state revenue has to come from somewhere.
When she learned there was no proposal to put a $1 tax on a six-pack of beer or bottle of wine, she changed her mind.
"Tax alcohol at the same rate," she said. "Besides, smoking a cigarette driving down the road doesn't kill somebody."
Good point.
It seems the state always gets into people's pockets through their addictions, be it taxes on smoking or selling lottery tickets to gamblers.
The lottery may be the safest bet. You can blow a lot of money on lottery tickets. Few lottery players - even the two-ticket-a-day players - ever break even. But even the smallest payoff beats the heck out of stage 4.
They wait outside the Salvation Army for bed.
Some don't know where their next dollar is coming from.
The cigarettes smoking between their fingers suggests how some spent their money.
And now, some Georgia legislators want to get even more. A $1 tax on each pack of cigarettes would raise $354 million a year to help plug a big budget hole, they say. Others say no tax is a good tax.
With the price of popular brands going to nearly $6 a pack, you figure some people would quit or cut back.
People do cut back, said Sameer Jessani, who runs a family-owned RaceWay convenience store at the Interstate 95-U.S. 341 interchange. For a while.
"It would kill us," he said of sales.
(You want to say, "So would smoking," but you bite your tongue.)
"The first time taxes went up, we lost 25 percent ... but they came back," he said.
Sales are about what they were before because, to smokers, Georgia is like a last chance gas station in the desert.
"People going to Florida stop and stock up,'' on cheaper cigarettes, Jessani said.
But they get used to the pain, especially the three-pack-a-day chain smokers and go back to their old puff rates.
Al Lecounte of Brunswick quit years ago. Told the prices may go up a buck, Lecounte said, "I'm glad I quit. That was a good move, for my health and the price."
Everyone remembers where they were when they learned of the Challenger explosion and JFK's assassination. Lecounte remembers his last cigarette. It was in December 1999.
"I was over in Darien," he said. "I smoked half of it, put it out and put it back in the pack." He threw the pack away months later, that half still unsmoked.
Another customer, who overheard the mention of cigarettes, said, "Smoking will kill you. Ask my father. He has stage 4 ..."
Her voice trailed off as she left. It doesn't matter what illness she was talking about. Stage 4 of anything is bad.
Taking an afternoon cigarette break at her Brunswick restaurant, Nancy Melcher said a $1 jump would make her buy fewer cigarettes. She smokes about half a pack a day.
Asked if she felt picked on, she said, no because state revenue has to come from somewhere.
When she learned there was no proposal to put a $1 tax on a six-pack of beer or bottle of wine, she changed her mind.
"Tax alcohol at the same rate," she said. "Besides, smoking a cigarette driving down the road doesn't kill somebody."
Good point.
It seems the state always gets into people's pockets through their addictions, be it taxes on smoking or selling lottery tickets to gamblers.
The lottery may be the safest bet. You can blow a lot of money on lottery tickets. Few lottery players - even the two-ticket-a-day players - ever break even. But even the smallest payoff beats the heck out of stage 4.
среда, 10 марта 2010 г.
Man admits to scheme in Stafford smuggling case
One of the 14 people charged in a major contraband cigarette probe started by the Stafford Sheriff's Office was convicted yesterday for his role in a murder-for-hire scheme.
Xing "Andy" Xiao, 32, of Fairfax pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and other charges yesterday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.
Xiao and 13 others were arrested in November following a 14-month investigation that began after a Stafford detective got information about an illegal cigarette-trafficking business in the area.
The investigation, which included federal agencies, revealed the purchase of 388,000 cartons of contraband cigarettes that were sold or destined for sale in New York. The cigarettes were valued at $77 million.
More than $8 million in cash, nearly 40 firearms and drugs--including 32,000 hits of ecstasy--were used to purchase the cigarettes.
Most of those arrested have already pleaded guilty to various charges.
According to court records, Xiao purchased or traded for 15,000 cartons of contraband cigarettes in May 2009. The cigarettes were kept at a storage facility in Stafford.
Xiao told undercover officers that the cigarettes were stolen from the facility and he had hired a hitman to kill the man he suspected of the theft. The man's wife was also to be killed.
Xiao was in jail from June to September, but an associate of his provided information regarding the couple's New York residence and paid an undercover agent posing as a hitman $7,000.
The hitman was to receive another $8,000 when the job was done.
Chen X. "Jay" Jiang, 21, of Brooklyn pleaded guilty recently to his role in the murder plot. Xiao will be sentenced on May 21.
Stafford Sheriff Charles Jett said his officers and others put their lives in danger to stop the criminal organization.
"This was a very dangerous criminal enterprise," Jett said. "The citizens of this region can be proud of [the officers'] efforts."
Stafford authorities said the 32,000 ecstasy pills are a record amount for the area. Each pill has a street value of between $15 and $25, court records state.
The conspirators also sold or traded more than 275,000 fraudulent Virginia and New York State cigarette tax stamps between July 2008 and October of last year.
In New York, the stamps are worth $4.25 a pack.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Fairfax County Police Department were among those involved in the probe.
Xing "Andy" Xiao, 32, of Fairfax pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and other charges yesterday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.
Xiao and 13 others were arrested in November following a 14-month investigation that began after a Stafford detective got information about an illegal cigarette-trafficking business in the area.
The investigation, which included federal agencies, revealed the purchase of 388,000 cartons of contraband cigarettes that were sold or destined for sale in New York. The cigarettes were valued at $77 million.
More than $8 million in cash, nearly 40 firearms and drugs--including 32,000 hits of ecstasy--were used to purchase the cigarettes.
Most of those arrested have already pleaded guilty to various charges.
According to court records, Xiao purchased or traded for 15,000 cartons of contraband cigarettes in May 2009. The cigarettes were kept at a storage facility in Stafford.
Xiao told undercover officers that the cigarettes were stolen from the facility and he had hired a hitman to kill the man he suspected of the theft. The man's wife was also to be killed.
Xiao was in jail from June to September, but an associate of his provided information regarding the couple's New York residence and paid an undercover agent posing as a hitman $7,000.
The hitman was to receive another $8,000 when the job was done.
Chen X. "Jay" Jiang, 21, of Brooklyn pleaded guilty recently to his role in the murder plot. Xiao will be sentenced on May 21.
Stafford Sheriff Charles Jett said his officers and others put their lives in danger to stop the criminal organization.
"This was a very dangerous criminal enterprise," Jett said. "The citizens of this region can be proud of [the officers'] efforts."
Stafford authorities said the 32,000 ecstasy pills are a record amount for the area. Each pill has a street value of between $15 and $25, court records state.
The conspirators also sold or traded more than 275,000 fraudulent Virginia and New York State cigarette tax stamps between July 2008 and October of last year.
In New York, the stamps are worth $4.25 a pack.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Fairfax County Police Department were among those involved in the probe.
понедельник, 1 марта 2010 г.
Indiana program curbing teen tobacco use
A new report finds the number of teens who were able to illegally buy tobacco in Indiana last year dropped to an all-time low.
Law enforcement officers statewide have been trying to catch retailers in the act of illegally selling tobacco to minors.
They'll monitor teens as they try to buy it to see if clerks will knowingly sell to a minor or fail to ask for an ID.
"In my opinion that's one of the worst things," said Charles Butler of the Indiana State Excise Police. "If he doesn't make an effort to do his job to make sure the kid is old enough."
The Tobacco Retailer Inspection Program (TRIP) started in 2000. At that time, 40% of teens were able to buy tobacco from retailers. In 2009, that number dropped to an all-time low of 5.6%.
"It shows that the TRIP program does work," Butler told 14 News on Friday. "These businesses and these cashiers know that they are not alone in this."
Butler says the ultimate goal is to keep teens from ever starting to chew tobacco or lighting up a cigarette.
"A lot of people believe that tobacco really isn't all that bad, but when you're basically developing an addiction people may become bored with that addiction and try to move on to bigger and stronger things."
According to Butler, if the habit doesn't start before the age of 18, it's unlikely it ever will.
Law enforcement officers statewide have been trying to catch retailers in the act of illegally selling tobacco to minors.
They'll monitor teens as they try to buy it to see if clerks will knowingly sell to a minor or fail to ask for an ID.
"In my opinion that's one of the worst things," said Charles Butler of the Indiana State Excise Police. "If he doesn't make an effort to do his job to make sure the kid is old enough."
The Tobacco Retailer Inspection Program (TRIP) started in 2000. At that time, 40% of teens were able to buy tobacco from retailers. In 2009, that number dropped to an all-time low of 5.6%.
"It shows that the TRIP program does work," Butler told 14 News on Friday. "These businesses and these cashiers know that they are not alone in this."
Butler says the ultimate goal is to keep teens from ever starting to chew tobacco or lighting up a cigarette.
"A lot of people believe that tobacco really isn't all that bad, but when you're basically developing an addiction people may become bored with that addiction and try to move on to bigger and stronger things."
According to Butler, if the habit doesn't start before the age of 18, it's unlikely it ever will.
Подписаться на:
Сообщения (Atom)