It appears that the two friends were abruptly approached by a passerby who asked for a cigarette. When they did not provide the man with a cigarette but continued walking towards the night club instead, the man released a punch into Oliveira that sent him to the ground. Falling immediately to the ground, Oliveira hit his head on the sidewalk. Although Oliveira was immediately taken to the Jackson Memorial Hospital Emergency, his head injuries were so significant that he later died.

The attacker left the scene immediately, but was caught on video tape by a nearby surveillance camera. The police later found and arrested the accused attacker who has been identified as Sosthene Louis. Louis has formally been charged with second-degree murder for the fatal blow that he delivered that night to Mr. Olivira.

This is the premise for Tobacco Road, a horrific and honest portrayal of a struggling family during the worst years of the Great Depression. Based on the novel by Erskine Caldwell and adapted by Jack Kirkland, Tobacco Road is a darkly humorous play, featuring characters with unpleasant facial deformities and parents more concerned with what will happen to their bodies when they die than actually living their lives. Subtle humor aside, the play touches on serious issues, focusing on the shocking decisions the Lesters makes that ultimately leads to the decay of this once proud and profitable family.

Now this long-running play–the second-longest running drama in Broadway history–is coming to the Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago. Directed by Cecilie Keenan, Tobacco Road will be revived by American Blues Theater to celebrate the ensemble’s 25th anniversary. Previews run May 21 - May 23; tickets cost $20. Opening night is set for Thursday, May 27 at 7 p.m.; tickets are $50. Thursday, Saturday and Sunday matinees are $32; Friday and Saturday evenings, $40.

Anders Colding Friis, chief executive officer of Scandinavian Tobacco Group, is going to run the new company, and Scandinavian will own 51 percent of the venture.

The deal has been in the works since January, when the two parties signed a letter of intent to merge.

The new company will consist of the cigar, pipe tobacco and fine cut tobacco business of Scandinavian Tobacco Group and the cigar and tobacco assets of Swedish Match, including General Cigar Co., Swedish Match’s premium cigar unit, as well as its remaining pipe tobacco and accessories businesses. The new company would have annual production of more than 2.5 billion cigars and have annual sales of nearly 700 million euros ($1 billion).

Swedish Match is not contributing its mass-market cigar business to the venture, which includes such machine-made brands as White Owl, Garcia y Vega, and La Paz.

The deal also includes Swedish Match’s highly successful retail arm, Cigars International.

Scandinavian Tobacco was originally to pay Swedish Match about 40 million Euros, but the final deal calls for Scandinavian to pay Swedish Match 30 million Euros ($40 million) to compensate the company for valuation differences.

Scandinavian Tobacco’s cigar brands include the premium C.A.O. brands, including C.A.O. La Traviata, C.A.O. Lx2 and many others, plus mass-market Cafй Crиme, Henri Wintermans, Colts and Mercator. Swedish Match owns General Cigar Co., makers of some of the world’s biggest premium cigar brands, including Macanudo, La Gloria Cubana, Punch, Partagas and many others.

It makes the parks commissioners and other civic officials look as if the only drugs they really care about controlling are those that are legal, such as tobacco.

Indeed, if there really were any respect for Canada’s current drug legislation, Vancouver police would have been out enforcing them Tuesday at the annual “4/20″ marijuana celebration outside the Vancouver Art Gallery, instead of simply standing by and letting the mostly youthful potheads toke away in the downtown drizzle.

I mean, what other laws are police going to turn a blind eye to under the right circumstances? Speeding, talking on cellphones while driving . . .?

And that’s the big legal problem with the 4/20 protest, as it is with the Critical Mass cycling protests that block our downtown roads every last Friday of the month. Folks are not only breaking the law, they’re openly giving it the finger.

The health issues with marijuana are equally problematic. A Vancouver construction worker called “Frenchie” told me at Tuesday’s demo that the marijuana cookies he was selling were both healthy and relaxing. “[The pot] is from this organic farm I know,” he said. “So it’s all organic. There are no pesticides.”

But Const. Murray Kindratsky, a Vancouver motorcycle officer keeping a watchful eye on the proceedings, noted that the vast majority of marijuana grown in Canada is for export to the U.S., and that a lot of growers do in fact use pesticides and herbicides.

“[The pot] has the same carcinogens as cigarettes do,” he added.

The pro-pot crowd, of course, conveniently forget that having a joint is not a harm-free exercise for the lungs. They also gloss over various medical studies over the years showing that marijuana can be at least as damaging as tobacco.

And as Kindratsky points out, there are also social consequences. A recent study of 2,000 youngsters in Australia, for example, found that young teens who used marijuana were far more likely to have drug and other problems later in life.

The label “4/20″, of course, is a U.S.-imported term, originating with a group of teens in the 1970s who met after school in California (supposedly at around 4:20 p.m.) to smoke marijuana.

But the celebration (4/20 in U.S. date notation) has come to be an annual rite of spring — held the same day Hitler was born — for impressionable B.C. cannabis cultists who have little idea what they’re really getting into.

Myself, I think it’s time the prohibition on marijuana was lifted in this province, if only to end the increasingly tiresome and wasteful debate about it.

Maybe then our politicians can regulate it, tax it . . . and ban it from parks, pubs, workplaces, autos where minors are present, apartment balconies and pretty well every other place they now ban tobacco. Then, we can all breathe easier.

Gaylord’s Park Board has been working on the proposed tobacco-free policy with Tami Current of Sibley County Public Health. It was proposed that all Gaylord parks and all areas within the parks be designated as tobacco-free. Facilities would have included restrooms, spectator areas, concession areas, playgrounds, park shelters, athletic fields, swimming pool areas, parks, and other areas within City-owned parks or recreational facilities.

According to City Administrator Kevin McCann, the guiding principle in the tobacco-free proposal is to ensure that children and adults are not unnecessarily exposed to cigarettes and other tobacco related products.

Council members were hesitant on a tobacco-free policy for all park areas. It appeared to be the consensus that if a policy was adopted, it should be more specific to playground areas and the pool.

Mayor Doug Quast and council member Brenda Pautsch said they would prefer more of an awareness program compared to an enforceable rule or policy.

Current said there is funding available for signage but only if smoking and tobacco use is being prohibited.

Council members will reconsidered the request after the Park Board and McCann better designate and define areas to be tobacco-free.

Gaylord’s Summer Recreation program already works under a tobacco-free policy as smoking or tobacco use is prohibited at ball games. A sign is displayed during the games and this practice will continue, according to City staff. In return, t-shirts for the Summer Recreation t-ball program are supplied by Sibley County Public Health.

Pathways to Problems 2009 considers the implementation of recommendations made in the ACMD’s original Pathways to Problems report published in 2006.

The ACMD finds that government departments have worked together to engage with the issue and has made significant progress against many key recommendations, such as the control of tobacco and recognition of the roles of parents and schools.

There is, however, further work to be done, chiefly around young people’s exposure to alcohol.

Caroline Healy, Chair of the Pathways to Problems Working Group, said:

“The government has made encouraging progress on the hazardous use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs by young people since Pathways to Problems 2006.

“We’re pleased with the way departments are working together to develop policies and initiatives focussing on the health and wellbeing of young people. The work being done to control tobacco and roll-out public information campaigns is particularly commendable, as is the recognition being given to the important role played by parents and educational institutions in tackling substance misuse by young people.

“Despite this progress, however, statistics show that many young people are still putting themselves at risk and there is room for improvement against many of the recommendations. The increase in the reporting of alcohol-related illness, injury and crime means our main concern remains young people’s interaction with alcohol, particularly around its promotion and availability.”

The ACMD commends the advances made by government in:
Working in a more joined-up way to develop policies, with the formulation of cross-department, integrated strategies and the creation of the Department for Children Schools and Families to lead the way in tackling the hazardous use of substances by young people;
Tightening tobacco control through measures such as restricting the sale of products to those aged 18 years and over and strengthening the sanctions available against retailers who sell to those below this age;
Communicating the health risks of alcohol and other substances via information campaigns such as the Know Your Limits and FRANK campaigns; and
Acknowledging the important role played by parents and schools in young people’s misuse of substances through, for example, the Think Family approach developed by the Cabinet Office and the Healthy Targeted Mental Health in Schools programme.

The ACMD remains concerned, however, about the exposure to and use of alcohol by young people. Whilst some progress has been made – for example the commitments announced in the Budget to increase alcohol duty by two per cent above inflation and to increase cider duty rates 10 per cent above inflation – the report finds there is clearly still work to be done in this crucial area as the reporting of alcohol-related illness, injury and crime continues to increase.

In particular, the ACMD calls for further action on the following:
Minimum-price legislation to stop supermarkets selling alcohol at heavily discounted prices, as previously recommended by Chief Medical Officer for England Sir Liam Donaldson;
Implementation of the Licensing Act Review to change the offence of persistently selling alcohol to a person under the age of 18 years from three to two ’strikes’, as referenced in the government’s Youth Alcohol Action Plan;
Reduction of the blood alcohol concentration level for drivers under the age of 25 years to 50mg per 100ml or less, as supported by the Transport Select Committee and Sir Liam Donaldson;
More proactive intervention by the government in limiting the promotion of excessive drinking at further education establishments, with consideration given to encouragement of universities to withdraw financial support from sports and other clubs that promote irresponsible drinking;
The use of standard measures when alcohol is served and a tax on drinks according to alcoholic strength; and
A stricter code for alcohol advertising and sponsorship as supported by Alcohol Concern and government research.

The ACMD also reiterates its call for an equivalent independent expert body to advise on the misuse of alcohol and tobacco and ensure that the government is receiving the best possible advice in this area. It has committed to meeting with relevant cross government policy heads to establish the nature of the advice available and drafting a paper outlining the possible options for such a body and will share this with government in due course.

The next stage of negotiations on the World Health Organization (WHO) illicit tobacco trade protocol will commence in Brussels this Sunday. The latest round of discussions could be the last for the duty-free sector and may result in clearing the threat of a ban on the sale of all duty-free tobacco products, which has been discussed in previous International Negotiating Body meetings.

Only delegations from the countries involved in the negotiations will be present at the sessions, which are expect to last eight days. European Travel Retail Council (ETRC) secretary general Keith Spinks told DFNIonline: “The ETRC has fought a very professional campaign over the last few months. I do not know how it is going to go but I hope we can finally bring this to an end next week.”

Hume Brophy partner John Hume, who has been lobbying the European Union on the duty-free channel’s behalf, said he is hopeful the outcome will be positive for the industry. “We are in touch with most of the delegations involved and over the past few months we have certainly identified an understanding that there is no reason for duty-free to be abolished.

“There are those who have maintained their position and our worry is the longer this stays on the agenda the greater the danger of it resulting in a compromise, which helps nobody. But hopefully we will knock it into touch next week,” Hume added.

Children of different ethnicities with exposure in utero to tobacco smoking were at nearly six times as likely to develop persistent asthma than children whose moms didn’t smoke during pregnancy, according to Sarena Apte, MD, of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

On the other hand, there no significant relationship between children’s asthma and mothers’ postnatal smoking status, Apte reported at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology annual meeting.

Apte said these results add more force to recommendations that women stop smoking during pregnancy.

The study was one of several here suggesting that asthma risk is more closely linked to fetal exposures to chemical insults than exposures after birth.

Epidemiologic studies indicated that maternal folate levels during pregnancy, but not levels in infants themselves after birth, were related to subsequent asthma development.

Also, the plastics component bisphenyl A (BPA) has been reported to make mice more susceptible to experimental asthma when it was present in utero, but not in their mothers’ milk after birth.

Session moderator Neil Alexis, PhD, an immunologist at the University of North Carolina who was not involved with Apte’s study, said it was not surprising that exposures in utero should be more important than postnatal exposures.

“There’s some evidence [from other research] that smoking in utero does alter the immune system at that critical stage of development,” he said. “If you modify it at that point, things can go down a more allergic pathway.”

Apte and colleagues analyzed data from 295 children, ages 8 to 16, who were participating in previous studies. Their parents provided information on their smoking habits during pregnancy and the first years of life in recent structured interviews.

All the children were African American, Mexican-American, Mexican, or Puerto Rican, and lived either in the U.S. or in Puerto Rico.

Persistent asthma was diagnosed in 194 of the children, with the remainder having intermittent illness.

In addition to the presence of persistent asthma, the researchers counted other significant symptoms such as wheezing, nocturnal symptoms, and daily symptoms.

Apte and colleagues calculated the following odds ratios related to fetal exposure to smoking, relative to participants without such exposure:
Persistent asthma: OR 5.76 (P=0.017)
Nocturnal symptoms: OR 4.72 (P=0.010)
Daily symptoms: OR 3.2 (P=0.047)
Wheezing: OR 4.88 (P=0.176)

In contrast, odds ratios for these outcomes in the presence of postnatal smoking, as well as current smoking at the time of the parental interview, were all nonsignificant.

Apte said the research team planned to look next at genetic polymorphisms involved in tobacco processing, as well as whether the magnitude of the effects was related to the duration of smoking exposure.

She said it was impossible in this study to determine whether fetal or postnatal tobacco exposure had different effects in the ethnic groups represented in the study.

Asthma prevalence and severity is generally much greater among people of Puerto Rican background relative to Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, for example.

However, there were too few participants in each group to allow for meaningful comparisons, Apte said.