ANA Joins Fight Against Tobacco Control Act
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has filed a “friend of the court” brief supporting six major tobacco companies and two other industry groups in a civil suit against the U.S. The suit argues that regulations on tobacco advertising within the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, passed earlier this year, are unconstitutional because the restrictions taken together make tobacco advertising untenable.
Dan Jaffe, EVP of the organization, tells Marketing Daily that the ANA supports the goals of the act — to protect minors from using tobacco products — but that restricting advertising is unconstitutional.
Says Jaffe: “This is much more than just a case about tobacco advertising. If this type of restriction is possible in tobacco, there is no question that it will be the opening wedge. The problem is that people are already starting to try to apply this to other products,” he says. “Slippery slope is not a metaphor, it’s a reality. The Supreme Court has made very clear there is not product-by-product exception. If it applies to one product category it applies to all.”
The American Association of Advertising Agencies and the American Advertising Federation are co-signatories in the brief supporting Commonwealth Brands, Inc., et al. v. United States of America filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky.
The industry brief, written by Robert Corn-Revere, a First Amendment attorney with the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, also says that provisions in the act could restrict advertising as free speech as defined in the First Amendment.
The act mandates the Food and Drug Administration to promulgate a rule that among other things, bans outdoor advertising for tobacco products within 1,000 feet of schools and playgrounds; requires all tobacco advertising and direct mail to be black text on a white background, except in magazines, newspapers or other periodicals with adult readership of 85% or more, or fewer than 2 million readers under the age of 18; bans the use of promotions and promotional items containing the name or logo of a tobacco product; allows sponsorship of athletic, musical, social or other cultural events in corporate name only; and requires all tobacco advertisers to fund and participate in a national educational campaign discouraging use of tobacco products by minors. The FDA would require the annual fund established for this campaign to total $150 million.
“I can’t think of anything anywhere as near as extensive as this is,” says Jaffe. “It affects every medium.” He says the plaintiffs and amici curiæ expect the case to reach the Supreme Court within months.
NKorean Diplomats Jailed for Cigarette Smuggling
A Swedish court has sentenced two North Korean diplomats to eight months in prison for trying to smuggle cigarettes into the Nordic country.
The Stockholm District Court ruled Wednesday that the diplomats — a man and his wife — cannot claim diplomatic immunity because they are not stationed in Sweden. They are based in the Russian port city of St. Petersburg.
The couple were arrested last month when they arrived in Stockholm on a passenger ferry from Finland. Officers found 230,000 cigarettes hidden under blankets and baggage in their car.
Police have withheld the diplomats’ names.
Cigarette pack health warnings ‘could encourage people to keep smoking’
According to a study, smokers who are continunally confronted with warnings that cigarettes kill actually develop coping mechanisms to justify continuing their habit.
Comparatively, if smokers are shown warnings suggesting the habit could make them unattractive, they are more likely to give up. Teenagers who took up the habit to impress or fit in with their peers were more likely to be influenced by warnings about their appearance, the study found.”In general, when smokers are faced with death-related anti-smoking messages on cigarette packs, they produce active coping attempts as reflected in their willingness to continue the risky smoking behaviour,” the study said.
“To succeed with anti-smoking messages on cigarette packs one has to take into account that considering their death may make people smoke.”
The study from the United States, Switzerland and Germany, led by Jochim Hansen of New York University and the University of Basel, asked 39 psychology students who said they were smokers, aged between 17 -41.
Participants filled in a questionnaire determining how much their smoking was based on self-esteem, before being shown cigarette packets with different warnings on them. Half of them read warnings such as “Smoking leads to deadly lung cancer”, while the other half had warnings about attractiveness.
After a 15-minute delay the students were asked more questions about their smoking behaviour and if they intended to quit.
The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, found that cigarette packets with death-related warnings were not effective and even caused more positive smoking attitudes.
“On the other hand, warning messages that were unrelated to death effectively reduced smoking attitudes the more recipients based their self-esteem on smoking.
“This finding can be explained by the fact that warnings such as ‘Smoking brings you and the people around you severe damage’ and ‘Smoking makes you unattractive’ may be particularly threatening to people who believe the opposite, namely that smoking allows them to feel valued by others or to boost their positive self-image.”
A Department of Health spokesman said: “Health warnings on tobacco packaging have played an important role in helping smokers understand the risks of tobacco use and where to get help to quit. Research from around the world has shown that different people react to different types of messages to motivate them to attempt to quit.
“In October 2008, the UK was the first nation in the European Union to introduce graphic picture warnings to cigarette packets that showed smokers the grim reality of the effects smoking can have on their health. We are now currently working with the European Commission to develop new pictorial warnings for tobacco packaging, including testing different types of messages with smokers.”
EU targets cigarette smugglers and organized crime, but who’s winning?
The problem of illicit trade, tobacco smuggling and organized crime enjoys unprecedented attention at the top European level in these days, especially in Brussels, where European governments say they’re going to fight back harder than ever. Why? The illegal trade in tobacco robs EU countries of nearly 10 billion euros ($14.78 billion of potential profits, and the return on investment in smuggling tobacco for the criminal gangs is more than 370 percent. “This problem cost my company 120 million euros ($179.728 million) across the EU last year. But it is in the interest of all European citizens that this illegal activity is tackled because it cost European shopkeepers and small businesses around 700 million euros. This is money that should be going to fund social services and is instead going to criminal gangs,” Michael Kraushaar, Head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs for cigarette maker BAT’s western European operation told New Europe.
Twilight or smugglers’ New Moon?
Three leading Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) took the initiative to gather together some of the top officials in law enforcement and politics to discuss the problem of organized crime and put together a new game plan for fighting it. “One of the key factors that enhance the illicit activity of the organized crime groups is the huge return on investments. For instance in the market of counterfeit medicine, one US dollar generates a profit of up to 1000 dollars,” said Carlo van Heuckelom, Head of the EUROPOL Financial and Property Crime Unit during his presentation on the second forum on illicit trade organized by European Parliament on 17 November.
UK Liberal Democrat MEP Bill Newton Dunn, Hungarian S & D Edit Herzog and German EPP member Andreas Schwab said they helped organize the event to raise awareness and educate EU institutions and the public about the impact of illicit trade across society. Herzog emphasized that bringing up the topic of organized crime to the forums was designed to push lawmakers toward becoming more active in the battle.
“I believe there is a growing awareness of the problem at the European Parliament and we hope this continues. A number of senior European politicians have realized how politically and economically serious this problem is and they are working in the EP to educate Members. European citizens need to realize that the trade in smuggled tobacco is not a victimless crime but is in fact a crime that leaves us all worse off,” said Kraushaar.
New attention has been paid, especially in the media, to the problem of tobacco smuggling raised after authorities in Ireland on October this year announced that they had confiscated more than 120 million contraband cigarettes, considered to be the largest single seizure ever made in the EU. Ireland, together with Germany and UK, is the main destination for contraband cigarettes, where profits from illicit sales are greatest. Irish MEP Gay Mitchell told the European Parliament (EP) that 97 percent of illegally trafficked cigarettes are “evading the legitimate tax net to the cost of the European taxpayers.” Mitchell also opened the topic of the health implications from smoking, saying that “The health risks are extraordinary and half of all patients in the largest hospital in Ireland are admitted with smoke-related illnesses. If you check in all European Member States, you will find that the situation is the same,” added Mitchell. Where’s the solution?
EU anti-fraud commissioner Siim Kallas of Estonia, in reaction to appeals from the Parliament for a more active policy on tobacco smuggling and organized crime, acknowledged that it is a “really huge issue, which hurts the budgets in the EU Member States and said the fight against cigarette smuggling is clearly very important priority.” But, he added that, “We can only facilitate and provide intelligence. We have special possibilities to help Member States but to ‘catch the cigarettes’ is a duty of Member States.”
On the other side, as Kraushaar said, industry actors see a lack of the coordination on the EU level. “We appreciate the efforts the EU institutions are making to tackle the illicit tobacco trade. But ideally, we would like to see increased coordination on an EU level and also to see the new Commissioner responsible to take a lead in the fight.” The same point was stressed by the co-organizer of the forum on the illicit trade, Newton Dunn, who told New Europe there is a weakness in cross-border policing in Europe. “Crimes which are committed across open borders can only be effectively countered if law enforcement is given the same facility. The member states of the EU will never be willing to totally share their national police intelligence and resources. So, weakness in cross-border policing in Europe will remain - until a federal police force with cross-border powers is created for the EU,” he said.
A new approach and solution has been offered by EUROPOL office, which sees the priority in preventing the trade in counterfeit goods at its source. “Modern and organized crime is evolving, with business-mid approach and links to many other illegal activities, such as money laundering, illegal employment, illegal immigration, drugs trafficking. The main challenging issue is to stop the trade in counterfeit goods at its source. Internet evolves as a huge source of counterfeit products, therefore this problem needs to be addressed urgently by Law Enforcement,” added Heuckelom.
The possibility of creating a European version of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI,) has been brought up for the discussion. Newton Dunn said sees Europe in the same position today that US states were in 70 years ago. “With open state borders they had to develop a FBI. The EU’s member states will eventually realize that they have to do the same; the longer they drag their feet, the greater the success of the cross-border criminal gangs,” he said.
Business group supports limits on internet tobacco sales
An Iowa business group is urging Iowa’s two U.S. Senators to support a bill which seeks to limit Internet sales of cigarettes and other tobacco products. Iowa Wholesales Distributors Association executive director Craig Schoenfeld.
“We encourage Iowans to get on board and support this legislation and communicate that to Senators Grassley and Harkin,” Schoenfeld says. “We think this is a great step in regulating this particular product, as well as being able to capture lost revenues for the state.” On-line sales of cigarettes have skyrocketed in recent years.
Schoenfeld says that means legitimate tobacco retailers are at a competitive disadvantage with those who sell cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products online. “These are operators that tend to avoid excise taxes — both federal and state,” Schoenfeld says. “And given the national economic climate, the climate here in Iowa, those additional revenues would be welcomed, to say the least.”
The state tax on a pack of cigarettes is a $1.36. The federal tax is $1.01 per pack. Schoenfeld says minors are often able to buy cigarettes online, and that’s another reason for the crackdown. “It’s a way to get a hold of contraband cigarettes which are, basically, sold over the Internet,” Schoenfeld says. The bill Schoenfeld’s group backs cleared the U.S. House in May and all five Iowa congressmen voted for it.
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the “Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act” last week and Senator Grassley, who is a member of that committee, voted for it. The bill increases the penalty for those caught selling tobacco products online illegally. Some supporters of the bill say criminal syndicates and terrorists are profitting handsomely from cigarette smuggling operations.
Illegal Cigarette Smuggling Ring Gets Extinguished In Wales Tobacco Crack Down
More than 60,000 illicit cigarettes and almost 160 kilos of tobacco, including a haul concealed in boxing punch bags – have been seized in south Wales.This week as HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) continues its crack down on those who smuggle and sell non duty paid tobacco products.
The punch bags, containing 53 kilos of loose tobacco, were seized at a Newport distribution centre before they could be delivered to a house in Cardiff.
Officers visiting Swansea and Carmarthenshire seized more than 32,000 cigarettes, 83 kilos of hand rolling tobacco, 60 cigars and a vehicle. The largest haul was in Llanelli, where 80 kilos of tobacco and 8,100 cigarettes were found after a search of a garage and a car parked outside a domestic property. The vehicle was seized. In a separate visit 19,300 cigarettes were discovered in a house in Ammanford.
Officers also worked in the south Wales valleys where they seized over 22,000 illicit cigarettes and 16 kilos of hand rolling tobacco. In Pontypridd, officers seized 7,600 cigarettes and almost 5 kilos of tobacco from a commercial property, along with 9060 cigarettes and almost 10 kilos of tobacco from a house in the town.Keith Morgan, Specialist Investigations for HMRC said:
“Our teams continue to use information to identify, investigate and pursue those whose profits come from evading tax. These criminals operate at an advantage over law abiding businesses and customers who pay the right amount of duty on their tobacco products.
“By buying ‘bargain’ cigarettes at cheap prices, customers unwillingly start trading with criminals who often use their ill gotten gains to fund other, more serious criminal activity. I would urge people tempted by cheap tobacco to think twice before handing over their cash – you could be helping to finance drug smuggling and more.”
Additional searches and seizures were made in Cardiff, Ebbw Vale, Tonypandy, Bargoed and Treherbert.
Anyone with information about smuggling can contact the Customs Hotline on 0800 59 5000.
SCF campus may move to go tobacco-free
The local community college campus may be going smoke-free.
Lars Hafner, president of State College of Florida, told board members Monday that students had been talking to him about the possibility of a tobacco-free campus.
At SCF’s Venice campus, students recently held a forum about the matter, he told the board.“Down in Venice, they’ve started to aggressively pursue that,” he said. “It’s a student-driven initiative.”
If student groups formally seek a change in the college’s policies, it would fall to the Board of Trustees to decide the issue, Hafner said. If the board voted to ban tobacco, it would apply to the Bradenton campus as well as those in Lakewood Ranch and Venice, he said.
Under the school’s current policy, smoking is already prohibited inside every building, officials said. People may smoke only outdoors and in designated areas, they said.
“Let me emphasize this is in the exploration stage, and it’s too soon to guess what the outcome might be,” said Kathy Walker, director of public affairs and marketing, after the meeting.
“Based on students’ requests that the administration consider a tobacco-free policy, Dr. Hafner asked the college’s attorney to look at the statute and give an opinion about the board’s ability to implement a recommendation banning tobacco,” she said. “The statute is 1001.64(5), and it’s somewhat ambiguous on this precise point. There is no firm time line for when this will be decided.”
A tobacco ban also might be paired with smoking-cessation classes to help students and employees quit smoking, Hafner said.
Student Cathy Swackhammer, 42, of Bradenton, was sitting in a designated smoking area Monday, puffing away.
She was not very enthusiastic about the idea of a ban on smoking.
“It’s a complete open-air campus, so why make it smoke-free?” she said as she worked on her laptop.
“We have designated smoking sections. I believe the reason they’re doing it is because they’re going to be starting younger students here.”
She referred to SCF’s plans to launch a collegiate charter school that would eventually serve grades 6-12.
But she said that although she has smoked since she was 15, with the right incentive, she would be willing to try to quit.
“Honestly, the big thing is money,” she said. “It’s expensive to smoke, it’s expensive to go to school.”
Student Julian Givins, 24, of Bradenton, said a campus-wide ban on smoking would be controversial, but he did not consider it very important to him personally.
“I don’t smoke,” he said. “As long as people aren’t right up under me (smoking), I don’t care.”
Cigarette Smuggling Case Discussed in January
A decision on possible court proceedings against a group of nationals from Montenegro, Italy and Serbia on their alleged involvement in an international cigarettes smuggling ring will be discussed in January, a court in Bari, Italy, decided.
According to local media, the decision on possible court proceedings will be determined on 18 January.They are accused of being involved in cigarette smuggling between 1994 and 2000, and the list includes seven Italians, five Montenegrins and two Serbs, broadcaster RTS reports.
The trial began in November 2001. The Prosecutor of Bari’s court, Giuseppe Scelsi, included Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic in the investigation due to his alleged role in the smuggling.
“For almost a decade, Montenegro has been a haven for illegal trafficking, where criminals acted with impunity, while the ports of Bar and Kotor were used as logistics bases for motor boats, with protection which was guaranteed by the government,” the court’s document says.
Djukanovic was in Bari last year answering questions from the prosecution. Soon after that, the case in relation to him was archived.
In a series of interviews with journalists, held in August, the prime minister’s former ally, Ratko Knezevic, said that tobacco smuggling grew once Djukanovic took power in Montenegro in 1997, referring to Djukanovic as the “cartel boss”.
By 1999-2000 the illicit trade was worth several billion dollars annually, according to EU and US agencies. Djukanovic struck back against these allegations, stressing that no proof has been presented since local media started reporting on his alleged involvement in mafia tobacco trading.
Scelsi told Podgorica daily Dan two weeks ago that Djukanovic could be tried for his alleged involvement in cigarette smuggling once he leaves politics.
“Milo Djukanovic is being protected by immunity while he is the prime minister and chief of state. The moment he no longer has immunity, he will be able to be tried in a special procedure, different from the one that involves seven citizens from Montenegro and Serbia, which began on November 11,” the daily quoted Scelsi as saying.
The Montenegrin prime minister said that he did not use his immunity when testifying before the Italian courts and that he will be suing Scelsi who used the immunity “as an emergency exit from the uncomfortable circumstances of leading a ten-year investigation without arguments.”
Towson University Bans Smoking On Campus
A local university is leading the way on a campus-wide smoking ban.
Towson University just passed a measure which would force smokers to light up off university grounds.
The university covers more than 300 acres — so if anyone wanthing to smoke on campus next fall could have to take a long walk to get out of the smoke-free zone.
“I think it’s a good idea because it’ll reduce second-hand smoke and in the long run, help us stay healthier longer,” student Brielle Kovalchek said.
Non-smokers are applauding the measure. Kovalchek said she often has to walk through a cloud of smoke to get to class.
“There are occasions when I have to throw my sweatshirt in the wash because I can smell the smoke on it,” Kovalchek said.
The ban covers the entire 328-acre campus, including all buildings, residence halls, exterior open spaces, parking lots and garages, as well as recreational spaces and on-campus streets and sidewalks.
Smokers such as Andrew Chambarry said they are concerned that the ban will push students to hover near York Road on the edge of campus to have a cigarette.
“I feel like they should set aside places where people can smoke, because right now they don’t have anything,” Chambarry said. “They’re going to have to go out on the sidewalks and streets to smoke cigarettes. If (they are) drunk and stumbling around, what if somebody gets hit by a car trying to smoke a cigarette.”
The Towson ban is the latest in a string of smoking measures aimed at reducing second-hand smoke.
Baltimore City outlawed smoking in bars and restaurants last year. At about the same time, state lawmakers shot down a move to fine drivers who light up with children in the car.
“I’ll always find a way to smoke a cigarette somewhere,” Chambarry said.
Chambarry said he understands the need to distance himself from non-smokers, but he’s concerned that the university’s ban will marginalize him and his friends.
“Over 30 percent of college students are smokers and that’s a large percentage. (We) have just as much a right to be a part of this campus,” Chambarry said.
Disciplinary action includes fines or sanctions.
Underage smoking ’should be illegal’
UNDERAGE smoking should be an offence like underage drinking, says the peak body for corner stores and petrol stations.
The Australasian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS) is calling on government to make it illegal for under 18s to smoke, handing police the power to issue fines or court attendance notices.
AACS executive director Sheryle Moon, says existing youth anti-smoking measures place a “disproportionate burden on retailers”.
“Where is the deterrent to make our kids stub out?” Ms Moon said in a statement.
“We believe it is high time that the responsibility for youth smoking is shared and our young people are given a reason to think twice before sparking up.
“We agree convenience stores have a key role to play in limiting minors access to cigarettes, but we can only do so much.”
It is now illegal for retailers to sell tobacco to minors and heavy fines apply if they do, but the law contains no means to penalise young people for buying or smoking cigarettes.
In contrast, if a child is sold or given alcohol on licensed premises then both the child and the licensee have committed an offence and can be punished under the nation’s liquor laws.
“We already have a zero tolerance policy for unaccompanied minors possessing alcohol, so why can’t we do the same with youth smoking?” Ms Moon asked.
“AACS is calling on our law makers to introduce prosecution and penalties for those who are caught in the act to show that they are serious about cutting youth smoking rates.”
Ms Moon said the Rudd government had set an ambitious target for Australia to be the healthiest country in the world by 2020, with decreasing the number of teenagers who smoke as a top priority.
While education and awareness campaigns for young people were essential, she said until there was a real disincentive for kids to light up then “we aren’t doing enough to reduce youth smoking”.
About 70,000 young people start smoking in Australia every year - that’s more than 190 a day.
Stafford Sanders, who co-ordinates a coalition of pressure groups called Protecting Children from Tobacco, said there was no evidence that making underage smoking illegal would reduce its incidence.
“It may even make it more glamorous, and more attractive, to some teenagers if they have a rebellious leaning,” Mr Sanders told AAP.
“This is a bit of a distraction by the Australian Association of Convenience Stores to take the spotlight off retailers breaking the law.”
Mr Sanders said convenience stores and service stations were some of the “worst offenders” when it came to the places where underage teens and children could obtain cigarettes.
The AACS could otherwise show its concern about these children by supporting calls to have tobacco products removed from view in stores, he said, or closing the loophole that allowed workers under 18 to sell cigarettes.
“It’s the responsibility of adults in our society to protect children, and not to sell them deadly and addictive drugs.”
