Center for Tobacco Products News

Times of India

MUMBAI: The racket, involving the smuggling of gutka pouches into Maharashtra from neighbouring states like Gujarat to be sold here at thrice the actual price, continues unabated in the thriving black market.

The blackmarketeers are making huge profits by selling the banned gutka and pan masala sachets by charging three times the actual prices. One popular brand of gutka, whose MRP is Rs 4, is being sold for Rs 13, and another brand, whose MRP is Rs 7, is sold for Rs 20.

By Riley Yates, OF THE MORNING CALLA handgun sneaked into Northampton County Prison late last year raised questions about security at the 800-inmate jail in Easton, and the ability of officials to keep contraband out of it.

But the prison’s No. 1 contraband problem isn’t even a crime.

Unlike the gun, or the cellphones a couple of inmates have been caught with, state law does not make it illegal to bring cigarettes — or even synthetic marijuana — into a lockup that prohibits tobacco. That, says Warden Todd Buskirk, hurts efforts to stanch a trade that corrupts guards and strengthens gang activity due to its huge financial rewards.

Though e cigarettes were beginning to be regarded in a positive way, with the media explaining that electric cigarettes were not dangerous, a recent FDA report has sent the entire e-cigarette industry reeling.

What the Media At first Announced

According to the media, e-cigs looked, tasted, and even had the feel of real cigarettes. Unlike tobacco cigarettes, however, the smokeless cigarettes made use of a water-based vapour juiced with nicotine. This vapour may be inhaled like cigarette smoke and provided the same level of satisfaction, but the quantity of nicotine was less than that used in low-volume nicotine products–like gums and patches–designed to wean smokers off high doses of nicotine.

Dr. Ernest Levister, Jr.

March 20, 2011|By Andrew Zajac, Tribune Washington Bureau

In crafting the 2009 tobacco law, Congress called for a ban on candy, fruit, spices and other flavorings in cigarettes because of their potential allure for young smokers. Menthol flavoring was not banned because declaring nearly one-third of the cigarette market illegal was thought to be too disruptive and politically unpalatable.

Menthol cigarettes also have a racial dimension: They are preferred by 80 percent of black smokers, and spokesmen for several black civic groups have stepped forward to assert that a ban would unfairly target black consumers.