Over the past few years Europe has adopted a much harsher stance on smoking through tariffs and public smoking bans.  The most notable of smoke-friendly countries, France, too adopted a smoking ban that very much came down on café culture, and now Greece has added itself to the mix.

The new law is charged with banning smoking in enclosed public spaces and tobacco advertising.  This is the second

Image courtesy of AFP

time in just over a year that the Greek government has attempted to curb smoking in the country.  An estimated 40% of Greek adults smoke, which is well above the EU national average of 29%.

Smokers who violate the law risk being fined hundreds of euros and businesses may have to pay several thousand. On the flip-side, café and restaurant owners are crying out accusing the government of targeting them in a time of economic crisis.  Starting today (1 September) smokers who break this new law can be fined up to 500 euros (£413; $636).  Businesses may have to pay up to 10,000 euros.

Just as we are accustomed here in the US, the Greek government is instituting this law under the guise of protecting public health.  Ironically enough, the government also commented that the Greek people should be more conscious overall of their actions citing the recently-adopted austerity plan to be used as a tool to resurrect the near-bankrupt economy as a metaphor.

A little over one year ago the Greek government imposed restrictions on smoking in various public places which were largely ignored by everyone. The government claims this new smoking ban covers a wider range of locations as a means to truly seem serious about it this time around, but only time will tell if the new law is enforced and if the Greek people learn to respect it.

Article by Rob Jennings of the Daily Record, published 12 August 2010

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DENVILLE — A new anti-smoking ordinance that was supposed to take effect Wednesday was not being enforced because the town failed to post the required notification signs, officials said.

“Until it’s posted, we’re not going to go out and enforce it,” Denville Police Lt. Scott Kansky said.

Municipal Clerk Donna Costello said the ordinance was due to go into effect Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear why the signs were not ready in time for the law’s starting date, or when they might arrive.

Kansky said that notifying the public about a new law is not the responsibility of the police department.

As we all know there are very few places where as cigar smokers we can sit down, relax, and just puff away.  When you think of taking a vacation as a cigar lover a few scenarios pop into your mind: either you choose a destination like the Dominican Republic in hopes of seeing “tobacco country,” you go somewhere where there are reputed tobacconists so you can add to your humidor, or at the very least choose  a place that in some way or another is smoke friendly.  I’ve definitely heard of nonsensical actions like Amtrak not allowing cigars or pipes in the smoking car of their Auto Train, but now I have heard it all: Carnival Cruises now wants to take many of their cigar bars — a place on ships actually named the Cigar Bar — and restrict smoking.

Carnival’s blogger and Senior Cruise Editor John Heald revealed on Friday that Carnival will be testing a more restrictive smoking policy on many of its popular ships.  The cruise line itself has historically had a more relaxed approach to smoking since most of its ships do have cigar bars and various other open-air decks & locales where smoking is permitted.  Although he states that no final decision has been made and this is just an experiment, large ships such as the Destiny, Freedom, and Glory are now entirely non-smoking despite each behemoth of a ship actually having been built with a designated smoking room.  Supposedly to not completely restrict cigar and cigarette smokers Carnival’s administration is testing out other locations for smoking that are well-removed from other highly trafficked parts of the vessel.

I think what strikes me as absolutely moronic (outside of having a cigar bar that doesn’t allow smoking) is  the way these ships were designed was basically set up to encourage complaints from non-smokers: on many of Carnival’s ships one has to walk through the cigar bar in order to access the internet café.  Many non-smokers have apparently stressed to Carnival’s powers-that-be that while they enjoy the live music in the cigar bar, they don’t enjoy the smoking.  Pardon me while I tap into my inner Dennis Miller, but give me a break: it’s a cruise ship for Christ’s sake and there is entertainment EVERYWHERE.  I went on a Carnival cruise once in my life and what kept me sane was the cigar bar because it got me away from small children with absentee parents, oddly-themed bingo games, and dance clubs with DJs who obviously failed the wedding circuit because they embrace Kool & the Gang just a little too much.

As a cigar lover himself, John Heald admits he is a bit torn over this issue, but he is conducting a poll on his Facebook page wanting to know what consumers think of this measure, so I suggest you express your opinion if you love cigars and taking cruises.  What do YOU think about this??

Nat Sherman

Presents

The 2010 Cigar Masters Event Series

With the New York launch of the new

La Gloria Cubana

Artesanos de Tabaqueros

Thursday May 13th

6 – 9pm

Nat Sherman International

12 East 42nd Street at Fifth Ave.

Be the first to experience this new creation from

la Gloria Cubana

Nat Sherman will be hosting the official New York Launch of the new Artesanos de Tabaqueros cigar, from La Gloria Cubana.  Blended with two different wrappers, from two distinct countries, this new addition to the La Gloria portfolio is a true opportunity to taste first hand the best of what the Dominican Republic and Honduras have to offer.

Very Limited Special Offer:

Buy any box and receive a limited edition

la Gloria Cubana Lacquer Lighter

$250 Value

www.natsherman.com

(800) MYCIGAR

FDA Seeking to Regulate Cigars

This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has published a notice in the Federal Register that the agency intends to adopt a rule that would subject cigars to the regulations under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act passed by Congress and which took effect in June of 2009 (a copy of the notice as published in the Federal Register accompanies this NATO E-News Bulletin).  This law already allows the FDA to regulate cigarettes, roll-your-own and smokeless tobacco products under the FDA regulatory law.

The actual notice published by the FDA this week reads as follows:

Legal Authority: 21 USC 301, The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act; PL 111-31,
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

Abstract: The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (the Tobacco Control Act)
provides FDA authority to regulate cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco, and

smokeless tobacco.  Section 901 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, as amended by
the Tobacco Control Act, permits FDA to issue regulations deeming other tobacco products to
be subject to the Tobacco Control Act. This proposed rule would deem cigars to be subject to
the Tobacco Control Act and include provisions to address public health concerns raised by cigars.

Under Section 901 of the FDA law, the agency has the power to extend regulations to other tobacco products.  Specifically, Section 901(b) states as follows:

Sec. 901(b) APPLICABILITY.—This chapter shall apply to all cigarettes, cigarette tobacco,        roll-your-own tobacco, and smokeless tobacco and to any other tobacco products that the Secretary by regulation deems to be subject to this chapter.

This notice issued by the FDA means that sometime in June of 2010 the agency will issue a proposed rule regarding the regulation of cigars and allow the public to submit comments to the rule.  NATO intends to submit comments to the FDA after the proposed rule has been published in June.

NATO Sends Illinois State Representatives a PACT Act Impact Letter

Facing a possible $1.00 per pack increase in the Illinois cigarette tax, NATO has continued with its new strategy of educating lawmakers about the tax windfall that states will receive due to the passage of the federal Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act (also known as the PACT Act).  This week, NATO faxed a letter to all Illinois state representatives informing them of the estimated tax windfall the state will receive after the PACT Act goes into effect on July 1, 2010.  A copy of that letter accompanies this NATO E-News Bulletin.

Similar letters have already been sent by NATO to lawmakers in Kansas, Minnesota, New Hampshire and New York as well as the South Carolina governor.

Lawmakers Being Informed of Expected Tax Windfall Due to Passage of PACT Act

This month, NATO has launched a new strategy in states where lawmakers are proposing to raise cigarette and tobacco product tax rates.  This strategy focuses on educating lawmakers about the tax windfall that all 50 states will receive due to the passage of the federal Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act (also known as the PACT Act).  Currently, states are losing an estimated $1.4 billion a year in state excise taxes and sales taxes on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products sold over the Internet.

However, the regulations under the PACT Act requiring Internet sellers to collect cigarette/smokeless taxes plus sales taxes and remit those taxes to states along with the new regulation prohibiting the delivery of these tobacco products through the U.S. Mail will significantly reduce Internet sales.  Without being able to buy these products at a significantly lower price over the Internet, consumers will revert to buying tobacco products at local stores resulting in the tax windfall to states.

Armed with this information, NATO is sending lawmakers in targeted states a letter informing them about the passage of the PACT Act, the amount of tobacco taxes and sales taxes being lost by states, and an estimate of the size of the tax windfall that their respective state may expect to receive.  In some cases, the size of the expected tax windfall is estimated to be more than the additional revenue the state might collect if the cigarette and/or smokeless tobacco rates were increased.  In other cases, the estimated tax windfall may allow lawmakers to reduce the amount of any proposed tax increase.

So far, NATO has sent letters regarding the imminent PACT Act tax windfall to lawmakers in Kansas ($.55 per pack cigarette tax increase and OTP tax increase from 10% to 40%), Minnesota (taxing little cigars as cigarettes), New Hampshire ($.20 per pack cigarette tax increase), New York ($1.00 per pack cigarette tax increase), and South Carolina ($.50 per pack cigarette tax increase).  A copy of the letters sent by NATO to New York lawmakers and New Hampshire lawmakers as well as a press release issued by U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY) accompany this NATO E-News Bulletin.

Other Legislative News:

Maine: In cooperation with several other trade groups, NATO opposed a Maine bill that sought to ban most flavored cigars.  This effort has led to the Maine legislature passing a bill that allows the sale of premium cigars (those cigars that weigh more than three pounds per 1,000 cigars and wrapped in whole leaf tobacco) and allows the sale of those cigars previously determined by the state attorney general as having no characterizing flavor or otherwise exempt from the ban so long as there is no material change to the cigar’s flavoring, packaging or labeling subsequent to the attorney general’s determination.

Washington State: The Washington state legislature passed tax increases which include a $1.00/pack cigarette tax increase (new rate $3.025/pack), an increase in the OTP rate from 75% to 95% with an increase in the tax cap on cigars from $.50/cigar to $.65/cigar and a weight based tax on moist snuff of $2.526 or 83.05% of the cigarette tax rate for a 1.2 ounce package.  The cigarette and OTP tax increases go into effect on May 1, 2010 and there is no floor stocks tax.  The weight based tax on moist snuff goes into effect on October 1, 2010.

Below is an article from CNN.com published this morning.  I heard about it on my local news here in Manhattan and was rather alarmed by it.  Apparently good ole’ RJ Reynolds has introduced a new product onto the market for those who wish to get that nicotine rush from a cigarette but cannot indoors due to the laws: this smokeless tobacco pellet is supposedly the size and shape of a tic-tac and comes in two flavours.

This is a problem and not just the problem discussed in the article below.  Issues like children swallowing these pills and getting “poisoned” is the LAST thing the tobacco industry needs because we get enough negative press as it is.  I’m sure I can speak for all cigar smokers that the laws that have gone into effect over the last few years definitely show the government wants to make no clear delineation between cigarette and cigar smokers, but now this just makes everyone look that much worse.  All the anti-smoking zealots love to use the term “poison” already, but now children are in the mix and now this product is going to make it that much worse for all of us…..

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CNN.com, 19 April: A new generation of smokeless, flavored tobacco products that look like breath mints or breath-freshening strips may be life-threatening for children who mistake them for candy, according to researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“Nicotine is a poison, and now we’re seeing smokeless tobacco products that look like Tic Tacs or M&M’s, which parents can leave on the counter and children can be attracted to,” says Greg N. Connolly, D.M.D., the director of the Tobacco Control Research Group at the Harvard School of Public Health, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Connolly led a research team that found that smokeless tobacco products are the second most common cause of nicotine poisoning in children, after cigarettes. The researchers reviewed data from 61 poison control centers and identified 13,705 cases of tobacco ingestion between 2006 and 2008, the vast majority of which were in infants. Smokeless tobacco was involved in 1,768 of the cases.

The new products — currently being test-marketed in three cities — include Camel Orbs, which resemble breath mints; Camel Sticks, which are about the size of a toothpick and dissolve in the mouth; and Camel Strips, which are similar to breath-freshening strips. Small, teabag-like “snus” — pouches filled with tobacco that are placed between the upper lip and gum — are also a potential hazard, according to the study, which appears in the journal Pediatrics.

These products are not smoking cessation aids; rather, they are marketed as a nicotine alternative in places where smoking isn’t allowed.

Although children in the study were most often poisoned from eating cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products in general, the researchers single out the new, dissolvable products — especially Camel Orbs — as a “major concern.” Orbs are available in cinnamon and mint flavors and could easily be mistaken for candy, the researchers say.

“The candy form can only mean trouble, particularly for children and infants,” says Connolly. “And snus are attractive, flavorful, and easily ingested by an infant or child.”

R.J. Reynolds spokesman David Howard says that the packaging of Camel Orbs and the other dissolvable products is “100 percent child-resistant in accordance with Consumer Product Safety Commission standards” and bears a label that says “Keep Out of Reach of Children.” Adults, he adds, should ensure that “children do not have access to any tobacco products — including dissolvable tobacco products.”

Still, the researchers say, the pellets could find their way into children’s mouths. Nicotine poisoning can cause nausea or vomiting, and severe cases can result in convulsions, respiratory failure, and even death. Just under 0.5 milligrams of nicotine per pound of body weight is the minimum lethal dose for children, according to Connolly.

A chemical analysis conducted by Connolly and his colleagues found that Camel Orbs contain an average of 0.83 milligrams of nicotine in each pellet. Some of the nicotine is “un-ionized,” which allows for more rapid absorption and may be more toxic than other forms of the drug, they write.

“A small pellet with a rapid release of nicotine and a young child with a low body weight can be a very serious problem,” Connolly says. “We have to look at high-risk groups who may ingest these thinking that they are candy and be very cautious about dispensing them and not leaving them around.”

Regulators, he adds, “must ask tough questions about who is at risk from these products, and who we are trying to help with them.”

To focus on the poison risk of Camel Orbs and dissolvable nicotine products is “remarkably selective,” Howard says. He points out that Connolly and his colleagues make no mention of nicotine gums and lozenges used in smoking cessation, which are also available in a range of flavors and resemble candy and gum.

In a commentary accompanying the study, officials from the Center for Tobacco Products at the Food and Drug Administration write that dissolvable tobacco products “pose unique concerns for public health authorities.” Dr. Marisa Cruz, M.D., and Dr. Lawrence Deyton, M.D., write that the FDA has requested research on the products from tobacco companies and will hold a series of public meetings to help develop a regulatory policy.

The FDA has broad authority to regulate tobacco products under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which was signed into law last June. Later that fall, the agency banned the sale of candy- and fruit-flavored cigarettes.

“I would feel safer if the FDA…looked at the packaging [of these products] as well as their safety,” says Dr. Jonathan P. Winickoff, M.D., an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.

While accidental infant poisonings are certainly cause for concern, purposeful ingestion of smokeless tobacco products by kids and teens may be a larger problem, Winickoff points out. As the study notes, the use of smokeless tobacco products among adolescents increased 6 percent per year from 2002 to 2006.

“An adolescent thinks this is harmless because it looks harmless, but they’re exposing their brain to nicotine, and there’s a chance that they would be primed to develop a nicotine addiction,” says Winickoff, who was not involved in the study. “If teens ended up using smokeless product because they are attracted to candy flavors and they end up getting addicted to nicotine, the public health benefit of smokeless tobacco is neutralized.”

One of the study authors, Terry F. Pechacek, Ph.D., the associate director for science at the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health in Atlanta said that more than half of people who use smokeless tobacco are underage.

Products such as Camel Orbs, he says, “look like candy, are more easily concealed, and can be used at school or in front of parents. That raises even greater concerns.”

Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009 (PACT Act)

1.  The PACT Act applies specifically to cigarettes (defined to include ryo cigarette tobacco) and smokeless tobacco.  Cigars are specifically excluded. The Attorney General of the United States is charged with administering and enforcing the Act, which is effective 90 days after the President signs it into law.

2.  Purposes:

(1) require Internet and other remote sellers of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to comply with the same laws that apply to law-abiding tobacco retailers;

(2) create strong disincentives to illegal smuggling of tobacco products;

(3) provide government enforcement officials with more effective enforcement tools to combat tobacco smuggling;

(4) make it more difficult for cigarette and smokeless tobacco traffickers to engage in and profit from their illegal activities;

(5) increase collections of Federal, State, and local excise taxes on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco; and

(6) prevent and reduce youth access to inexpensive cigarettes and smokeless tobacco through illegal Internet or contraband sales.

3.  The PACT Act amends the Jenkins Act (15 U.S.C. 375), a 1949 federal law requiring those shipping cigarettes into a state to other than a licensed distributor  to first register with the state and then file reports on a monthly basis.  The PACT Act amends the Jenkins Act to:

a.)  Re-define “cigarette” to include ryo cigarette tobacco.  The Act specifically states  “The term `cigarette’ does not include a cigar (as defined in section 5702 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986).”

b.)  Broaden coverage to include smokeless tobacco.

c.)  Require reports be filed with state tobacco tax administrators, the Attorney General of the United States, the state attorneys general or chief law enforcement officers of the local Governments, and Indian tribes operating within the borders of the State that impose their own local or tribal taxes on cigarettes or smokeless tobacco.

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d.)  Define “delivery sale” to mean the sale of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco to a consumer if the consumer submits the order by means of a telephone, FAX, the mails, or the Internet or the seller is not in the physical presence of the buyer.  Delivery sellers are required to comply with shipping and recordkeeping requirements and all State, local, tribal and other laws generally applicable as if the delivery sale occurred entirely within the specific State and place, including laws imposing—

(A) excise taxes;

(B) licensing and tax-stamping requirements;

(C) restrictions on sales to minors; and

(D) other payment obligations or legal requirements relating to the sale, distribution, or delivery of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco; and

e.)  Require delivery sellers to pay the appropriate state and local excise taxes in advance of the sale or delivery. (Does not apply to a delivery sale of smokeless tobacco if the law of the State or local government where the smokeless tobacco is to be delivered requires  delivery sellers to collect the excise tax from the consumer and remit the excise tax to the State or local government, and the delivery seller complies with that requirement.)

f.)  Impose shipping and packaging requirements:

(1) REQUIRED STATEMENT- For any shipping package containing cigarettes or smokeless tobacco, the delivery seller shall include on the bill of lading, if any, and on the outside of the shipping package, on the same surface as the delivery address, a clear and conspicuous statement providing as follows:

CIGARETTES/SMOKELESS TOBACCO: FEDERAL LAW REQUIRES THE PAYMENT OF ALL APPLICABLE EXCISE TAXES, AND COMPLIANCE WITH APPLICABLE LICENSING AND TAX-STAMPING OBLIGATIONS’.

(2) FAILURE TO LABEL- Any shipping package that is not labeled will be treated as nondeliverable matter by a common carrier or other delivery service, if the common carrier or other delivery service knows or should know the package contains cigarettes or smokeless tobacco. If a common carrier or other delivery service believes a package is being submitted for delivery in violation of paragraph (1), it may require the person submitting the package for delivery to establish that it is not being sent in violation of paragraph (1) before accepting the package for delivery. The common carrier or other delivery service is not required to open any package to determine its contents.

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(3) WEIGHT RESTRICTION- A delivery seller shall not sell, offer for sale, deliver, or cause to be delivered in any single sale or single delivery any cigarettes or smokeless tobacco weighing more than 10 pounds.

(4) AGE VERIFICATION-  Delivery sellers cannot sell or deliver tobacco products (cigarettes and smokeless tobacco) to persons under the minimum age.

The delivery seller must use a method of mailing or shipping that requires that the purchaser placing the order or an adult to sign for the delivery contained at the delivery address, and the person who signs to accept delivery must provide proof, in the form of a valid, government-issued identification bearing a photograph of the person, that the person is at least the minimum age for purchasing tobacco products.

The seller shall not accept a deliver sale order from a person without obtaining the person’s full name, birth date, and residential address.  That information must be verified through the use of a commercially available database or aggregate of databases consisting primarily of data from government sources that are regularly used by government and businesses for the purpose of age and identity.

The database being used for age and identity verification must not be in the possession or under the control of the delivery seller.

g.) Require delivery sellers to keep records for four years of their sales organized by State, and within a State, by city or town and by zip code.  They must be available to State tobacco tax administrators, local governments and Indian tribes that apply local or tribal taxes, state attorneys general and the Attorney General of the U.S.

h.)  Require the U.S. Attorney General to compile a list of delivery sellers of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco that have either not registered with the U.S. attorney general or who are not in compliance with the requirements of the PACT Act and distribute that list to the all state attorneys general and every state tax administrator, common carriers and other firms that deliver small packages to consumers in interstate commerce (including the U.S. Postal Service).  He/she must also publicize and make the list available to any other person engaged in the business of interstate and intrastate deliveries.

The U.S. Attorney General is also required to update and distribute the list at least once every 4 months.  Any noncomplying delivery sellers identified by any State,

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local, or tribal government are required to be on the list.  The Attorney General must distribute the list to the state attorneys general, the state tax administrator of any state government submitting any such information, and any common carriers or other persons who deliver small packages to consumers.

PROHIBITION ON DELIVERY:  60 days after distribution of the list, no person who receives it and no person who delivers cigarettes or smokeless tobacco to consumers shall knowingly complete, cause to be completed, or complete its portion of a delivery of any package for any person whose name and address are on the list, unless—

(i) the person making the delivery knows or believes in good faith that the item does not include cigarettes or smokeless tobacco;

(ii) the delivery is made to a person lawfully engaged in the business of manufacturing, distributing, or selling cigarettes or smokeless tobacco; or

(iii) the package being delivered weighs more than 100 pounds and the person making the delivery does not know or have reasonable cause to believe that the package contains cigarettes or smokeless tobacco.

EXEMPTIONS:  The Act pre-empts the states, local government and tribes – or any political authority of 2 or more states, local governments or tribes – from enacting or enforcing their own laws or regulations relating to delivery sales that restrict deliveries of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco to consumers by common carrier or other delivery services by

(i) requiring that the common carrier or other delivery service verify the age or identity of the consumer accepting the delivery by requiring the person who signs to accept delivery of the shipping container to provide proof, in the form of a valid, government-issued identification bearing a photograph of the individual, that the person is at least the minimum age required for the legal sale or purchase of tobacco products, as determined by either State or local law at the place of delivery;

(ii) requiring that the common carrier or other delivery service obtain a signature from the consumer accepting the delivery;

(iii) requiring that the common carrier or other delivery service verify that all applicable taxes have been paid;

(iv) requiring that packages delivered by the common carrier or other delivery service contain any particular labels, notice, or markings; or

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(v) prohibiting common carriers or other delivery services from making deliveries on the basis of whether the delivery seller is or is not identified on any list of delivery sellers maintained and distributed by any entity other than the Federal Government.

i)  Impose criminal penalties for violating the Jenkins Act including imprisonment for not more than 3 years, fines or both.  In addition, civil penalties include – the greater of $5,000 for the first violation and $10,000 for any other violation, or for any violation, 2% of the gross sales of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco of the delivery seller during the one-year period ending on the date of the violation.  Penalties also include the payment of any unpaid taxes.

4.  STATE LAWS PROHIBITING DELIVERY SALES: Nothing in the PACT Act or in any other Federal statute shall be construed to preempt, supersede, or otherwise limit or restrict State laws prohibiting delivery sales of cigarettes or other tobacco products to individual consumers or personal residences.

5. In general, cigarettes and smokeless tobacco are prohibited from being deposited in or carried through the mails.  The United States Postal Service

shall not accept for delivery or transmit through the mails any package that it knows or has reasonable cause to believe contains any cigarettes or smokeless

tobacco.  Cigars are specifically excluded from this ban.  The ban will not apply to mailings within the State of Alaska or within the State of Hawaii.

The ban will not apply to tobacco products mailed for business purposes between legally operating businesses that have all the applicable State and Federal government licenses or permits and are engaged in tobacco product manufacturing, distribution, wholesale, export, import, testing, investigation or research.   Nor will it apply for regulatory purposes between such businesses and an agency of the Federal government or a state government.  There are also provisions allowing  individuals to return damaged or unacceptable product to the manufacturer, and for cigarette manufacturers to mail tax paid cigarettes to verified adult smokers solely for business testing purposes, but not into those states which prohibit the delivery of cigarettes to consumers in that state.

The Postmaster General will issue a final rule establishing the standards and requirements pertaining to the ban 180 days after the PACT Act becomes law.

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6.  Enforcement: The US Attorney General is charged with administering and enforcing the PACT Act.  Jurisdiction lies within US District Courts.  State attorneys general and local governments who levy tobacco taxes can bring actions in federal and state courts.  In addition, any  permitted manufacturer or importer of tobacco products may bring action in federal district court to prevent and restrain violations of the PACT Act, though they must inform the US Attorney General of the action.

7.  ATF Inspections:  ATF officers are allowed to enter the premises of cigarette and smokeless tobacco companies during normal business hours for inspection purposes.

8.  Coordination of Law Enforcement:  The PACT Act permits coordinated law enforcement efforts by 1 or more States or other jurisdictions that provide for the administration of tobacco product laws pertaining to interstate sales or other sales of tobacco products and the establishment of cooperative programs for the administration of such laws.

9.  Sense of Congress Concerning the Precedential Effect of the Act:  The Act is “intended to help collect cigarette excise taxes, to stop tobacco sales to underage youth, and to help the States enforce their laws that target the online sales of certain tobacco products only.  This Act is in no way meant to create a precedent regarding the collection of State sales or use taxes by, or the validity of efforts to impose other types of taxes on, out-of-State entities that do not have a physical presence within the taxing State.”

Cigar Association of America

March 18, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Contact: HHS Press Office
(202) 690-6343

MEDIA ADVISORY
For Thursday, March 18, 2010

FDA Issues Final Rule Restricting Access and Marketing of Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco Products to Youth

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Howard K. Koh, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg, will hold a press briefing to announce a final rule containing a broad set of federal requirements designed to both curb access to, as well as to reduce the appeal of, cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products to children and adolescents in the United States. The final rule will be published in the Federal Register on March 18, 2010, and will become effective on June 22, 2010.

WHO: Kathleen Sebelius, HHS Secretary
Howard K. Koh, M.D., M.P.H., HHS Assistant Secretary for Health
Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., FDA Commissioner

WHEN: Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 1:30 PM EDT.

WHERE: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20201