Smoking linked to breast cancer?

A STATEMENT by the Department of Health (DoH) and the Philippine Cancer Society (PCS) says breast cancer is the most common of cancers in the Philippines, with 16 percent of the 50,000 diagnosed cases. (2010 Philippine Cancer Facts and Estimates).

In relation to the concern, recent findings have suggested a link between cigarette-smoking and breast cancer.

According to Reuters Health, a study was conducted last year saying that there is an increased chance of death if the patient is smoking cigarettes. The research focuses on the impact of the duration of smoking on women with this kind of tumor, and it is the first do so, according to the co-author of the study Dr. Masaaki Kawai.

“Among more than 800 women with breast cancer, those who had smoked for more than two decades had at least triple the odds of dying of any cause, or from breast cancer in particular, compared with women who never used cigarettes,” Reuters Health states.

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Tobacco has its obvious effects, but despite this, cigarettes remain their reputation as strong marketable merchandise in the Philippines.

Furthermore, the likelihood of the youth replacing adult smokers is an increasing risk.

“The Philippines will continue to be Southeast Asia’s second largest tobacco consumers if young Filipinos are not stopped from smoking,” the New Vois Association of the Philippines (NVAP) warns.

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TRIVIA PA MORE:

Quoting Dr. Arturo V. Rotor in his book, “Living With Folk Wisdom,” he says: “With all the empty plastic bottles around, you can prepare safe drinking water just by adding crushed seeds of malunggay. Fill up a liter size bottle with water coming from the top or if you are in the province, a deep well or spring.

“Add two malunggay seeds crushed by hand. Allow to set up for two to three hours or until the sediments have settled down. Slowly transfer the filtrate to another bottle for immediate or future use.”

•

Send your questions on anything and everything to Kuya Kim through my Twitter account @kuyakim_atienza using #AlaminKayKuyaKim.

Ating tuklasin ang mga bagay-bagay na di niyo pa alam. Walang ’di susuungin, lahat aalamin. Ito po si Kuya Kim, Matanglawin, only here in TEMPO. 

Resource : http://tempo.com.ph/2017/07/07/smoking-linked-to-breast-cancer/

Signs are that cigarette bans are working, says Cumbria health boss

Ten years ago smoking was the biggest public health issue facing Cumbria and it hasn’t gone away.

But the number of young people taking up the habit has dropped dramatically and experts believe the ban on smoking in pubs, clubs and workplaces has been key.

The county’s public health director, Colin Cox, goes as far as predicting the days of tobacco smoking are numbered, saying it is becoming less and less socially acceptable.

When it came into force across England a decade ago, the smoking ban was controversial legislation.

Those opposing it claimed it was a breach of human rights and predicted pubs and clubs would go out of business as punters would stop going out if they could no longer smoke inside.

But Mr Cox said those fears have proved unfounded and the actual result has been a reduction in smoking which he believes will continue until tobacco smoking is all but extinct in England.

Vaping may have taken over as an alternative but although he’d prefer people to quit completely, he believes it to be safer than tobacco – which he says is still the most harmful thing for your health.

However, despite the ban’s success, Mr Cox is not convinced that similar legislation can be used to tackle other public health issues – such as obesity – with quite the same level of success.

“It’s not quite as straightforward. Food is more complicated. Smoking is easy in a way because the answer is clear. But we all need to eat so the message inevitably becomes more complicated.

“Things like introducing the sugar tax will help but it is a much more complicated issue to legislate,” he said.

When the smoking ban came into force, Mr Cox was working in Manchester. He moved to Cumbria in 2014.

He believes the legislation was without doubt the right thing to do. “It was something that we’d been campaigning for for a long time. It was one of those where you have a campaign going on for a long time, then public opinion catches up and overtakes it,” he said.

“There were two main things for me. The main scientific reason was about passive smoking in pubs, restaurants and other public places.

“We’d got to a point where, in about 1993, health and safety rules meant it was being banned in most offices. It became unacceptable and people would have been horrified if someone had lit up in the middle of the office, yet it was still accepted in pubs and clubs, despite the fact that most of the population didn’t smoke. Smoking was still seen as normal.

“Because of this smoking was still part of the culture. Particularly for young people coming into the pub culture for the first time, they may not have smoked before but it was easy to get into.

“Legislation can really change culture. If you think back to when a lot of us were younger, nobody thought twice about drink driving. Now it is very much frowned upon.”

Mr Cox, director of public health at Cumbria County Council, said Cumbria still has higher than average numbers of hospital admissions attributable to smoking, though smoking-related deaths are similar to those across the rest of England. However, it is the younger generations that he feels are really benefiting 10 years on from the ban.

National figures show that the number of 15-year-olds who smoke has dropped from about 20 per cent to eight per cent in the last 12 years and locally they have also seen it drop.

“Even in the last five years, both nationally and here in Cumbria, it is estimated that the smoking prevalence has dropped from 20 to 15 per cent. It’s a real success story,” he said.

“The decline among young people has been particularly dramatic. I think a chunk of that is to do with the ban. It has changed the culture and stopped people from taking up smoking. There has also been the rise in vaping but that’s more recent.”

Mr Cox believes the ban’s success has paved the way for further legislation – such as the introduction of plain packaging and removing cigarettes sales points from public view – which is gradually phasing out tobacco use.

“Packaging is about the only form of advertising that tobacco companies had left and they have used it very effectively,” he said.

“When you see the rate that smoking has declined, with only eight per cent of 15-year-olds now smoking, we would hope these people wouldn’t take it up later on as it’s now very much a minority pastime.”

He said tobacco companies are now moving their attention to vaping in line with the declining demand for traditional cigarettes.

“My guess is that, in this country at least, we will get to a point where smoking leaf tobacco in cigarettes is very rare. It may be that people are still using other nicotine delivery systems but not cigarettes. In a way that smoking a pipe still exists but it’s very, very niche,” he said.

Asked whether the ban could be extended much further, he said it was doubtful. “There’s a couple of things that have happened recently. Now smoking isn’t allowed in cars where children are present which is a good thing but is quite difficult to enforce.

"I think that’s probably about as far as these bans can go.

“Hospitals are another issue. I think all hospitals grounds should be smoke-free and they are in theory but it’s not really enforced. There is probably a bit more that can be done there.

Smoking in pubs is an alien concept to many younger drinkers, who have grown up without it being the norm.

Edith Taylor, who has run the Lion and Lamb in Wigton with partner David Browbank for 15 years, said that although they lost a few customers in the early days, they have adapted.

She said: “I wouldn’t say it’s an issue for us now. People are used to it. They just go outside automatically now.

“When it first happened we lost a few. I personally think it would have been better to allow pubs to have a room where people could go to smoke, but it’s too late for that now.

“Ten years is a long time and I don’t think people smoke as much these days. It’s more these vapes, that’s the trend

 “Younger people have grown up with it like this. This is all they’ve known. They don’t even realise you could smoke in pubs.”

She said she was not against smoking, but did feel there was less risk to staff now it was outside.

She added that the atmosphere in pubs is now a lot clearer and they don’t have to redecorate as often.

Public health director Colin Cox said pubs locally do respect the ban and have adapted well.

It is policed by district councils’ environmental health departments, and he is not aware of any recent cases where pubs in Cumbria have had legal action taken against them as a result. He firmly believes a culture change has come about, and there would be no public support for a return to smoking in pubs.


“There are also more specialised places where regulations might be worth thinking about. For example, mental health in-patient units do allow people to smoke outdoors but would moving to vaping be an option?

“There is talk about stopping people smoking in highly populated streets or public places but I’m not sure we are there yet.”

He stressed that although smoking is in decline, it does still happen and he would urge those who do to access local stop-smoking services, which are still available, via community pharmacies.

“The message is that smoking is still one of the most harmful things you can do to your health. If you do not smoke, do not start, and if you do smoke, stop if you can or if you can’t, switch to vaping.

“We do not know fully about the safety of vaping but I can’t see it ever being found to be less safe than smoking,” he said.

As for the pub trade, Mr Cox does not believe they have suffered because of the ban.

“I think pubs have just adapted. There’s no doubt that there has been a declining trend but that had been going on for years, before the smoking legislation changed.

“When you look at graphs you can’t really see where the smoking ban came in. You get people saying that pubs lost lots of business, but they didn’t,” he added.

Resource :http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/lifestyle/features/article/Signs-are-that-cigarette-bans-are-working-says-Cumbria-health-boss-c5afd37b-73bc-41ef-a8a7-8f0d75adbb11-ds

No buying tobacco under the age of 21, Oregon lawmakers decide

Oregonians under the age of 21 will not be able to buy cigarettes come Jan. 1.

Oregon is about to become the third state in the nation to raise the age for buying tobacco products, following a 39-to-20 vote in the Oregon House on Thursday. The Senate passed the measure in March, 19 to 8.

Senate Bill 754 was scheduled to return to the Senate late Thursday for expected concurrence because the House amended the bill to make it clear that possessing tobacco isn’t illegal for those under 21.

Gov. Kate Brown is all in on anti-smoking laws and is expected to sign the bill with some relish.

Only California and Hawaii have raised the age. The New Jersey Legislature passed a bill, but Gov. Chris Christie vetoed it.

The purpose is to get young adults past the age where nicotine addiction takes hold, lawmakers said, citing that 95 percent of lifelong smokers start before the age of 21.

Smoking damages the prefrontal cortex, otherwise know as the higher brain, Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, said.

“The prefrontal cortex is the part of your brain that influences personality, decision making, impulses, attention and problem solving,” he said. “If a youth starts smoking before the age of 25, this habit becomes an addiction. By the age of 25, this addiction is cemented in the brain and it becomes very difficult -- almost impossible -- to quit.”

Raising the age cuts the pipeline of tobacco and flavored e-cigarettes into high school populations where many seniors turn 18, advocates said.

Each year, roughly 1,800 Oregon kids become smokers, according to bill proponent, the American Cancer Society.

House minority leader Rep. Mike McLane, R-Powell Butte, agreed with the measure’s promoters that tobacco is unhealthy, but he said it shouldn’t be regulated because it doesn’t impair users like marijuana or alcohol.

“At a certain point you’ve got to decide: where’s the line? I draw it at impairment,” he said.

Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, said it’s unfair to 18-year-olds who are legally adults who can get married, sign contracts, join the military and vote -- but will not have the liberty to choose whether to smoke.

“We can’t legislate everything,” he said.

Sen. Elizabeth Steiner, D-Beaverton, who’s a family physician pushed the bill in the Senate.

The bill “will prevent young people from a lifetime of tobacco and e-cigarette addiction,” she said. “If signed by the governor, this new law will go a long way to preventing cancer as well as heart and lung disease.”

© 2017 KGW-TV

Resource : http://www.kgw.com/news/politics/no-buying-tobacco-under-the-age-of-21-oregon-lawmakers-decide/454817794

State may restrict e-cigarette use in all public venues

By Nakeem Grant

The State Assembly passed legislation on June 20 to eliminate the use of e-cigarettes in public places where combustible cigarettes cannot be used. The bill, which was already passed by the State Senate, is currently awaiting the approval by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. If Cuomo signs it, it will be added to the state Clean Indoor Air Act, which prohibits smoking in public venues.

“Adding e-cigarettes to our smoke-free law is an important, historic step forward to protect the lives and the health of all New Yorkers,” said Julie Hart, the government relations director for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.

Assemblyman Michael Montesano, a Republican from Glen Head, said that certain people do not want the state to limit the use of e-cigarettes because they use them to quit regular smoking. “That’s laudable,” he said, “but when it comes to being in a public place, or you’re in a restaurant, you can’t subject people to your habits. That’s really what this bill is all about.”

Montesano also said that the state has long considered the public when deciding matters such as this. “Any law that we pass always has an impact on someone else, and we do whatever we can to satisfy the best interests of the general public,” he said.

The use of e-cigarettes among children has become more popular in recent years. According to Carol Meschkow, of the State Department of Health, e-cigarettes are the most commonly used nicotine products for middle and high school students. “We are extremely concerned that all the work that was done to prevent smoking has been undermined by e-cigarettes,” she said. “If if’s preventable, every effort that we can take is really important.”

She added that the Clean Indoor Air Act, along with health educators and local organizations, have all contributed to changing the public’s attitude toward of smoking. And while she has seen a “promising” trend in which people are becoming more aware of the cons of e-cigarettes and other tobacco products, Meschkow is still concerned about their use among youth. “The younger the age, the stronger the addiction,” she said. “That’s what we’re really afraid of.”

Montesano said that this is where the issue lies. “It came out as a product originally to help people stop smoking,” he said. “Unfortunately, [e-cigarettes] got into the wrong hands, and it can be habit-forming for young children. It could give them an addiction, or it could be the gateway to regular cigarettes and so on.”

The Tobacco Coalition of Long Island reported that tobacco products are responsible for the preventable deaths of 25,400 people in New York each year.

“Every life that we lose to tobacco products, we have no idea what that person could have been capable of,” said Meschkow, who also works as a tobacco coalition coordinator. “Whenever a life is cut short, we all suffer.”

Resource : http://www.liherald.com/stories/state-may-restrict-e-cigarette-use-in-all-public-venues,93479

France to raise price of cigarettes in bid to stub out national nicotine habit

Health minister Agnes Buzyn hopes prohibitively high tobacco costs will stop smokers indulging and boost public health

France will raise the price of cigarettes to 10 euros (£8.79) a pack within three years, the health minister said on Thursday, confirming a strategy that will push tobacco costs to among the highest in Europe.

At present, a packet of 20 cigarettes costs roughly seven euros (£6.15) in France, well below the roughly 10 euros charged in Britain and Ireland.

“France is one of the slowest learners in the world on smoking,” the minister, Agnes Buzyn, said. “Big price rises will be needed to have an impact on public health.”

Buzyn told RTL radio station that smoking rates in Britain had dropped from around 30 percent to 20 percent over the past decade as the government pursued a policy of hefty price hikes, while the smoking rate was still around 30 percent in France.

The new government of centrist President Emmanuel Macron has announced several high-profile healthcare targets including the extension of compulsory vaccination, fuller public cover of the costs of dental care and eye glasses, and tobacco tax hikes. 

Resource : http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/france-smoking-cigarette-price-rise-public-health-tobacco-agnes-buzyn-a7827216.html

Sin tax good for economy, say experts in Oman

Muscat: Residents may have to pay up to double the price for unhealthy products after a ‘sin tax’ kicks in, experts say, but the boost to health and the economy will be worth it.

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The new levy on items such as cigarettes, certain beverages and energy drinks will be 100 per cent of the retail price and all GCC members states have agreed to introduce it, according to global experts.

Analysts in Oman say the new prices could be in place as early as the year end.

That means an OMR1.2 pack of cigarettes could then cost up to OMR2.4 – a move welcomed by health ministry officials and economists alike.

Under the GCC excise framework agreement, all GCC member states have committed to introducing excise tax by the end of 2017.

According to the framework published in the Saudi official Gazette recently, beverages, energy drinks and tobacco will be taxed at 100 per cent while a 50 per cent tax will be levied on soft drinks.

“Excise tax is expected to be imposed on the importation and production of soft drinks, energy drinks and tobacco across the GCC,” Adrienne D’ Rose, senior manager, Indirect Tax at Deloitte said.

“Although levied at import or manufacture, the rates to be applied are expected to be primarily based on the retail sales price (RSP) of the products, and set at a rate of 50 per cent for soft drinks and 100 per cent for energy drinks and tobacco.

There has been no published guidance on how the RSP will be determined at this stage.” In the UAE it is expected that excise will be implemented in Q4 2017.

Saudi Arabia has already applied it. The GCC framework also includes a Value Added Tax (VAT) regime across all states which is expected to begin in 2018.

Experts believe VAT will be calculated on the excise inclusive value of the goods – meaning yet another hike. Where the VAT exclusive retail sales price for a can of cola is 100bs, the excise should be 50bs, resulting in an excise inclusive cost of 150 bs, where the excise tax is fully passed down the supply chain.

Once introduced, VAT should be payable in addition at 5%, resulting in a final price to the customer of 157.5bs, Rose explained. Costs of a pack of cigarette that costs OMR1 will go higher than OMR2 while energy drinks that cost nearly 500bs will cost more than OMR 1 once these taxes are applied.

This however assumes that the cost of excise tax is fully passed down the supply chain but in practice some parties in the supply chain may elect to absorb some of the excise cost.

“The introduction of excise is expected to have broader impacts on consumer behaviour, the local market and regional supply chains,” she said. “We see that cost of tobacco and other such products are very low in GCC countries when compared to European countries.

The excise tax is certainly good for the economy as it will help increase government revenue. Consumption may be affected but this will contain habits of consuming harmful products especially amongst the younger population,” Fabio Scacciavillani.

Chief Economist at Oman Investment Fund said. “Moreover, if people instead use the money spent on tobacco on local products and services like a restaurant, it will be a substitute for foreign demand, which is again good for the local economy.”

According to health department officials, countries that had previously raised taxes on tobacco have been able to reduce significantly the impact of tobacco use.

“We hope that the price of a pack [of cigarettes] will be higher, and rise to a level that can help reduce consumption (significantly),” Dr Jawad al Lawati senior consultant and rapporteur of the National Tobacco Control Committee at the Ministry of Health said.

Al Lawati said that since many people who use tobacco are poor and are more prone to diseases, higher costs of smoking would deter them from this bad habit.

“They spend a large part of their income on tobacco rather than on their families,” he stated. Residents and doctors have both welcomed the move. “Very happy to hear this is coming soon. We have been waiting for such a law.

This will make it harder for people especially schoolchildren to get. Also, smoking must be restricted to certain places.

We can’t have families and children be subjected to passive smoking. It’s an unfriendly atmosphere.

Glad to hear this coming into effect this year,” Maaz Firdous, Consultant at Al Iskaan Engineering said. Dr Pradeep Maheshwari, an Internal Medicine specialist at the Atlas Hospital, said: “That’s a good sign. It reduces the consumption of tobacco products.

People will think twice before spending more on tobacco.

It would be a welcome step in addition to the government banning smoking in public places and banning ads,” he added.

“Taxes should be increased. The public will not be able to easily buy these products and the use may decrease.”

Resource : http://timesofoman.com/article/112130/Oman/Sin-tax-good-for-economy-say-experts-in-Oman

Selected Tobacco To Launch New Sizes of Atabey & Byron at IPCPR 2017

United Cigar Group made an announcement that they are extending two of their most popular ultra-premium cigar blends. Receiving these extensions are the Atabey and Byron brands, both made in Costa Rica and featuring upscale blends of high-end tobacco designed to appeal to smokers who enjoy and appreciate the finest tobaccos. The brands represent the most exclusive offerings in the extensive United Cigar Group portfolio and this announcement is expected to cause significant excitement among fans of both brands.

The Atabey line currently features four sizes, and that quantity will more than double with this introduction of five new shapes. The new shapes are Duendes (Torpedo 6 x 54), Spiritus (7 1/2 x 40), Misticos (6 3/4 x 56), Dioses (8 x 50) & Benditos (7 ¼ x 58). The new sizes will be on display at the 2017 IPCPR Show and will be ready to ship in 2018 after five years of carefully planned aging is complete.

“This is a complicated time in the cigar industry to introduce a line extension but we are overly excited to showcase these Atabey vitolas that will be ready for the shelves soon,” said Oliver Nivaud, Director of Sales at United Cigars. “Retailers and cigar enthusiasts have been overly receptive and we are completely humbled by their support.”

The extensions to the Byron brand are based around new packaging that places these exclusive cigars in packaging that lives up to their reputation. Nelson Alfonso of Selected Tobacco has artfully packed the Byron 19th Century Grand Poemas (6 x 56) and Byron 20th Century Habaneros (6 x 56) in beautiful 25 count Limited Edition Humidors. Each humidor is filled with cigars that have been aging since 2012, and only 200 humidors filled with each vitola will be produced this year. The cigars represent a unique smoking experience for true cigar enthusiasts and the humidors are expected to become sought-after collector’s items among the brand’s followers due to their limited production. Along with the Byron 21st Century Elegantes (6 1/8 x 55), the Byron Grand Poemas and Habaneros will be available at the 2017 IPCPR Show in Las Vegas, NV.

United Cigar Group works with top cigar manufacturers throughout the world in order to create unique cigars, built exclusively for the premium cigar retailer. The brands of United Cigar Group are all Exclusive Cigar Products that were in demand but unavailable… so they were created.

 Resource : http://thecigarauthority.com/selected-tobacco-launch-new-sizes-atabey-byron/

Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! Just Not Tobacco

If the leaders of the Massachusetts legislature taxed tobacco cigarettes the way they are planning to tax marijuana, then the price of cigarettes would drop like a dozen recently-legalized homegrown pot plants tossed from a rooftop garden. That’s because the Bay State power-brokers use their taxing powers against tobacco with the intent of reducing its usage. The draconian approach incentivizes people to either quit smoking or never to start at all. That’s the point of Massachusetts tobacco taxation.

The total tax on cigarettes is quite astonishing. In 2009, the federal government upped its excise tax on cigarettes to a whopping $1.01 per pack. Not to be outdone, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts hiked its excise tax to an eye-popping $3.51 in 2013, effectively doubling the price consumers paid for cigarettes, compared to low-tax states. At that time, our state tax levy was second in the nation. Now we have slipped to fourth behind New York, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. How long before liberal lawmakers start demanding another tax hike, so we can return to the peak of the taxing pyramid?

Taking the time-honored idea of “sin taxes” to its extreme, Massachusetts forces its citizens to pay a sales tax on tobacco, as well. Conveniently upped 25 percent only a couple of years before the tobacco tax increase, the sales tax hike — like the cigarette tax — passed the Democrat-dominated legislature during the Governor Deval Patrick administration. The fact that such sales tax hikes are regressive forms of taxation that fall hardest on working families never seems to bother liberal “advocacy” groups. And taxes on cigarettes fall into the most regressive category, because working folks earning less than $60,000 a year are more than twice as likely to smoke as high income earners. So much for empty Democrat rhetoric about protecting working families from the “one percent.”

Working smokers must pay a $3.51 state excise tax, a $1.01 federal tax, and then state government says:  Supersize me — pay the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax, not just on the retail value of the cigarettes, but also on the heavy taxes previously added to the cigarettes. With all that taxation, the government more than doubles the real cost of a pack of cigarettes.

In Massachusetts, citizen-smokers pay taxes upon taxes upon taxes.

Compare those taxes to the kid-glove treatment the liberals in the legislature are intent on giving marijuana users. While the price of tobacco cigarettes vaults twice as high due to the tax burden, the Bay State insiders are wrestling with whether to place a favorable 12 percent or a moderate 28 percent levy on smoking dope. And unlike their excessive triple taxation upon tobacco, the legislature wraps the state sales tax into — rather than adding it onto — the marijuana tax rate. And there is no federal tax at all on outlawed marijuana.

Tobacco enthusiasts would jump with delight at any of those deals. But not the pot sympathizers in the legislature. No, they whine about the weight of a 28 percent tax on pot smokers, while never giving a second thought about the discriminatory burdens placed on tobacco smokers.

But let’s not forget:  State government actually wants to discourage tobacco smoking through a punitive level of taxation. Marijuana smoking? Not so much.

But, the liberals sputter, the voters approved a referendum that legalized recreational marijuana with the minuscule tax. Of course, these are the same big government types who continue to ignore a 2000 referendum that rolled back the income tax back to its historic five percent rate.

Seventeen years ago, Massachusetts citizens favored the income tax rollback with voter approval exceeding 56 percent. Despite this majority, the Democrats in the legislature still refuse to complete that tax rollback. Meanwhile in 2016, a lesser majority of more than 53 percent voted in favor of the marijuana referendum. When it comes to marijuana, these same legislators suddenly discover their obligation to follow the wishes of the voters. 

If the will of the voters means that much, then surely those Democrats will add the income tax rollback to the marijuana bill. But please don’t try to hold in that pot smoke for too long waiting for the legislature to act on income tax relief.


In addition to all its tobacco taxes, the state government assigns bureaucrats to set higher minimum prices for cigarettes, fearing that some enterprising small business person may actually want to use tobacco products as a “loss leader” to attract customers.”No such competition allowed” orders the bureaucracy; better that Massachusetts mom-and-pop shops lose business to New Hampshire, where much lower tobacco taxes and prices attract constant cross-border customers.

Effective June 1, 2017, the bureaucrats set the “presumptive minimum retail prices” for both packs and cartons of cigarettes. This is Massachusetts, so remember:  Deval Patrick’s 6.25 percent sales tax is levied on top of the minimum price fixing. Not only that, but the under-burdened bureaucracy has plenty of spare time to fix separate prices for larger “chain” stores and for “non-chain” or mom-and-pop retailers. Marlboro men are permitted to buy a pack for $10.22 at non-chains versus $10.07 at chain stores. If you’d “rather fight than switch,” you can shell out $119.44 for a carton of Tareytons at mom-and-pop shops, or pony up $117.69 at the big retailers. At those prices, you might rather switch to New Hampshire stores. As the saying goes, “you’ve come a long way, baby,” so the Massachusetts bureaucracy sets the per-pack price of Virginia Slims at between $10.56 and $10.72. Who says Massachusetts is pro-choice? Not when it comes to tobacco prices and products, that’s for sure.

Should you be feeling a tad regal or just plain Anglophile, you might be tempted to purchase a pack of English Ovals or Benson & Hedges Kings. Those will set you back $12.42 a pack or $124.15 a carton at independent retailers. Can you imagine how our colonial forefathers would have reacted to such British government taxation and price fixing? Why they may even have plotted a Boston Tobacco Party that ignited a revolution against the tyranny of English kings!

Today, the elite liberal Democrat leaders of the Massachusetts Senate and House have no such outbursts to fear. Secreted off in their air-conditioned chambers, they collude at establishing the tax rate for marijuana. In days of yore, such shenanigans took place in what were popularly referred to as “smoke-filled rooms.” That smoke was presumed to waft from cigars, once a much lower taxed and popular recreational habit associated with political big shots of all stripes. Considering how much less they want to tax marijuana than tobacco, makes you wonder:  What exactly they are smoking these days? 

Resource :   http://newbostonpost.com/2017/07/03/smoke-smoke-smoke-just-not-tobacco/