Cigarettes Tax Hike, Quebec Tobacco Control

Taxpayers behaving badly will have to pay up. The cost of smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol is rising, a measure that will bring in $536 million in new revenue over the next three years to help Quebec balance its books. Taxes on alcohol are going up by about 25 per cent, while those on cigarettes are rising by 18 per cent, Finance Minister Nicolas Marceau announced. A pack of cigarettes will cost 50 cents more; a case of 24 beers will cost 82 cents more; a 750-ml bottle of wine will cost 17 cents more; and a 1.14-litre bottle of spirits will cost 26 cents more.

Anti-Smoking Legislation in Nigeria

At 27, Lanre Lawal seemed to have a bright future. He had distinguished himself as a fine student with a degree in civil engineering. For the young man from Osun state in southwestern Nigeria, a promising job with a good income was almost certain. But Lanre’s joy was short lived. One day he slumped to the floor and was rushed to the hospital. That was in 2007. He died three months later from lung cancer. Peter Oguns, Lawal's childhood friend, said Lawal had been a regular smoker since their secondary school years.

Tobacco Control Law in Indonesia

A tobacco control bill was first named to the House of Representatives’ list of priority legislation for deliberation and passage in 2009 — and there it smoldered until last October, when it was abruptly dropped from the list. Rohani Budi Prihatin, a House staffer who helped draft the “bill to control the health impact of smoking products,” fears legislators are unwilling to revive it over concerns its passage could hurt industry players. “The draft is ready, we finished it a long time ago,” he said. “But as you can see, no House members want to discuss this. All of them remain tight-lipped.” Ignatius Mulyono, chairman of the House Legislative Body, said the legislation needed to undergo major revision. “When will it be back on the list? When they review the substance and title of the bill, because it’s very biased toward the anti-tobacco lobby,” he said. “None of the parties supported the bill, so we had no option but to drop it.”

Smoke-Free Canada Called for Shisha Tobacco Ban

Tobacco control laws should be extended to cover shisha tobacco and other products that don't fall under existing Canadian legislation, a group of doctors said Tuesday. Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada called on the federal government to do more to reduce the appeal of smoking, especially among young people. In 2009, the government amended the Tobacco Act to ban the sale of mini-cigars, called cigarillos, in packages of fewer than 20, the sale of flavoured cigarillos, blunt wraps and cigarettes, and to ban print advertising of tobacco products.

Global Tobacco Association Hits WHO’s Proposals on Cigarette

The International Tobacco Growers’ Association (ITGA) has expressed outrage over the devastating impact the latest set of recommendations from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) would have on the jobs and livelihoods of millions of tobacco growers around the world, according to a statement released this week in Dar es Salaam.
The statement said draft guidelines of articles 9 & 10 of the FCTC recommend a ban on ingredients used in manufacturing tobacco products like Red & White, Camel etc.
"If implemented it would virtually eliminate traditional blended cigarettes which account for approximately half of the global market," says part of the statement. The impact on growers who supply tobacco varieties used in these products would be dramatic.
“These recommendations have been made by bureaucrats, mostly from wealthy countries who know nothing about tobacco growing.
Their recommendations could wipe out the livelihoods of millions of tobacco growers all over the world,” the statement quoted António Abrunhosa, the CEO of ITGA, as saying. He said for some inexplicable reasons, tobacco growers, the very people most affected by the guidelines, are officially excluded from any discussions, adding that even ministries in charge of agriculture or economy seem unaware of the discussions taking place within the FCTC.
According to Mr Abrunhosa, numerous countries, including some of the poorest nations such as Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania now face the prospect of seeing millions of jobs lost and a huge decline in the export of tobacco. Tobacco cultivation is critical for the economy in these countries and one of the few agricultural activities to have remained buoyant during the recent global economic crisis. The latest guidelines drafted by bureaucrats in Geneva threaten to undo such gains for unclear benefits.
He warned that it will be a disaster for farmers who grow leaf for traditional blended products, noting it’s not just tobacco growers whose livelihoods are threatened. “These guidelines are just plain wrong whichever way you look at them. Nobody has explained to me how banning some cigarette products and ignoring others will have any benefit for people’s health,” said Roger Quarles, president of the ITGA. In some parts of the world, entire communities depend on the tobacco-growing sector.
"I want to know what these bureaucrats have to say to the people whose lives they are going to ruin for no good reason. ITGA represents more than thirty million tobacco growers across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America." “We call on governments all over the world to support growers by adopting a common sense approach and discarding these irrational and potentially economically-devastating guidelines.