New graphic warning labels for cigarettes

TYLER (KYTX) - Recently the FDA unveiled new graphic warning labels for cigarettes.


They're not even on the packs yet, but people are already responding.
Calls started pouring into national smoking cessation hotlines.
More than doubling in numbers just days after people saw those images.
But many smokers here in East Texas say it won't affect whether or not they light up.
Rusty Walker has smoked for 43 years, and knows all the dangers.

"All the information is here, just a matter of making the choice to stop," says Walker.
So he decided to buy an electronic cigarette at Tobacco Junction in Tyler.
And he doesn't feel disturbing images on the pack could make any difference for anyone else.

"It's like seeing a billboard everyday, after a while, doesn't notice it," says Walker.
Just after the images debuted quit line calls nationwide nearly doubled.
whether it be a cessation class, whether it be a nicotine replacement, whether it be motivation to quit, people are looking for that and this is a good tool, great way to get motivation they need," says Lorri Essary with the East Texas Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. She says 75% of smokers are looking for a way to snuff the habit.

"Takes out the marketing appeal," says Essary  before you open the pack and light up, you'll see the graphic images right on the front. Cancerous tumors, rotten teeth and gums, where you can't miss it.
"When I grab a pack my hand wraps around it and can't see anything except the tip of the cigarette," says Bill Harley, smoker for 40 years.

"Only so many ways to warn people to not do it. Can read or look at it, it's the same," says Savannah Sterling, a cashier at Tobacco Junction. Some will look beyond those warnings and images and keep going, but others hope to put the habit in their past."Wish me luck," says Walker. Speaking with organizations here in East Texas, they think the images will have an impact on the number of calls they receive.
They're going to have to wait a year to see.

Also worth noting...

Advantage E-cigarette is currently offering a free sample e-cigarette. Go to http://www.advantageecigs.com/free/ there is a short video explaining e-cigarettes and free sample offer.

Raise cigarette taxes — and skip the ugly photos

Raise cigarette taxes — and skip the ugly photos


Boston Globe

These pictures make smoking less pleasant, just as higher cigarette taxes do. But while the latter generates useful public revenue, these images are essentially revenue-less taxes. We can tax behavior in lots of ways — with social stigma or painful ...

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Rocky Mount delays start of sales tax on cigarettes

ROCKY MOUNT -- Almost 60 percent of Mason Haynesworth's revenue at Chillin Smokes on Franklin Street comes from cigarettes. He's worried about how an impending town cigarette tax of 10 cents per pack -- which had been set to begin on Friday -- will affect his business.


"I'm going to have to pocket it," he said of the added expense. "If I go up a dollar a carton, there's a store less than a half-mile down the road that will have a dollar to play with" in their pricing.

But Haynesworth will be able to put off the tax a little longer.

The Rocky Mount Town Council approved the new tax two weeks ago as part of its $8.5 million 2011-12 budget, but preparations to collect it aren't finished. The town estimates it will raise $125,000 from the new tax. The cigarette tax is now scheduled to go into effect Aug. 1, but that date could change as town officials complete details, said Town Manager James Ervin.

For now, some retailers are confused about how the tax will be collected. Johnny Singleton, owner of Riverside Minute Market, said he thought the distributor who supplies him would be responsible for the tax and provide the tax stamps on the packages.

Haynesworth thought each retailer would have to buy rolls of the stamps from the town at $1,500 a roll for 1,500 stamps to account for the tax.

Both situations are possible, Ervin said. The distributors could buy the stamps, or if retailers find themselves with unstamped merchandise, they can purchase a roll of stamps. As soon as details are solidified, the town will focus on educating the retailers, Ervin said.

Singleton acknowledged how difficult the decision must have been for council members but said he thought it was unfair to tax a select group.

"Everyone needs to pay their fair share," he said.

The tax won't change the shopping habits of Melissa Goodman, who lives near Singleton's store. But retailers fear people will start shopping in the county, which like all Virginia counties except for two in Northern Virginia cannot levy a cigarette tax.

"People are still going to buy them, but they will aggressively shop" for the cheapest price, Haynesworth said.

Kimberly White, with TNC Oil and Grocery just outside the town limits, expects her family's business to benefit from the tax. A smoker herself, White said she would ride just up the road for a cheaper pack of cigarettes.

Some 30 cities, 43 towns and two counties receive revenue from the tax, according to a 2009 report by the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.

Town officials originally proposed a 20 cents per pack tax, but town council decided on 10 cents, with a plan to revisit the tax in six months.

"Taxing is extremely difficult," Ervin said. "No one likes taxes, but everyone has certain service level expectations. And we want to meet them."

Vinton began taxing cigarettes in August 2009 at a rate of 20 cents per pack and has collected $292,548 for the nearly finished fiscal year, according to Barry Thompson, the town's finance director.

In much more populous Roanoke, city officials project revenue from the tax will hit $2.34 million, or about 2 percent below budget, according to Ann Shawver, the city's finance director. Revenue from the tax -- the region's highest rate -- has declined about 7 percent from the prior year.

Salem has collected $365,000 in revenue so far this fiscal year from its cigarette tax, though like Roanoke, that figure has been in decline in recent years, according to city spokesman Mike Stevens.

Staff writers Mason Adams and Brian Kelley contributed to this report.