Ontario Command asks veterans and members to contact their MPP on smoking issue
The government of Ontario is considering province-wide legislation that would prohibit smoking in Legion branches in Ontario. Veterans who are well into their late seventies and eighties, many of whom began smoking when free cigarettes were distributed during their service, will be deprived of one of the few remaining pleasures they can enjoy in their own club. The Provincial President has argued that there is little to be accomplished in eliminating smoking at Legion branches and much to be lost. The Legion is a private non-profit club originally estabished for veterans and as long as any veterans remain, their sacrifices for freedom should continue to be respected. This position is supported by the chief opposition whip for Ontario, Garfield Dunlop, and he is encouraging Legionnaires and particularly veterans to contact their Member of Provincial Parliament to support exemption for Legions from the new smoking legislation on the basis that the Legion is a private non-profit club for veterans. We ask for your support.
http://www.on.legion.ca/_shell.asp?page=240001
Will 'atmosfear' lead to banning fireplaces?
By John Downing -- For the Toronto Sun, January 9, 2005
I love sitting in front of a fire -- even if I'm staring into the flames of that pallid substitute, the artificial log.
Too bad fireplaces will soon be illegal. All the warning signs are there.
Damn it all anyway! One selling point when Mary and I bought our house was that while it may have been a "starter" home, small compared to what families start off with today, it had two fireplaces. We've never moved, and a fireplace is going most nights.
It's only a matter of time before that will become nostalgia, like that lovely smell from burning leaves. (Yet the official who launched the ban on bonfires in Toronto once confessed to me that he did it not because of air pollution but because -- if homeowners got carried away with their leaf-burning -- they cracked curbs and bubbled asphalt.)
Towns got into the act, saying it was to reduce grass fires. So open fires are banned, from streets to cottage country to back concessions. I have neighbours who cheat at Burnt Point, and I go around to watch, not report them. Nothing's finer than having a cold one while pungent smoke billows.
What triggers my worry is a quote buried in those year-end media summaries of the good, the bad and the nonsense of 2004, from Rob Ford, a Toronto councillor as subtle as a mating elephant.
The tree bylaw
He exploded Sept. 30 during Toronto council's approval of a bylaw harassing homeowners (both financially and bureaucratically) if they wanted to cut down trees on their own property. "This is so foolish," he said, "what are we going to ban next? Fireplaces?"
Good for him to warn us, but he could have figured that out long ago. As the son of a former MPP, and a jaundiced observer of gliberals and socialists determined to save us as our Big Brothers, he should see they would think banning fireplaces is logical.
After all, Dalton McGuinty's provincial government and Toronto council's majority both announced plans last year to force smokers to butt out everywhere. This year they will finish smokers off with jail, fines, torture through endless lectures about second-hand smoke and, perhaps, banishment.
So why not fireplaces? Fireplace smoke will soon be as suspect as a fine cigar. Every child at the start of school will have to recite a pledge condemning smoking and promising to turn in their parents if they sneak a smoke in the car on the way to soccer practice.
(Smoking is lethal but a classic case of unintended consequences. The drop in smoking has coincided with an increase in the new health menace of obesity.)
The smartest way to get rid of garbage is incineration. We should have built a safe incinerator a decade ago, and saved acres of forests from being sacrificed to warn us about the crisis.
They'll have to go
Surely a council that hates incineration can't keep tolerating fireplaces. (I confess: I have burned paper in the fireplace that I should have recycled.)
Queen's Park has stuck us with an awkward, costly, corrupt vehicle-emissions reduction program, which the acting provincial auditor condemned on Nov. 30. James McCarter found "obvious improprieties undermine this program's integrity" -- mild when you consider Drive Clean has been a bit of a scam from the start.
It should be scrapped for all the good it does, but the government can't do the sensible thing because its bureaucrats conned all those garages into installing all that expensive machinery, and the garages would sue to recover costs.
McCarter said the province isn't adequately enforcing air-pollution standards and Ontario won't meet international standards until it does. Uh oh!
Now those standards are suspect, forced higher for us, like the Kyoto Accord, by all the competing countries trying to increase the costs in North America. But with all these do-gooders running around whipping up "atmosfear," the politicians will no doubt be hunting for new villains.
It's just a matter of months before we're threatened with $500 fines if we dare roast chestnuts over an open fire -- or just stare into the flames.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Toronto/John_Downing/2005/01/08/850359.html
Great Reasons Not to Smoke
By Kathleen Martin December 13, 2004
Nova Scotia Office of Health Promotion, Halifax
There should be some special award for ads that inspire the most Halloween costumes. If anecdotal reports are accurate, this year in Nova Scotia, Terry and Dean, stars of the Nova Scotia Office of Health Promotion's (OHP) anti-smoking television campaign, gave witches and cowboys a serious run for their money, even appearing in a local junior high-school competition where the winners of the best costume prize re-enacted the commercials.
Terry and Dean, the mulletted, headbanging Albertans from the 2002 cult-hit mockumentary FUBAR (Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition), have been justifying smoking to the Nova Scotia viewing public since January 2004 as part of the OHP's edgy "Great Reasons to Smoke" campaign. In each of eight spots, the characters discuss how they're better people because they smoke. For example, their manners have improved: "Since I started smoking," begins one spot, "I'd say I've been generally more polite. Like if you're at a party or something you say: 'Hey, can I uh, butt out in your plant, or do you mind if I just throw it on the floor?' Like you ask them where to butt it out."
The commercials, which target 19- to 24-year-olds, are the highest profile segment of a comprehensive anti-smoking campaign targeting 15- to 34-year-olds that OHP launched in January 2003. The broader campaign, which has an annual budget of $600,000, also includes Web, radio, print and public education components. The FUBAR commercials grew from the success of a series of "Great Reasons to Smoke" print ads that OHP ran in the first year of the program. They featured unattractive characters and tag lines like: "Great Reasons to Smoke #8-Not being able to play sports means, hey, you never lose!"
HOLDING UP A MIRROR: Smokers sound like FUBAR characters
"We looked at anti-smoking ads from around the world, then looked at what (the tobacco) industry was doing and decided to come out with a campaign that was really going to be opposed to what the industry is promoting as glamorous, as cool," says Nancy Hoddinott, OHP manager. To say that the campaign is a deviation from traditional "stop smoking" marketing efforts is perhaps an understatement; to say that it's been successful is probably the same.
Although numbers on the effect of the FUBAR spots won't be available until January, according to the annual Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey, smoking rates in Nova Scotia overall have come down by 3% since 2003. "This campaign is much more successful than we'd ever thought it would be," says Hoddinott enthusiastically.
Teen smoking rates are declining in Nova Scotia, although Hoddinott admits there is still a lot to be done to make headway in the 19- to 24-year-old age group, a major target for 2005 OHP marketing efforts. "We know that young adults are not a group that has been effectively reached to date by tobacco control programs or messages," she explains. "We're just beginning to target that audience, but we're confident that over time we'll see rates drop. It's a huge task."
So huge, in fact, that getting smokers to quit is decidedly not one of the campaign's two major goals. One is a very governmental "to continue to engage our stakeholders and partners," the second is to get people talking about smoking again, something which, anecdotally, the FUBAR ads have helped to do.
WHERE THERE'S SMOKE: There's Nancy Hoddinott, OHP manager, getting Nova Scotians to butt out
"No marketing campaign on its own is going to get someone to quit smoking," says Hoddinott. "We know what works (in decreasing smoking rates) is a really comprehensive multi-pronged approach that addresses things like legislation, taxation, pricing and education, as well as how we advertise. The ads have to work in conjunction with everything else."
"I don't actually remember the last smoking ads on television that actually ran (before these)," says Philip Rosson, a marketing professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax. "This campaign was certainly very different and it got my attention. In general, these sorts of campaigns are very difficult. You're talking about trying to change deep-seated behaviour that doesn't respond to rational information."
The "Great Reasons to Smoke" campaign was built precisely on that premise. Participants in focus groups who smoked were simply asked to talk about their habit.
"We found that smokers were so defensive about the habit that they tried to justify it," says Andrew Doyle, a partner at Extreme Group, the Dartmouth, N.S. agency that created the campaign, which eventually won best of show and five golds at the Bessies, a gold at Halifax's Ice Awards and three spots on the Cannes film short list. "The ad copy was based directly on what they said. We wanted to hold up a mirror with these ads to say, you might not look exactly like this, but you sound like it, and it's not a pretty place to be."
"We wanted people talking about the ads, talking about the issue," says Hoddinott. "As a result of that, you hope to shift some attitudes because, ultimately, it's that attitude shift that will lead to behaviour change."
http://www.marketingmag.ca/magazine/current/feature/article.jsp?content=20041213_65761_65761
'Fed up' voters turn up the heat
NORMAN DE BONO, Free Press Reporter 2005-01-09 02:07:27
Voters lined up at malls across London yesterday to grill city politicians about the municipal budget -- and the looming 7.7 per cent property tax increase was foremost on their minds. At Westmount Shopping Centre, Kevin Worts waited patiently in line to deliver a simple, direct message -- he is tired of big tax hikes and the excuses that come with them.
"A lot of people are fed up with high taxes, that's the bottom line," he said, his voice rising in anger.
"They represent us, they need to balance the books. Every year they come up with excuses for why taxes go up. Meanwhile, some budgets are coming in at millions more than last year and they are not looked at."
He also is tired of city excuses about costs downloaded from the provincial government, he added.
"If we have to pay for something new, someone else does with a little less. Make do with less. I do it all the time."
Public meetings were held Friday and yesterday at Argyle Mall, Masonville Place, Westmount and White Oaks Mall.
Vic Cote, general manager finance and corporate services, agreed the meetings were dominated by concern over the tax increase.
"The message is very strong here, much stronger than last year, that fatigue has set in and people want to see council starting to push back aggressively" against provincial downloading of services and their costs, said Cote.
Teresa Daigle, however,
dismissed the downloading rationale, adding that the buck stops at city hall.
"City hall needs to be a lot more accountable, there is so much waste in the city," she said. "They think taxpayers are a
bottomless pit, that it never ends. I think people are really, really unhappy.
"They need to start running it like a corporation instead of something taxpayers will fund forever. They take us for granted instead of managing their money properly."
The city came under fire recently after the London Chamber of Commerce released a report by commercial real estate firm CB Richard Ellis stating London has the fifth-highest residential property taxes in Ontario, and some of the the highest commercial and business taxes.
The city will hold committee-of-the-whole meetings tomorrow and Wednesday to discuss the budget, expected to be finalized by month's end.
Controller Russ Monteith heard the message loud and clear yesterday, that people want brakes put on tax increases, but he also heard they want services to remain.
"Everyone wants us to hold taxes, they want us to be frugal, but they also want us to provide services," Monteith said. "It is a difficult balancing act. They want the service, they don't want it to cost too much. What they have left me with is that we have to get costs under control."
A 7.7-per-cent tax increase works out to an extra $148.53 on the property tax bill for an average home assessed at $152,000.
So far, the board has cut, or found savings, worth $11 million out of a draft operating budget first set at $659 million.
David Westhouse, president of the Military Re-enactment Society, attended the Westmount meeting yesterday in 1812 military dress to make a pitch to save funding for Fanshawe Pioneer Village.
The village is looking for $310,000 in operating cash and
$1 million over four years to fix its historic buildings. The city rejected new capital grants for 2005 to community groups, including the $1 million for the pioneer village.
"Pioneer Village is part of our heritage, it should be should be preserved. I know it's not a popular opinion, but I don't mind if my taxes go up. I think our taxes are high, but I am OK with that," he said.
Among reductions last month, council refused to spend $450,000 to get $1.6 million in federal day-care money.
It also denied $200,000 of a
$1.6-million increase sought for ambulance service.
"I have heard from the public the municipality has to look after its own budget and stop hiding behind downloading as a rationale," said Coun. Paul Van Meerbergen. "They think police are asking too much, they want reductions in expenditures.
"We can no longer afford local government."
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2005/01/09/852659-sun.html
Budget committee to launch hearings -ON
The all-party panel expects a strong turnout.
JOE MATYAS, Free Press Reporter 2005-01-09
About 180 presenters will tell the provincial government what its spending priorities should be at eight public hearings across the province in the next 10 days. "The response to our call for submissions in person was strong," Chatham-Essex-Kent Liberal MPP Pat Hoy said yesterday, a day after the deadline for booking presentation time.
"We're very close to having the day filled in London and in other cities we're over-subscribed, so there will have to be discussions on how to handle that."
Hoy is chairperson of a committee of nine MPPs -- six Liberals, two Tories and one New Democrat -- that takes to the road tomorrow for pre-budget consultations in seven Ontario cities.
The first consultation is scheduled for Sault Ste. Marie tomorrow, with others to follow in Sudbury, Ottawa, Kingston, Whitby, London and Toronto.
The London sitting is set for Jan. 17 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., at the Four Points Sheraton on Wellington Road. Like the other hearings, it's open to the public.
Two days have been scheduled for Toronto, Jan. 18 and 19, with one of them featuring three budget experts selected by the political parties as expert presenters.
On the other seven days, the all-party committee will hear an average of 24 presenters a day, Hoy said.
He said the committee is also expecting "hundreds" of written submissions from individuals, groups and organizations.
The deadline for written submissions is 5 p.m., Jan. 20.
"Health and education are the two biggest items in the provincial budget and we're certainly going to be hearing about them, but we're also expecting presentations on infrastructure (roads, bridges, sewers, etc.), agriculture and the environment," Hoy said.
The committee will provide provincial Finance Minister Greg Sorbara with its report by the end of February, he said.
The province's fiscal year ends March 31 and Sorbara has forecast a deficit of $2 billion by then, down from $6 billion last year, Hoy said.
"Our government has made it clear there will be financial constraints as long as the deficit exists," said Hoy.
"Expenditure requests will have to be weighed against the need to reduce the deficit again and balance the budget by 2007."
He said the government is hoping presenters will offer recommendations on avoiding duplication and waste and providing more efficient delivery of government services, as well as their ideas on spending priorities.
WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS
- Written submissions can be made to the Provincial Finance Committee until 5 p.m., Jan. 20, by mailing them to Trevor Day, Clerk of the Committee, Room 1405, Whitney Block, Queens Park, Toronto, M7A 1A2. They can also be faxed to him at (416) 325-3505.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2005/01/09/852662-sun.html
'Light, mild' smokes face legal challenge
BILL RODGERS, Free Press Parliamentary Bureau Chief 2005-01-09
OTTAWA -- A group of doctors and public health experts will launch legal action tomorrow to force tobacco manufacturers to drop the words "light" and "mild" from cigarette packages. The group said yesterday it wants to put an end to "the most destructive, deceptive trade practice in the history of Canadian business or public health."
"We've got a problem and we're going to do whatever is necessary in the health community to solve the problem," said Garfield Mahood of the Non-Smokers' Rights Association.
"Light and mild cigarettes have been responsible for thousands of deaths and health experts feel this has to be addressed."
The association has maintained smokers have been duped into believing the light or mild brands are less dangerous than regular cigarettes.
But anti-smoking activists insist the risk is not lower and health benefits don't exist.
The group wouldn't identify the target of their legal action tomorrow, but clearly it is tiring of the federal government dragging its feet on the issue.
Shortly after taking over as federal health minister last year, Ujjal Dosanjh vowed to ban the labels from cigarette packs, but so did Allan Rock when he held the portfolio.
John Wildgust, the director of corporate affairs for cigarette maker JTI-Macdonald, said tobacco companies simply followed a Health Canada request in the 1960s to develop lighter products.
Wildgust takes issue with the allegation tobacco manufacturers are misleading smokers with the light and mild labeling, especially after years of warnings about the health hazards of smoking.
"I don't think there's anybody on the planet who doesn't realize that there's a health risk associated with smoking," said Wildgust.
He cited surveys of people who smoke the products, which show only three per cent believed there was some benefit -- 97 per cent, he said, smoked the lighter products because of taste.
The country's smoking population has been steadily declining as strict bans have been imposed in public places.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2005/01/09/852675-sun.html
Blood pressure demographics: Nature or nurture ... ... genes or environment?
Joseph Tomson and Gregory YH Lip
BMC Medicine 2005,
3:3 doi:10.1186/1741-7015-3-3
Published 7 January 2005
Abstract (provisional)
Hypertension is a growing worldwide problem associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. However, the rates of prevalence of hypertension are higher in some populations than others. Although ethnic and genetic factors have been implied in the past to explain this, the environmental influence and psychosocial factors may play a more important role than is widely accepted. Examining the non-genetic influences in future hypertension research may be necessary in order to clearly define the local blood pressure demographics and the global hypertensive disease burden.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/3/3/abstract
Smoke-Free Homes Pre- and Post-Campaign Survey
Bulletin 378, September 10, 2004
http://www.ohpe.ca/ebulletin/ViewFeatures.cfm?ISSUE_ID=378
Plain Packaging
It is believed that the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia have the statutory authority to approve regulations that would require tobacco manufacturers to produce “plain”, non-promotional cigarette packages. Section 28 of Quebec’s Tobacco Act, Section 5(1) of Ontario’s Tobacco Control Act, Section 9(e) of Manitoba’s Non-Smokers Health Protection Act, and Section 11(2)(a) of British Columbia’s Tobacco Sales Act would arguably allow for plain packaging regulations. To date, no such regulations have been approved. It has been argued that the federal government could use its authority under Section 15(1) of the Tobacco Act to effectively strip cigarette packages of promotional elements by requiring health warnings that occupy the remaining package surface that is presently allowed for tobacco promotion.
environmental tobacco smoke exposure and lung cancer."
Professor G. Feuer_) _.d Professor DJ. Ecobichon_ (1991) p. c_ _ .
O) Department of Pharmacology and clinical, Biochemistry,
University of Toronto, CANADA ,, /
o)Dcpartment of Pharmacology,_therauputics,
McGill Unlversity, CANADA
Passive smoking and Lung Cancer- a critical analysis
Modern Medicine of Canada
1991 46 (4), 26-29
http://www.ncth.ca/Guildford.nsf/d5337f80c87cd006c2256bc80048b13f/f1bad333575b896085256bc8006e6ed3/$FILE/00002956.pdf
Reducing sales to children. Store reg's don't work, change acceptance instead. Parliamentary commission documents
Our position -The Canadian Cancer Society opposes youth possession laws at this time. A possession law should only be considered as one element of a long-term, well-funded, and comprehensive strategy to reduce tobacco use among children and adults. Sept/01
http://www.cancer.ca/ccs/internet/standard/0,3182,3172_69614681__langId-en,00.html
A Critical Analysis of Youth Access Lawshttp://www.cancer.ca/vgn/images/portal/cit_776/48/38/69664397cw_criticalanalysisyouthaccesslaws_en.pdf
Critical Analysis of S2461: FDA Tobacco Legislation
http://www.no-smoking.org/sept04/09-09-04-5.html
Diesel Exhaust: A Critical Analysis of Emissions, Exposure, and Health Effects 0ct/97
Summary of a Health Effects Institute (HEI) Special Report
HEI Diesel Working Group
http://www.dieselnet.com/papers/9710nauss.html
Critical Appraisal of the Enstrom/Kabat paper on secondhand smoke and British Medical Journal’s role in publishing the paper
http://www.ash.org.uk/html/passive/html/BMJ0503critique.html
Smoking Ban Proposed in San Jose Parks
Sue McGuire for KCBS-740 AM 01-08-2005
(KCBS)--An anti smoking group wants to ban the smoking of cigarettes in San Jose City parks.
According to the San Jose Mercury News, the Tobacco Free Collaborative of San Jose launched a campaign this week to get more than 100 city parks free of cigarette smoke this year.
The American Lung Association released its annual "State of Tobacco" report giving California an "A" for its efforts to keep cigarettes out of public places. But the state received an "F" for not spending enough on tobacco prevention and control.
http://cbs5.com/news/local/2005/01/08/Smoking_Ban_Proposed_in_San_Jose_Parks.html
Opponent of higher taxes spurs protest
Norquist meets with Fletcher, GOP
By Tom Loftus The Courier-Journal
FRANKFORT, Ky. — A leading national opponent of higher taxes met privately yesterday with Gov. Ernie Fletcher and Republican lawmakers, and was booed by supporters of higher funding for education and services for the needy.
Grover Norquist, founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, said his trip to Kentucky was one of many he takes to meet with supporters and signers of a pledge that they will not vote to raise taxes. Fletcher has signed the pledge.
But Norquist's visit cost him one state legislator who signed earlier. Rep. Steve Nunn, R-Glasgow, said yesterday he wrote a letter withdrawing the pledge he signed in 1990 in his first House race.
"Considering the fiscal crisis we're in, I had to rescind it. That pledge takes away an official's independence to make decisions based on current circumstances," Nunn said. "And with a huge deficit in Medicaid and problems funding other programs, I believe we need a tax bill that raises at least $250million a year in new revenue."
Norquist had left by the time Nunn disclosed his withdrawal.
With Nunn's defection, 33 members of the 100-seat House and 16 members of the 38-seat Senate have signed the pledge. One Senate seat is under challenge.
Norquist's visit comes at the start of a legislative session that will take up state budget and tax reform bills that failed last year.
Fletcher has said he will propose a tax plan similar to the one he offered then but was rejected by House Democrats. That included a proposed increase in Kentucky's 3-cents-a-pack cigarette tax, the nation's lowest.
Last year, Fletcher sought to increase the cigarette tax by 26cents a pack, to 29cents. But he told the Rotary Club of Louisville yesterday the tax needs to be even higher.
"I'd like to push it more toward the 40 cents (increase) because I think that we ought to get that through the legislature," Fletcher said.
Last night in an impromptu interview, Fletcher said he had not yet decided on a 40-cent increase. "I haven't arrived at a number," he said. "I've just said one thing I think we can do is get near 40 cents."
Norquist, who said he requested the meeting with Fletcher, said they did not discuss the details of the governor's revised tax plan. "I just stated my support for his effort to have a revenue-neutral tax reform," Norquist said.
Norquist said an elected official would not violate the no-tax pledge by supporting a revenue-neutral plan that raises some taxes, cuts some taxes and overall does not raise additional revenue in its first year. He said Fletcher assured him that his revised plan will be revenue-neutral.
Norquist said his organization has no position on casinos and gambling, another issue that Kentucky lawmakers are likely to consider this session. He said it would not break the pledge to vote to expand gambling.
After meeting with the governor, Norquist held a news conference attended by about 70 people — many wearing T-shirts that said, "I'm not neutral about Kentucky. Why is the governor?"
Steve Boyce, a retired Berea College math professor, said the protest involved a coalition known as the Kentucky Economic Justice Alliance that supports better funding for the needy.
"What we would want to say to the governor, more than anything else, is at this point in Kentucky's history it's just irresponsible to enter into this rare and precious opportunity for tax reform by saying it has to be revenue-neutral," Boyce said.
A few protesters challenged Norquist.
"Over the last couple of months we've all heard how the past election was a triumph of moral values. I want to know what is so moral about your policies that wreak havoc on public schools, that eliminate services that are necessary for children like my 4-year-old son?" asked Kimberly Wolf of Lexington, a member of the Economic Justice Alliance.
Norquist said the effects of higher taxes on families must be considered.
"I would certainly argue that letting people control their own lives and their own resources and taking care of their own families is, of course, a moral thing to do," he said.
Rep. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, told Norquist she thought it was irresponsible to inject himself into Kentucky's tax debate just as relations seem to have improved between Democrats who control the House and Republicans who control the Senate.
"Why in the world would you charge into Kentucky at this very critical time when we are trying to deal with budgetary issues and inject this kind of malevolence?" she asked.
Norquist said he is free to advocate his views whenever he chooses.
Roger Holsey, a self-employed painter from Lexington, said he showed up to protest because Norquist is "not giving the whole story. He's not talking about the needs."
Norquist said elected officials fall into two groups — those who make tough decisions about setting priorities and cutting unneeded spending, and those who "think governing is too difficult" and push taxes as the solution.
He said states can spend more for pressing needs by cutting middle management and by seeing if the private sector can provide some services cheaper than state workers.
Asked where Kentucky should cut costs, he said, "I would defer to policy experts from Kentucky on specifics."
After the news conference, Norquist met with groups of Republican legislators.
Senate Minority Leader Ed Worley of Richmond said later that the visit was counterproductive to reaching bipartisan budget and tax compromises.
"Here is the man who gave a famous quote that he wanted to shrink the size of government so he could drown it in a bathtub," Worley said. "I'm a conservative Democrat and I don't believe we should raise taxes, but we can't drown government in a bathtub unless we ignore important services like police protection, education and helping people in need."
But Rep. Ken Upchurch, the House Republican whip from Monticello who met with Norquist and has signed the no-tax pledge, said, "I think to say that this visit caused any trouble is an overreaction. But I'm not surprised some people say so — people who never see a tax they don't like."
Fletcher said last night that Norquist "just wanted to come down and encourage us along." He said he saw no problem with the visit.
Staff writer Marcus Green contributed to this story.
http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2005/01/07ky/B4-notax01070-9463.html
Drug giants to cash in on Italian smoking ban -UK
By Andrew Jack in London Last updated: January 9 2005 22:09
A €5m Italian marketing campaign for anti-smoking products is being launched by GlaxoSmithKline this week as pharmaceutical groups gear up to cash in where their rivals in the tobacco sector are losing out.
GSK's drive to boost sales of its NiQuitin nicotine replacement gums and patches is timed to coincide with a new local law restricting smoking in the workplace and comes as Italy prepares on Monday to enforce its ban on smoking in bars, restaurants and cafés. Its rival, Pfizer, is also aiming to boost demand for its products in Europe.
The fresh focus on the smoking strongholds of southern Europe follows a 36 per cent increase in sales of GSK's products in Ireland since that country introduced a ban on smoking in public places at the end of March. That has led to a sharp rise in attempts to quit and a slump in tobacco sales in the country. GSK plans to follow up with similar campaigns in Spain and Portugal, two other Mediterranean markets traditionally associated with smoking. Quitting campaigns have attracted little interest in the past, but both countries have recently begun discussing smoking bans and an increase in tobacco taxes.
“Smoking is the greatest source of mortality in the developed countries,” said Jack Ziegler, head of GSK's consumer healthcare division. “We are reacting in these countries just as they are showing changes in attitude towards smoking.”
GSK dominates the UK market for nicotine replacement therapies, with sales of £160m (€229m) a year. The company claims that the chances of successfully quitting smoking are about 5 per cent with no assistance, and double to about 10 per cent with the aid of its products, which provide nicotine without the unhealthy side-effects of tobacco. It rises to 26 per cent when accompanied by help-lines and other support. Pfizer also claims a sharp increase in sales for its Nicoret products in Europe, including Germany where tobacco taxes have recently risen. “We have seen very substantial growth,” said Rick Rizzo, head of the company's consumer health products group for Europe.
One risk is that smokers end up becoming as dependent on the nicotine replacement products as they once were on tobacco. Some health campaigners argue that such a shift is nevertheless desirable because it has a smaller impact on health even if the impact on users' wealth remains considerable.
For those in the UK who want to try to cut costs while boosting their health, the best tactic is to seek a general practitioner's prescription.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/7d68bcda-6272-11d9-8e5d-00000e2511c8.html
MPAAT revives smoking ban push -MN
Conrad Defiebre, Star Tribune January 8, 2005
Minnesota's richest and most controversial anti-tobacco group has plunged back into lobbying for smoking ban laws after a court-ordered hiatus that lasted three years, and the move has touched off a new round of public criticism.
State Rep. Tim Wilkin, R-Eagan, has resigned from the board of the Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco (MPAAT) because of the decision, announced Friday, to award grants of up to $1.5 million "to build citizen participation efforts to protect the public from exposure to second hand smoke."
Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, said that he, too, will quit the board over what he called its "tobacco jihad." Attorney General Mike Hatch, a DFLer who went to court in 2002 to stop MPAAT's earlier lobbying, also voiced displeasure, although his office said he plans no further legal efforts against the group.
"He's very troubled that state money is being used to lobby public officials," said Hatch spokeswoman Leslie Sandberg. "He feels it is a wrong use of the dollars."
MPAAT leaders argue that taxpayer money isn't involved because the nonprofit group's $202 million endowment came from the tobacco industry's settlement with the state of Minnesota in 1998. And they say that fostering local smoke-free initiatives is a vital element of their court-chartered mission to reduce the harm caused by tobacco.
"This is about creating a healthier Minnesota," MPAAT Chairman Michael Vekich said in a news release. "The public understands the dangers associated with second hand smoke and that is why so many communities in Minnesota have adopted ordinances or are considering them."
Spending public money on various antitobacco efforts has been a persistent sore point among smokers' rights advocates and others for years.
Wilkin and other Republicans vigorously objected to Target Market, an edgy state Health Department campaign to discourage teen smoking, before the $1 billion state endowment from the tobacco settlement that financed it was drained to help balance the state budget in 2003. A $3.4 million Health Department program met similar criticism last year when some of its grantees began pushing for local smoking bans.
That led to reminders to the grantees that "they cannot use the money for things defined in the statute as lobbying," Aggie Leitheiser, assistant state health commissioner, said Friday.
And in 2002, Ramsey County District Judge Michael Fetsch ordered MPAAT to halt its smoking ban efforts until it was spending at least as much on helping individual smokers quit the habit.
Original intent?
Friday's announcement was MPAAT's first move back toward lobbying since then. According to the group, it has served more than 42,000 smokers through its QUITPLAN Helpline (1-888-354-PLAN), its Web site (www.quitplan.com) and efforts at clinics and workplaces.
Through June 2003, MPAAT added, it had spent $10.8 million on such cessation efforts and $4.2 million on smoke-free initiatives. For the year beginning July 1, it has budgeted $2.7 million for cessation and $1.5 million for policy efforts.
Not reflected in those numbers is an MPAAT resolution allowing its staff to lobby the Legislature in favor of a statewide smoking ban, Wilkin said.
"That puts legislators in a terrible position," he said. "I believe the new direction of MPAAT is inconsistent with the original intent of the use of these funds."
He said that to avert any conflict of interest former legislators should be appointed to seats reserved for legislators on MPAAT's 19-member board.
"This organization has essentially become a political action committee and is using taxpayer dollars to accomplish political goals," Wilkin wrote in a Dec. 6 resignation letter to House Speaker Steve Sviggum. "This may even put its tax-exempt status in jeopardy."
In addition, Wilkin said, the move back to lobbying will produce bad public relations for MPAAT's goals. "A lot of the initiatives they want to push have some political legs on their own without their help," he said. "I think it will backfire."
Rukavina said a better use of MPAAT's resources would be to fund ventilation systems for bars and restaurants that might lose business under smoking bans. Its latest move, he added, will only "start fights among people with the people's money."
Conrad deFiebre is at cdefiebre@startribune.com
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5175479.html
Studies Fueling Hope
Research into therapeutic uses of nicotine could be boon for local company, but the road is slippery
By M. Paul Jackson JOURNAL REPORTER Sunday, January 9, 2005
Call it two sides of the same coin. A scientist studies a molecule's ability to treat diseases of the central nervous system. It is the same molecule that has been known to cause addiction and health risks to millions of people.
Sound far-fetched? Think again.
The molecule is called nicotine, and according to growing national and local research, it could have positive effects on a number of illnesses, including Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia and chronic pain ailments.
But the research has an uphill battle. Nicotine, the main ingredient in cigarettes, is still a poisonous, addictive drug that contributes to the death of more than 400,000 people annually in the United States.
In addition, researchers and doctors remain concerned that the public could confuse the drug's promise with its threat, giving people the idea that tobacco is not dangerous. The federal government has also been slow to provide money in support of therapeutic nicotine research, officials said.
In dealing with a drug that can interact with the body's complicated nervous system, "the possibility of toxicity that you don't fully understand exists," said Michael Thun, the head of epidemiological research for the American Cancer Society.
As a drug, nicotine works by interacting with the body's maze of nerves and chemical signals, which send different kinds of information to the brain.
Studies on the drug's effect on the body's central nervous system stretch back to the early 1900s, and more information emerged through pharmaceutical studies by companies such as Merck & Co. Inc. in the 1940s and '80s. In Winston-Salem, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. has performed numerous animal studies on nicotine's effects, particularly during the late '80s.
In fact, Big Tobacco's research over the years into the drug's hold on the central nervous system continues to be controversial. Last week, a former employee testified that during the '80s, Philip Morris USA deliberately shut down studies on nicotine's effect on the brain. The testimony was part of the government's $280-billion racketeering lawsuit against cigarette-makers that is under way in Washington.
Now, a growing number of pharmaceutical companies - including Targacept Inc., based in the Piedmont Triad Research Park - are betting their financial futures on nicotine in the belief that it could bring financial benefits to the health-care industry.
"It's exciting, because the nicotinic system is potentially involved in so many areas of physical and mental functions," said Jack Henningfield, the former chief of the Clinical Pharmacology Research Branch of the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Nicotine, derived from tobacco leaves, works by stimulating nerve receptors in the brain. It also increases levels of dopamine in the body, which can improve mood and stimulate concentration.
Nationwide, research into its therapeutic potential is well under way.
In 1984, the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of nicotine gum, which helps people to quit smoking. In 1992, the government approved sale of a nicotine patch. Both work by administering small doses of nicotine into a patient's system, which can help smokers quit.
But researchers also found that the patch could be used to alleviate the neurological symptoms typically associated with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Patients who suffer from these illnesses tend to smoke more - in many cases, dramatically more - than regular cigarette smokers, said Ed Levin, a behavioral pharmacologist and professor at Duke University.
Parkinson's is caused by reduced dopamine levels in the brain, for example. Research has shown that patients who smoked were replacing their bodies' own dopamine levels, said Levin, one of the country's leading nicotine researchers.
"There's some indication there's some self-medicating going on," he said.
More recent studies have shown nicotine's ability to reduce symptoms in illnesses such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression and schizophrenia.
"Recent advances in studies of nicotinic agents in humans have begun to more carefully define cognitive operations that can be influenced by nicotinic stimulation," Paul Newhouse, the director of the Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit at the University of Vermont, wrote in a pharmacology journal last year.
The drug works on the body through an intricate process called neurotransmission.
Nicotine closely resembles a chemical neurotransmitter called acetylcholine, which helps deliver messages through the central nervous system. The body contains different nerve receptors that react to acetylcholine.
In nicotine therapy, acetylcholine attaches itself onto the body's nicotinic nerve receptors, prompting those receptors to open. The process is similar to using a key to open a locked door.
Once opened, the receptors can send chemical information to the brain.
By using nicotine as a "key," researchers hope to better modulate the flow of information to the brain.
"There's an evolving amount of interest in treatment" of neuropsychiatric illnesses, Levin said. "There's a real need there."
Developing better treatment for central-nervous-system ailments could be lucrative.
About 4.5 million people have Alzheimer's disease, according to the Alzheimer's Association, which estimates that the disease costs American businesses about $61 billion in health-care costs annually.
Similarly, about 1.5 million Americans have Parkinson's, and about 60,000 people are found to have it each year, according to the National Parkinson Foundation.
Pharmaceutical companies are hoping that nicotine could eventually pay big dividends, experts said.
"I'm sure once the drugs start hitting the market, there will be a number of other companies that will start getting involved," Duke's Levin said.
Indeed, companies are racing to develop nicotine-based drugs.
Abbott Laboratories, a large pharmaceutical company in Chicago, began clinical studies in the summer to develop drugs targeting body's nicotine receptors.
A year earlier, Memory Pharmaceuticals Corp., a biopharmaceuticals company in New Jersey, began development of a drug to treat illnesses such as Alzheimer's and schizophrenia.
Both companies' research is still in the early stages. Officials from the two companies did not return several calls for comment.
Locally, Targacept has been leading the charge - and betting the most - on the future of nicotine-based drugs.
Targacept, a biopharmaceutical company, was spun out from the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. about four years ago. The company, named after the process of "targeting receptors," is developing a host of drugs to treat nervous-system disorders.
Unlike Abbott Labs, most of Targacept's research comes from the development of drugs resembling nicotine. In May, Targacept announced plans to go public, but it has not yet sold stock on Wall Street.
Under Securities and Exchange Commission rules, companies that are planning to go public are not allowed to promote their business, but Don deBethizy, Targacept's chief executive, did acknowledge last week that nicotine research has grown since the 1980s as advanced technology has allowed scientists to better study the body's molecular makeup.
As a result, "there's tremendous interest in the nicotinic receptor right now," deBethizy said.
The company is developing seven drugs based on nicotine research to treat diseases including Parkinson's, ulcerative colitis and cognitive impairment.
Targacept's research could bring both financial gains and a bigger national awareness of this area, economic-development leaders said.
By developing drugs based on nicotine, "there can be more health-related uses" for the research, said Gayle Anderson, the president of the Greater Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce.
It's "a critical issue for the state," she said.
Still, many researchers remain guarded about the drug's promise. Targeting specific receptors within the body's mass of nerve endings remains a tricky process, and the drug can still cause side effects in many patients, including nausea, vomiting and high blood pressure, experts said.
Physicians found that in some studies using nicotine on patients with attention deficit disorders, "nicotine itself isn't the therapy of choice," said Alexandra Potter, a research associate at the University of Vermont.
"The amount of nicotine needed to get positive effects in ADHD patients is close to a level that produces negative side effects," she said.
In addition, the federal government remains skeptical about providing money for nicotine research.
Much of the money for nicotine research has come from private companies, investors or the tobacco industry.
Targacept, for example, paid for a major nicotine study at the University of Vermont in 2003. Officials at the National Institutes of Health said that the agency has helped finance only two studies related to nicotine's therapeutic effects since 1999, but did not detail those grants. Most of the institute's grants have gone instead toward researching nicotine and drug addiction, officials said.
Patient advocates are also wary about touting nicotine's possible benefits.
"The tobacco industry is always eager to promote stories about the potential benefits of nicotine," said Thun, the American Cancer Society official. "This research is all very preliminary."
Despite the drug's seeming benefits, "the truth is that it also tends to scare people away," said Henningfield, formerly with federal Clinical Pharmacology Research Branch.
Targacept's chief executive disagreed.
Agencies such as the National Institute of Mental Health have become more interested in examining nicotine as a way to treat schizophrenia, and more federal support could be coming, deBethizy said.
Traditionally, "it's been hard for people to think about the possible benefits of nicotine in the face of the strong message of nicotine" as a harmful substance, he said.
The conflicting nature of the drug has researchers supporting its benefits - while almost simultaneously warning of its dangers.
Kenneth Kellar, a pharmacology professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, is doing research on the nicotine patch's effect on elderly patients. Still, he acknowledges that he is concerned that the public could confuse the drug's promise with its dangers.
"In no way does this relieve one's guilt for smoking," he said. "We do emphasize that we're not advocating smoking."
Research on the use of nicotine will continue, with doctors conducting more studies on its effect on children and the elderly. Studies on the nicotine patch have shown that the drug is not addictive at low levels, Kellar said.
"I do believe that when people are using these drugs, that it's not going to be problem," he said.
In addition, physicians said they hope to develop more molecules that mimic nicotine, allowing those molecules to interact with the central nervous system without causing side effects,
Despite its dangers, nicotine has become a viable first step in targeting disease, they said.
"It's like a scalpel," Levin said. "It can kill you, or it can cure."
• M. Paul Jackson can be reached at 727-7473 or at mjackson@wsjournal.com
http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031780100438&path=!business&s=1037645507703
The shopkeeper who shot the knife-wielding man shrugged off talk that he was a hero - and put in a security barrier.