News & Trends

January/February 2007

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Pro-Smoking Publishing Effort

A new book attacks tobacco industry attackers.

Please Don't Poop in My Salad and Other Essays Opposing the War Against Smoking by Joseph L. Bast, president of The Heartland Institute, debunks the claims of anti-smoking zealots. Featuring a foreword by Joel Sherman, president of Nat Sherman International, the book vehemently opposes the concept of government making personal choices on the behalf of Americans and justifying their actions by perpetuating falsehoods.

“In the series of articles that compose this small book, Bast uses common sense, real science, and the (almost) lost art of critical thinking to refute and debunk the outlandish claims and comments made by anti-smoking fundamentalists and those who have found great profits in fueling the hysteria,” writes Sherman in the book’s introduction. “Where Bast veers from unbiased to biased is when he observes how the sum of this deceit attacks and destroys our freedoms and ultimately our democracy. The slippery slope starts with government making personal choices on your behalf and then using junk science and outright falsehoods to justify their actions. It ends with the total loss of our basic American ideals of individual freedom, personal responsibility, and limited government.”

Copies of the book, which was released in June of 2006, are being distributed to members by NATO. But you can also find them online at www.heartland.org. •

Alleged Counterfeiter Nabbed

Indian Nation member arrested for reportedly heading counterfeiting ring.

The owner of an Indian reservation tobacco shop in Mastic Beach, N.Y. has been charged with supplying New York City retailers with thousands of illegal and counterfeit cigarettes.

Unkechaung Indian Nation member Ronald Bell allegedly headed an operation that used his tax-free status as the proprietor of an Indian reservation store to buy $18 million in cigarettes wholesale and then sell them to distributors last year, raking in almost $2 million in profit. In addition to felony tax charges, he is reportedly being investigated for conspiracy to commit murder connected to the tax evasion scheme, as well as counterfeit cartons of cigarettes made in China with fake tax stamps.

Bell owns The Outpost, a tobacco shop on the Poospatuck Indian reservation in Mastic Beach. While sovereign status gives Bell the right to sell tobacco products to other Native Americans without collecting tax, his store is obligated to collect tax on cigarettes sold off of the reservation.

Enforcement authorities confiscated approximately $750,000 in cash, 15 vehicles, three handguns, a shotgun, and 41,000 cartons of untaxed cigarettes in arresting Bell, 40, his wife, Yvette Mitchner, 38, and six others—all of whom face felony tax charges. •

Baltimore Ban?

Baltimore’s City Council is expected to approve a ban on smoking in all of the city’s public places.

A new ban in Baltimore will reportedly include bars and restaurants, bowling alleys, and even taxicabs. The state of Maryland already has a ban on smoking in most public places, as does neighboring Delaware. •

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Indiana Considers Tax Hike

Gov. Mitch Daniels proposes an increase to the 55-cents-per-pack tax.

Indiana’s governor is backing a 25-cent-per-pack cigarette tax increase, but ultimately leaves the amount of the increase up to the state’s legislators. The proceeds of the tax would be earmarked for health insurance coverage for more than 100,000 Hoosiers, says Daniels, as well as programs for reducing smoking rates and immunizing children. •

Casinos Suffer When Smoking is Banned

Bans can snuff out casino revenue, yet continue to spread.

After the Canadian province of Ontario instituted a smoking ban in public places in May, casinos along the U.S./Canada border reportedly suffered a revenue drop of between 10 percent and 20 percent. A similar smoking ban at three “racinos,” or race tracks with slot machines, in Delaware also had a negative impact, with slot machine revenue dropping by between 10 percent and 19 percent since the ban was imposed in 2002.

Yet, both Atlantic City, N.J., and the state of Nevada—known as gambling havens—are considering smoking bans. Atlantic City is considering extending a statewide ban on smoking in public places to its popular casinos, which were exempted in the past. While the state’s legislators made a special allowance for the gambling establishments when they enacted the smoking ban, the Atlantic City Council may void that exemption.    

Nevada already approved a ban on smoking at bars that serve food and around the slot machines at supermarkets, gas stations, and convenience stores starting in December. Thus far, casino floors remain exempt.

In Colorado, casino floors remain open to smokers, but a ban has been implemented in bars and restaurants. •