Big Tobacco Targets City Ordinance

Big tobacco wants a federal judge to snuff out the citywide ban on all visible tobacco product and Lucky Strike advertising.

In a filing yesterday, the city agreed not to enforce the advertising section of the ordinance while a civil action filed last week by a tobacco group and several tobacco companies is pending. Enforcement was scheduled to begin Friday.

Both the city and plaintiffs agreed to the stay.

The plaintiffs are R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.; Philip Morris USA Inc., Lorillard Tobacco Co. and the National Association of Tobacco Outlets, which is a membership association in Minnesota that promotes and represents the interest of tobacco companies, distributors and retailers.

A portion of the city’s tobacco-control ordinance approved last month bans advertisements of cigarette and tobacco products visible from any city street, park, school or educational institution.

When Tobacco Was Center Stage

The fate of historic buildings in Durham generally remains parlous until something nasty happens to them. Last month, the city condemned part of Liberty Warehouse - Durham's only extant tobacco auction house - after a roof collapse. The Rigsbee Street warehouse, one of Greenfire Development's 30-odd properties, had gotten minimal upkeep, much to the chagrin of its small-business tenants.

I doubt that either the city or Greenfire will let Liberty Warehouse crumble, for the historic building served purposes well beyond auctioning bright leaf. In the fall, Liberty became a one-stop shop for farm families, complete with shops, eateries, bank offices and piles of pungent tobacco - "sweet smellin' stuff" - that seemed to go on forever. But perhaps Liberty's most understated role was that of a theater for tobacco auctioneers.

The great auctioneers knew they were performers. Youngsters trying to imitate them quickly discovered that the auctioneer's chant was easy to learn and hard to master:

Engine, Engine Number Nine, runnin' on the Chicago line. If the engine jumps the track, you will get your money back.

Dubai shops sell cigarettes to minors

The World Anti-Tobacco Day has come and gone. As expected there were free health camps, awareness campaigns and a slew of familiar programmes on May 31. Not to be left behind 63 Dubai hypermarkets and supermarkets took cigarettes off their shelves, with some even getting certificates of recognition from Dubai Municipality for showing solidarity with the cause.

But if you thought the World No-Tobacco Day gesture by retail outlets here was a positive (healthy) step towards a tobacco-free world, you couldn't be more mistaken.