<p>United Nations have crafted a draft treaty to fight a booming trade in illicit tobacco products that’s costing governments as much as $50 billion a year in lost tax revenue, officials said Wednesday.<br />
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Really what did they expect? Adults do not like to be told what to do and where to do it or paying for a products that has the highest taxe of any consumer goods.</p>
State Senator Pam Jochum (D) has introduced a bill that would tax roll your own cigarettes at the same rate as store bought cigarettes. However, Jeffrey Burd, an Ohio attorney representing a company with RYO, "They don’t want to level the playing field, they want to demolish the playing field," he told the newspaper. Burd contended that people who roll their own cigarettes pay tobacco tax at a rate of 50% of the wholesale price of the tobacco and the idea that a loophole exists in Iowa’s law "is a myth."<br />
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Mr. Burd is closer to the truth, they want all tobacco banned everywhere, it is their goal to end smoking globally by 2020.<br type="_moz" />
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Tobacco is not the answer for funding. Tobacco tax cannot fund every project. It just encourages illegal smuggling of cigarettes from states that have a lower tax and reducing the tax to the state which mean we will all pay higher taxes.<br />
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Nearly 3 out of 5 California voters would support a special fee on soft drinks to fight childhood obesity, according to new poll numbers released Wednesday.<br />
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Any poll can be manipulated to get whatever answer you want. Why are these idiots taxing soda, why aren’t they demanding less sugar or a sugar substitute? <br />
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<p>HONDURAS, a tobacco exporter, has taken Australia to the World Trade Organisation over a law requiring plain packaging for tobacco products. <br />
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Honduras challenged the move, saying the legislation "clearly infringes intellectual property rights by requiring that trademarks for tobacco products be displayed in standard font and size.<br />
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We agree.</p>
A new report published today by Transcrime, the Joint Research Centre on Transnational Crime, warns that policy options being considered by the European Commission as part of the revision of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) carry a significant risk of increasing crime and the illegal trade in tobacco.<br />
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The report by Transcrime uses a widely endorsed crime proofing methodology that assesses opportunities for crime inadvertently created by regulation. Analyzing all the proposed policy options for the revision of the TPD, Transcrime found three major policy areas which are likely to increase crime: generic packaging for tobacco products, implementation of a "polluter pays principle" and a ban on the display of tobacco products at the point of sale. <br />
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