Category: News This Week

Drone Used to Smuggle Smokes Into Prison

Credit: Adragan
Three men were arrested in Malaysia for attempting to smuggle tobacco products using a drone into the Machang Prison, according to the New Straits Times.
The trio aged between 35 and 39 were arrested after the Machang district criminal investigation division received a report involving a drone being flown above a compound near the prison at Jalan Kuing Indah, Kampung Pangkal Meleret, at 1:05 a.m.
Kelantan Police Chief Datuk Muhamad Zaki Harun said the prison, which is equipped with tracking device technology, detected the drone near the premises.
The police deployed a team to the location before the three men sped off in a Honda CRV. “A chase ensued between the police and the three men before they were arrested near the main Kuala Krai-Kota Baru road in Kampung Bukit Belah,” Zaki said in a statement, according to media reports.
Zaki said police also found an RC123 drone remote control device, 13 packets of tobacco and 41 small compressed packages believed to contain tobacco.
December 29, 2022
Cabbacis Patents Low-Nicotine Pods in Canada

A U.S. federally licensed tobacco product manufacturer focused on harm reduction products announced today that the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has issued patents for its pods comprising blends of very low-nicotine tobacco and hemp for use with electronic nicotine-delivery systems (ENDS).
Canadian Patent No. 3,151,047 was issued to Cabbacis and includes 27 claims which will expire on September 10, 2040. Earlier in 2022, CIPO also issued Patent No. 3,107,796 to Cabbacis for cigarettes comprising blends of very-low-nicotine tobacco and hemp.
“I am pleased that both types of our products are now patented in Canada, which is one of our early target countries for commercialization,” said Joseph Pandolfino, founder and president of Cabbacis.
Credit: Feng Yu
Primary applications of the company’s very low-nicotine cigarettes and vaping pods in development comprising blends of very low-nicotine tobacco and hemp are to assist smokers of conventional cigarettes to smoke less, transition to less harmful tobacco or nicotine products or quit nicotine use altogether, according to a press release.
Cabbacis’ patent portfolio includes 25 issued patents and various pending patent applications across the United States, Europe, China, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil and other countries. The company holds six U.S. patents.
December 29, 2022
Experts Call for Simplified Tobacco Tax

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Tobacco taxation experts have recommended the government of Vietnam simplify the country’s excise tax structure on tobacco, reports EIN News. The move would facilitate tax administration, reduce opportunities for tax avoidance and evasion, increase the government’s revenues and have a greater impact on reducing tobacco use.
The recommendation comes after the Vietnam government approved a tax reform strategy for up to 2030, which sets the process for switching from an ad valorem tax system to a hybrid tax system for tobacco and other products subject to excise tax.
A number of experts suggest that a hybrid tax system that includes ad valorem and specific taxes is the most simple and effective system. In a recent report titled “Study on the Special Consumption Tax System,” PwC Vietnam called it “The right direction in line with the general trend in the world.”
According to the report, the government has lost revenues due to tobacco smuggling, especially in 2016–2017.
The total tax loss due to smuggled tobacco consumption has reached nearly 9 percent of tobacco tax collection, and tax collection of tobacco remained unchanged in the 2006–2020 period without factoring in inflation, the report said.
Based on the analysis of the current excise tax policy, the objectives of the government and tax policies in comparable countries, it outlined a number of options for SCT reform along with roadmaps for the short-term and the long-term.
The first option is transitioning into a hybrid tax system then gradually increasing the specific component and decreasing the ad valorem component at an appropriate time in future, considering to move to a single-tier specific tax system when being suitable.
The second option is transitioning into a multi-tier specific tax system and then gradually narrow down the number of tiers to become a one-tier specific system.
Both options have both advantages and disadvantages, but PwC Vietnam believes that the first is more reasonable for Vietnam. According to the Asia Illegal Tobacco Index, in 2017, more than 24.3 billion illegal cigarettes were consumed in Vietnam, or 23.4 percent of total tobacco consumption.
December 27, 2022
England’s Ports Seeing Boost in Fake Vapes

The number of potentially unsafe disposable vapes being seized at English Channel ports has risen “dramatically,” according to trading standards.
More than 300,000 of the counterfeit products had been seized during December, Kent Trading Standards said, according to the BBC.
“A lot of our work has been focused on retail outlets, but this is now higher up the supply chain,” James Whiddett, spokesperson for KTS, said. “We’re stopping these devices, which may have about 10 times the legal limit of nicotine in them.”
He said the current legal limit on the tank on disposable vapes is 2 mL, which is the equivalent of 600 puffs.
“The products which we’re seeing coming into the country at the moment have 3,500 puffs on them and some have 7,000 puffs, so they are illegal and cannot be supplied to anyone,” he said.
Whiddett said the demand for disposable vapes had risen dramatically over the last nine months.
“The flavors, the fact that people don’t have to put their own liquids in, means it’s convenient and easy,” he said. “We’re not sure where these illegal vapes were going, and our investigations are ongoing.”
Gillian Golden, CEO of the Independent British Vape Trade Association, said noncompliant vape products are also associated with noncompliant sales, “often to underage consumers.”
She said the association would continue to assist trading standards over noncompliant vaping products.
December 27, 2022
PMI, Medicago Cut Ties After WHO Rejection

Credit: Antonioguillem
Philip Morris International and the health group Medicago have severed ties after the World Health Organization rejected Medicago’s Covid-19 vaccine, according to a tobacco control body.
Covifenz, the world’s first plant-based Covid-19 vaccine, was jointly developed by Medicago, which is owned by Mitsubishi Chemical, Philip Morris and Glaxo, according to Bloomberg. The Canadian government, which provided $173 million in funding for its development, has cleared it for use.
The government of Quebec previously said it wanted to help Medicago replace its shareholder PMI with another investor so that the biotech firm can distribute its Covifenz Covid-19 vaccine internationally.
“Tobacco corporations, vaccines and governments don’t mix well, and we applaud the expulsion of Philip Morris from the Medicago collaboration,” Les Hagen, the executive director of not-for-profit organization ASH Canada, said in a statement.
Medicago’s request for an emergency-use listing was denied earlier this year by the World Health Organization because of the links with tobacco industry.
Earlier this year, Medicago announced it would cut 62 jobs at its manufacturing facility in Durham, North Carolina, USA, which played a key role in producing the company’s tobacco plant-based Covid-19 vaccine.
December 26, 2022
Scotland May Consider Display Ban for Vapes
Credit: Paolo Giovanni
A lawmaker in Scotland wants to ban the public display of e-cigarettes in retail shops. Scottish Greens MSP Gillian Mackay wants retailers to treat them in the same way as cigarettes and hide them from view.
“This is beyond the days of smoking behind the bike sheds—this is a multi-million industry leading the nation’s health down a path to disaster,” Mackay said. “It is a ticking time bomb, and, until we know more, that’s not a risk I or anyone else should be asked to accept.”
She has written to shops and vape manufacturers ahead of taking her campaign to the Scottish Parliament, according to the Daily Record.
Mackay, the Green Party’s health spokesman, said there is growing concern that the number of underage people being attracted by “deliberately sweet-toothed tactics” to market products is spiraling.
She is calling on retailers to lead by example by writing to them urging that they hide the products from view.
December 26, 2022
Bantam Receives PMTA Acceptance Letter

Image: Tobacco Reporter archive
Bantam Vape received acceptance of its premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) submission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its nontobacco nicotine e-liquids, according to a press release. Bantam’s application now moves to the next step in the PMTA process—a preliminary scientific review to confirm the application contains all required items to permit a substantive review by the FDA.
Bantam submitted its application for its nontobacco nicotine e-liquids to the FDA on May 13, 2022, and is seeking marketing orders from the agency.
“The receipt of this acceptance letter reflects Bantam’s efforts to provide adult consumers with high-quality, science-based e-liquids while upholding our responsibility to restrict youth access and use of these products,” said Bantam spokesperson Anthony Dillon. “Bantam remains supportive of the need for science-based regulation in the e-liquids industry and is proud of the progress of our various PMTAs. We remain confident in the quality and consistency of our products and the science behind them.”
Prior to its nontobacco nicotine-focused submission, Bantam submitted a PMTA to the FDA in September 2020 for its tobacco-derived e-liquids. The application entered scientific review in August 2021, and, to date, remains under FDA review.
December 22, 2022
New Zealand: Vapes Impact Student Behavior

Image: michaeljung | Adobe Stock
School suspensions (stand-downs) have increased in New Zealand since 2020, driven by smoking and vaping prevalence among youth, according to RNZ.
“Breakdown of the smoking or alcohol category indicates that the number of stand-downs due to smoking has increased from 1,210 in 2020 to 2,865 in 2021,” a Ministry of Education report said. “This accounts for 59 percent of the increase in stand-down cases between 2020 and 2021.”
“The data shows that for 75 percent of [the] increase in stand-downs from 2020 to 2021, smoking or vaping was cited as part or all of the reason,” the report said.
While they do not want youth smoking or vaping, said Ben Youdan, Action for Smoke-Free 2025 director, they don’t want schools suspending students for it either.
“There’s plenty of evidence from other drug and alcohol use that actually excluding kids for those things doesn’t discourage them from using them and can even increase harmful use as well,” Youdan said. “That’s because it’s saying to kids, ‘you don’t belong here because of that behavior.’ Kids need somewhere to feel like they belong, and they can have safe and open and honest conversations about vaping and smoking and other substance use as well, and if the school is excluding them, it’s not creating the space to deal with it as a health issue.”
Youdan recommends discussions with those students who are using tobacco products to explain the health risks and help empower them to say no to using these products as well as offer them support to quit.
The report shows that schools suspended 15,968 students 20,980 times in 2021, which was about 2,800 more suspensions in 2021 than in 2020.
December 21, 2022
California’s Flavored Tobacco Ban Begins

Image: Tobacco Reporter archive
California’s controversial ban on flavored tobacco begins today, reports ABC10. A week ago, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company’s contention that the new state law conflicted with federal law.
Flavored tobacco products, such as e-cigarettes, menthol cigarettes, flavored cigars and more, can no longer be sold in stores.
“If they wanted to ban flavored tobacco or regulate it, I feel they should have selected certain stores to be authorized to retail it. It’s saved so many lives, helped so many people get off cigarettes,” said Carlo Sharmoug, owner of Ziggy’s Smoke Shop in Stockton.
Sharmoug says in his 14 years in business, his store has never once sold tobacco to a minor.
Lindsey Freitas, an advocacy director representing California and Hawaii for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, says California’s tobacco rates among teens at one point began to decline until e-cigarettes appeared.
“They started being sold in flavors like grape and cherry and gummy bear. And all of a sudden, we saw our youth tobacco rates increasing again,” said Freitas.
Smoke shops like Ziggy’s say California will lose out on millions in tax revenue and believes product will be sold on the black market. However, Freitas disagrees, saying the savings in medical treatment in California alone will be huge.
December 21, 2022
OSC Letter Describes FDA’s ‘Public Failure’

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) had relaxed its standards of review for certain tobacco products and stifled attempts by its scientists to raise concerns, according to an investigation conducted by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC). The OSC sent a letter to President Joe Biden and Congress outlining the findings.
The investigation began after a leading CTP toxicologist-turned-whistleblower disclosed to the OSC that a 2019 memorandum issued to the CTP’s scientists revised the process for evaluating potentially harmful ingredients in substantial equivalence applications used for certain tobacco products. According to the whistleblower, the memo directed scientists to stop using objective, quantitative data to evaluate applications and to instead use an approach that was more akin to “eyeballing it,” resulting in unclear review standards and less reliable decisions, according to the CTP.
The whistleblower also alleged that flaws in the CTP’s internal scientific dispute resolution process effectively prevented the whistleblower and several other concerned scientists from raising these issues within the agency. “This internal dispute process is intended to safeguard the integrity of CTP’s scientific evaluations, including consideration of certain tobacco products to ensure those authorized for market meet the applicable health and safety standards,” the CTP stated.
The OSC referred the whistleblower’s allegations for investigation. In response, the FDA convened an independent panel of scientific experts to evaluate allegations concerning the allegedly flawed tobacco application review process. The panel largely agreed with the whistleblower’s concerns, finding that the process lacked “quantifiable standards or criteria.” The expert panel made six recommendations, including a new process for resolving scientific discrepancies, which the agency largely adopted.
In response, the whistleblower acknowledged the CTP’s progress in giving scientists discretion to consider quantitative data in reviewing potentially harmful chemical compounds in substantial equivalence applications for new tobacco products. The CTP also revamped its scientific dispute procedures and created a mandatory training program for all CTP staff involved in scientific decision-making. While supportive of these steps, the whistleblower stated that FDA scientists will still need courage to challenge a system that “discourages dissenting voices.”
“The public depends on the FDA to vigorously implement and enforce our nation’s health and safety laws, especially when new tobacco products are being brought to market,” said Special Counsel Henry J. Kerner. “I am deeply troubled that FDA’s own scientific dispute process failed our whistleblower and fellow concerned scientists, and as a result failed the public. I commend the whistleblower for persevering in the face of these unnecessary obstacles. I also thank the FDA for taking the allegations seriously by convening an independent expert panel and for taking positive steps to repair its review process.”
December 21, 2022