Nearly half (45 percent) of participants in a survey among adults aged 18-25 in the U.S. reported knowing someone who successfully used a fake ID to gain access to age-restricted products, such as tobacco, according to a new report by Scandit.
The survey, which encompassed over 2,000 respondents across all 50 states, also found that 71 percent of respondents said it was either “very easy” or “somewhat easy” to acquire a fake ID and over 30 percent admitted to considering or buying a fake ID themselves. This issue is exacerbated in places with stricter regulations and a higher population of college students, with New England landing as the region with the highest percentage of under-21s considering fake IDs (45 percent) and the highest rate of successful fake ID use at 59 percent across the age range surveyed.
“The widespread use of fake IDs presents a significant financial, compliance and reputational challenge for many businesses across the U.S., underscoring the need for greater vigilance and ensuring employees are better trained on and equipped for ID verification,” said Scandit CEO Samuel Mueller.
Thailand should create a law specifically targeting vaping, Deputy Public Health Minister Thanakrit Jitareerat told the National Health Commission Office on Aug. 1, according to a report in The Taiger.
With various agencies independently enforcing measures based on different laws, Thailand has been unable to halt the spread of vaping, according to the minister.
“The measures we have rolled out to date have proved ineffective, so a specific law on the matter must be drafted as soon as possible, describing vaping as a serious threat to society,” Jitareerat was quoted as saying.
National Health Commission Office Chairman Banjerd Singkaneti countered that the government should refine existing laws to provide clearer guidelines for authorities.
“In the long run, possession of e-cigarettes should be clearly prohibited by law so that the police will have no excuse not to pursue legal action,” Banjerd said.
The Office of the Consumer Protection Board seized 100,000 illegal e-cigarettes in 2023, up from 27,000 in 2020.
Social workers should be given the tools to promote tobacco harm reduction as a means to reverse the high smoking rates found in many of the populations with whom they interact, according to a new briefing paper by Knowledge Action Change (KAC)
In 2021, according to the World Health Organization, two-thirds of people with severe mental health conditions were people who smoked and in those experiencing schizophrenia rates can reach as high as 70-80 percent. People who use illicit drugs are also three times more likely to smoke cigarettes compared to non-users. One study in California found that smoking-related conditions comprised around 40 percent of total deaths among people hospitalized with cocaine, opioid and methamphetamine disorders.
The KAC briefing paper explores how, in countries where they are affordable and available, switching from smoking to the use of safer nicotine products could have dramatic positive effects for those supported by social workers.
“Social workers around the world regularly work with individuals who are more likely than the general population to smoke, for example people experiencing mental health and substance use issues,” said KAC Director David Mackintosh in a statement.
“However, few countries train social workers to support those who want to quit smoking. This is a missed opportunity for both individuals in need and the public health system. Equipping social workers with the tools to provide trusted information and advice on tobacco harm reduction options would benefit their clients, as well as their families and communities. It would save lives. The potential is massive, especially in countries where smoking cessation services are rare, non-existent or expensive to access.”
The Turkish tax inspection authority has issued a record fine of 6 billion Turkish Liras ($181.2 million) to a tobacco manufacturer for unreported revenue. This is part of a comprehensive audit of large taxpayers by the Treasury and Finance Ministry.
In accordance with Minister Mehmet Şimşek’s principle of “taxing the wealthy more,” inspectors from the Tax Audit Board have been conducting ongoing audits. They have started thorough tax inspections using the “yield analysis” method to determine the actual production output of businesses.
This method involves analyzing the materials used in manufacturing, other production inputs, finished goods, and outputs that should have been produced. As a result, a yield analysis and inventory audit were carried out for a company involved in tobacco production.
The calculations considered the capacity and operational hours of the cigarette production lines, along with the company’s consumption data for natural gas, tobacco, and cigarette filters. The audit results revealed that the company had generated unreported revenue, according to media reports.
Certain documents within the company were not included in the legal ledger records and declarations. Moreover, the authorities determined that excise and value-added taxes on the cigarettes, despite being invoiced, were not reflected in the declarations.
After the audit, the company was fined around 6 billion Liras, and the amount is expected to increase due to late payment interest. The minister announced that tax inspectors have started simultaneous inspections of 707 jewelers in nine major cities.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals granted petitions for review to five vaping companies, citing its own decision in the Triton Distribution case as precedent.
The court sent the company’s marketing denial orders (MDOs) back to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for additional scientific evaluation. As a result, the manufacturers may keep selling their products until the agency completes new reviews of their premarket tobacco applications (PMTAs), or until the Supreme Court takes action.
“Specifically, the court determined that (1) FDA did not give e-cigarette manufacturers fair notice of the rule requiring long-term studies for PMTAs; (2) FDA did not acknowledge or adequately explain its change in position; and (3) FDA ignored reasonable and serious reliance interests that manufacturers had in the pre-MDO guidance,” the 5th Circuit wrote in its ruling.
Five companies, Cloud House, Paradigm Distribution, SWT Global Supply, Vaporized and SV Packaging first challenged their MDOs in court in October 2021. The court consolidated the five cases, and in November 2021, all petitioners were granted stays pending review.
In January, the 5th Circuit found in favor of Wages and White Lion Investments (doing business as Triton Distribution) in the e-liquid manufacturer’s appeal of an MDO. The FDA later petitioned the Supreme Court to review the 5th Circuit’s ruling, and last month the Supreme Court agreed to hear the agency’s appeal.
The FDA challenged the Triton decision, and the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear that case. “But now another panel of the Fifth Circuit has applied the same rationale as in Triton to hold that these five, small-business manufacturers prevail for the same reason: FDA pulled a surprise switcheroo,” wrote the United States Vaping Association on X.
The 5th Circuit found that the recent petitions posed the same issues as Triton’s. “Petitioners spent substantial time and resources preparing their PMTAs based on FDA guidance that they would not need to submit long-term clinical studies,” the court wrote.
“Nevertheless, FDA rejected their PMTAs using the same boilerplate language it used for the Wages petitioners’ denials, as well as those of thousands of other e-cigarette manufacturers. Accordingly, for the reasons amply explained by the en banc court in Wages, we hold that FDA acted unlawfully here as well by denying Petitioners’ PMTAs based on the absence of long-term clinical studies.”
The JT Group reported revenue of ¥1.6 trillion ($10.63 billion) for the second quarter of 2024, up 12.7 percent over the comparable 2023 period. Profit increased by 6.3 percent to ¥305.2 billion.
“The JT Group posted another strong set of results for the first half, driven by continued market share gains and solid pricing in the tobacco business,” said President and CEO Masamichi Terabatake in a statement.
“Total volume increased by 2 percent year-on-year, with combustibles growing 1.7 percent and RRP [reduced risk products] up by a strong 25.5 percent. RRP volume was mainly driven by Ploom in the HTS segment, our investment priority, resulting in RRP-related revenue increasing by approximately 29 percent year-on-year.
“In the Japanese market, Ploom volume increased approximately 36 percent year-on-year, growing at a faster pace than total HTS demand in the market. Additionally, the geo-expansion of Ploom has now reached 21 markets, with sales volumes in markets outside Japan also steadily increasing.
“For the full-year performance forecast, we have revised our adjusted operating profit at constant FX [foreign exchange rates] upward, reflecting the positive momentum in the first half. On a reported basis, we have also revised our forecast upward, considering the continued impact of the current positive foreign exchange trend.”
Philip Morris International has appointed Denys Strobykin as the new general manager of its Bulgarian unit, reports SeeNews. He succeeds Demian Pintos, who will become managing director of the south cluster in PMI’s Americas region, overseeing operations in Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Chile and Paraguay.
Strobykin starting in PMI’s finance department in Ukraine two decades ago. Over the years, he has held sales and marketing roles in Moldova, Poland and Romania, most recently serving as director of marketing and digital at Philip Morris Romania.
Strobykin aims to strengthen the company’s market presence and further develop its commitment to guiding adult smokers to smoke-free alternatives, according to a PMI press release.
“We have already made significant progress in the country—more than 350,000 adult smokers have already switched to the main smoke-free alternative in our ever-expanding portfolio—IQOS,” Strobykin was quoted as saying.
“We have been scaling our operations responsibly, by addressing diverse consumer needs. We have been also advancing a more sustainable business model by implementing recycling programs for our devices as part of our efforts to reduce the environmental impact of our products.”
Turning Point Brands (TPB) announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2024.
Total consolidated net sales increased 2.8 percent to $108.5 million compared to the previous year period. Zig-Zag product net sales increased 8 percent. Stoker’s product net sales increased 18.5 percent. Creative Distribution Solutions (CDS) net sales decreased 33 percent. Gross profit increased 2.6 percent to $53.8 million. Net income increased 31 percent to $13 million. Adjusted net income increased 12.2 percent to $17.2 million. Adjusted EBITDA increased 6.9 percent to $27 million.
“We were pleased by our second-quarter results,” said President and CEO Graham Purdy in a statement. “We achieved our highest quarterly EBITDA since the second quarter of 2021. We believe Zig-Zag is on a sustainable growth trajectory, and Stoker’s MST continues to grow market share. In addition, sales of FRE, our modern oral nicotine pouch, grew 76 percent sequentially as we continue to expand our national footprint.”
The company is increasing its previous full-year 2024 adjusted EBITDA guidance from $95 to $100 million to $98 to $102 million, which excludes CDS.
For the second quarter, CDS net sales were $15.3 million, gross profit was $3.4 million and gross margin was 22.5 percent.
Jordan has joined the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade of Tobacco Products, reports The Jordan Times.
Health Minister Firas Hawari described the step as an important milestone for the success of the National Action Plan 2024-2026, which is part of the broader National Tobacco Control Strategy 2024-2030.
The Protocol is based on Article 15 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, to which Jordan was one of the first countries to accede.
This article addresses the threats posed by illicit trade and the measures that countries must take to prevent it. The protocol aims to strengthen cooperation between countries, facilitate the exchange of information, and enforce effective measures.
The effort to correct nicotine risk misperceptions will be a marathon rather than a sprint.
By Stefanie Rossel
“Nicotine contained in tobacco is highly addictive, and tobacco use is a major risk factor for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, over 20 different types or subtypes of cancer and many other debilitating health conditions.” With phrases like this, the World Health Organization links the undisputed harms of burning and inhaling plant tissue with the ingredient smokers seek in a cigarette.
Regardless of its form of delivery, such statements suggest, nicotine is the devil incarnate. In spreading this message, it appears, the WHO has done a good job. In a 2021 study funded by the National Cancer Institute, 83.2 percent of surveyed U.S. physicians “strongly agreed” that nicotine directly contributes to the development of cardiovascular disease. Nearly 81 percent thought it contributes to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and 80.5 percent associated nicotine with cancer.
While recognizing that nicotine is responsible for the addictive nature of tobacco products, the study authors pointed out that the strongest evidence for direct causality for nicotine is for birth defects (neurodevelopment), with only limited evidence supporting causal links to cancer and cardiovascular disease and scarce data for COPD. The misperception that nicotine is responsible for smoking-related health risks, they observed, is not only common among the public but also among other healthcare professionals.
“Correcting misperceptions should be a priority given that in 2017, the FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] proposed a nicotine-centered framework that includes reducing nicotine content in cigarettes to nonaddictive levels while encouraging safer forms of nicotine use for either harm reduction (e.g., smokeless tobacco) or cessation (pharmacologic NRT [nicotine-replacement therapy]),” the study concluded.
In product use, risk perceptions play a critical role; they can influence smokers’ decisions on whether to switch to products with lower risk profiles. The messaging is an essential part of changing misperceptions. Studies on nicotine corrective messaging have shown that it was effective in decreasing misperceptions of nicotine harm, but repeated exposure to such messaging was necessary to reduce false beliefs about nicotine and tobacco products.
With physicians and other healthcare professionals often being the first point of call for people seeking to quit smoking, it is obvious that their misperceptions should be corrected first so that they can educate their patients and accurately convey nicotine’s relative and absolute risks.
Carolyn Beaumont
Carolyn Beaumont, a general practitioner (GP) from Victoria, Australia, has taken on the challenging task of educating her colleagues. Since July 1, 2024, all nicotine vapes in Australia have been regulated as therapeutic goods, which means they are available only at pharmacies to help people quit smoking or manage nicotine dependence. Currently, all buyers of nicotine vapes require a prescription from a doctor or a nurse practitioner.
Starting Oct. 1, the rules will be somewhat relaxed. From that date, people 18 years or over will be able to purchase therapeutic vapes directly from a pharmacy without a prescription. People under 18 will still need a prescription to access vapes, where state and territory laws allow it, to ensure they get appropriate medical advice and supervision.
The concentration of nicotine in vapes sold in pharmacies without a prescription will be limited to 20 mg per milliliter; people who require vapes with a higher concentration of nicotine will still require a prescription.
The law requires pharmacists to consult customers of both prescription and nonprescription vapes before allowing them to make a purchase.
Following the announcement of the new rules, several major pharmacy chains in Australia stated that they will no longer stock vapes. Beaumont is not surprised: “They simply don’t have the time, product knowledge or resources to advise customers on appropriate products and use. It is greatly complicated because any pharmacist-only product must be an approved medical product, yet there are no approved vapes in Australia. They are listed but not approved. Fortunately, there are some online pharmacies who specialize in vapes, and these will continue to operate but likely will require a script to avoid the ‘nonapproved’ issue.”
“There is no official doctor education in Australia that adequately presents the fuller context of smoking, vaping and nicotine.”
Enjoyment Doesn’t Feature
Despite the hostile environment for nicotine, Beaumont says she has found that her colleagues are quite interested in the field of tobacco harm reduction (THR). “Yet, to communicate THR on a larger scale, typically via continuing medical education (CME) courses or webinars, is difficult. These generally require support from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), and to date, there is no official doctor education in Australia that adequately presents the fuller context of smoking, vaping and nicotine,” she says.
“In medical school and as a trainee GP, we were taught of the many smoking-related health and social issues. But a more nuanced understanding of working with smokers wasn’t appreciated. We all knew the ‘three A’s’ approach—ask, advise, assist—the measure of nicotine dependence—time to first cigarette—and the first line NRTs. Yet it stopped there as though magically, smokers would be motivated to quit, and this would happen within six months. If not, repeat the process ad nauseum.”
According to Beaumont, doctors aren’t taught that some smokers like nicotine and simply want a less harmful alternative. “Enjoyment doesn’t feature in medical education,” she says. “Doctor support can truly help some people reduce their use. But it’s not enough for many heavy smokers, and they often become disengaged with the same messaging they keep hearing from doctors.”
Beaumont is encouraged, though, that Australia’s GP College recently revised its smoking cessation guidelines and increased the recommendation of vaping from “low” to “moderate.” “I hope this will have a reasonable impact on doctors’ willingness to prescribe, or at least be open to the conversation,” she says. “I also hope this signals a greater willingness by the RACGP to support vape-related CME that is broader in scope and includes input from ‘progressives’ such as myself.”
Beaumont first became aware of vaping as a cessation tool in 2020 when Australia was on the verge of making vapes prescription-only. “My approach was simply this: I listened to the needs of smokers and vapers,” she says. “It didn’t take long before I was convinced of [the] merits [of vaping], and also, I developed a deeper understanding of nicotine use and addiction. Compassion and health improvements were, and still are, the underlying reasons why I’ve remained involved in this field.”
Beaumont aims to help disadvantaged groups, which are among the most affected by smoking-related death and disease. “It is simply unjust that smokers are also affected by nicotine myths, and it is getting to the point where people think that smoking is better than vaping.”
“Like so many areas where science is contested, adherents of contrarian positions are rarely persuaded by more science or data.”
Open Dialogue Required
Derek Yach
While some believe that science will correct misperceptions of nicotine, others are skeptical, pointing, for example, to the WHO’s proposal to define aerosols as smoke. Derek Yach, a global health expert originally from South Africa who played a key role in crafting the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, says that while some topics require more research, these gaps should not delay WHO support for THR, noting that they have not prevented the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other government agencies from authorizing a range of reduced-risk products.
“Like so many areas where science is contested, including vaccine benefits, climate change or even beliefs that the earth is flat, adherents of contrarian positions are rarely persuaded by more science or data,” says Yach. “Their views deeply reflect emotional, ideological and sometimes cultural views based on their life experiences. A mother whose child gets autism after a vaccine is easily convinced that vaccines are dangerous. A tobacco control advocate who experienced tobacco industry subversion of public policies keeps that view and doubts anything new coming from industry.”
Having worked on all sides of the issue and having spoken with a wide variety of stakeholders, Yach says that there is no shortcut to finding safe spaces to not only talk honestly about the science but also examine the reasons behind the mutual suspicion. “I saw this bear fruit in the declining years of apartheid when talks about talks led to a peaceful transition of power,” says Yach. “It is possible in that setting; it must be possible in our world.”
The Morven Dialogues, a series of meetings between U.S. public health officials and tobacco industry representatives first held in 2012, have been a modest example of what is needed, according to Yach.
“They recently reported on their March 2024 meeting, which brought together industry with some public health leaders in the U.S.,” says Yach. “Further, I see signs of hope in a recent article by authors from public health I have long respected. They argue for dialogue between scientists in the public sector and industry—as I have—and not for boycotts and bans.”
Without agreement on the basic scientific issues and progress on correcting disinformation, sound policies are unlikely. “A study of how change happens in public health shows that it always starts with physician acceptance of the evidence,” says Yach. “They apply that evidence to themselves, to their patients and through organized efforts to public policy. Recall that no country has ever seen a reduction in their smoking rate before it goes down in physicians. I suspect that is true regarding uptake of THR products. And that starts with doing more to have disagreeing groups talk.”
It’s going to be an uphill struggle, though: In mid-June, the WHO in a press release expressed “grave concern over the tobacco industry’s manipulative tactics aimed at influencing healthcare providers through continuing medical education programs and thereby advancing the interests of the tobacco industry.”
Stefanie Rossel is Tobacco Reporter’s editorial contributor. An experienced trade journalist, she combines sharp reporting skills with in-depth knowledge of the tobacco and vapor industries. Prior to joining Tobacco Reporter, Stefanie was editor-in-chief at Tobacco Journal International, where she worked for a decade. Fluent in English, German and French, Stefanie covers tobacco news around the world. She is based in Germany.
