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JMTobacco
Names Grand
PrizeWinner
David Williams won the
company’s “Strike Gold!”
raffle. A new corporate
name reflects the
company’s
extensive lineup.
JM TOBACCO INITIATED ITS
“Strike
Gold!” blackjack contest several weeks
before the IPCPR show by mailing an
envelope to every active IPCPR member.
It contained a gold and black poker chip
attached to a card with game rules and a
list of prizes. During show hours, retailers
brought their chip to JM’s booth and sat
at a poker table. They played one hand
of blackjack, which entitled them to a
raffle ticket. When the winning ticket
was drawn at the conclusion of the show,
Dave Williams from San Francisco, Cal-
ifornia walked away with an Apple iPad
Air 2 Gold tablet, valued at $400.
“Dave wasn’t alone,” said Anto
Mahroukian, JM’s president, who noted
that Strike Gold! is conducted every five
years, with previous games in 2006 and
2011. “Every player won a prize—swag
like a JM T-shirt or cap. Even if they lost
on the first hand, they received one of
our premium cigars. This year, it was the
all-tobacco, handmade JM’s Nicaraguan,
available in the same eight shapes as all
other JM cigars.
“We wanted all contestants to expe-
rience the quality and performance this
value-priced cigar offers,” explained
Mahroukian. “Its medium body and
sweet, nutty flavor profile reflect the
quality of its select Sumatra or Maduro
wrapper, all-Nicaraguan blend and Madu-
ro-fermented Connecticut broadleaf bind-
er. The cigars are aged a full three years
to add to the cigar’s sophistication.”
In December, the U.S. surgeon general
released a report calling surging
e-cigarette use by children and young
adults “a major public health concern”
and recommending increased regulation
and taxation of the products. The
report noted that vapor product usage
has overtaken cigarettes among young
Americans, and expressed concern about
a lack of information about the possible
effects of such use.
“We know a great deal about what
works to effectively prevent tobacco
use among young people,” noted the
report, which called for e-cigarettes to
be incorporated into existing smoke-free
price and tax policies to help prevent
young people from accessing them.
“Now we must apply these strategies to
e-cigarettes.” The surgeon general urged
local and state governments to take
action by imposing higher taxes, raising
the minimum age for vaping to 21,
incorporating e-cigarettes into smoke-
free laws and restricting marketing that
encourages use among young adults.
Vapor advocacy groups were quick to
denounce the report’s findings. “Like the
surgeon general, VTA and its members
are committed to the health and safety
of children,” said Tony Abboud,
national legislative director at the Vapor
Technology Association. “VTA supports
bipartisan legislation that will ensure the
safety of vapor products, and will ensure
vapor products do not fall into the hands
of minors.
“What the surgeon general does not
acknowledge with this announcement
are the millions of adult Americans
who rely on vapor products to switch
away from smoking deadly cigarettes,”
pointed out Abboud. “While there is no
credible evidence that vapor products
are a ‘gateway’ to combustible cigarettes,
there is scientific evidence that they
provide these adult smokers with a safer
alternative.”
Many agreed with Abboud, including
the public policy group R Street, which
said in a statement: “The long tradition of
scientifically rigorous messages and reports
from the U.S. surgeon general appears to
have ended. The report focuses on youth
experimentation and completely omits the
opportunities for harm reduction these
devices offer for adult smokers.”
The surgeon general’s report, however,
contended that there is no evidence to
support claims that e-cigarettes help
people quit smoking. But it also conceded
that there is a dearth of proof that young
people who begin vaping move on to
smoking traditional cigarettes. “More
studies are needed to elucidate the nature
of any true causal relationship between
e-cigarette and combustible tobacco
product use,” it said.
E-cigarette use has risen among
young people, even as smoking rates
have gone down, according to statistics
from the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, which has reported that
use of e-cigarettes among U.S. middle
school students rose to 5.3 percent from
0.6 percent between 2011 and 2015.
Use of combustible cigarettes among
U.S. middle school students reportedly
fell to 2.3 percent from 4.3 percent over
the same period. E-cigarette advocates
point out that it is entirely possible that
the products contributed to the decline in
smoking.
The controversy is heating up at a time
when Philip Morris International, maker
of Marlboro combustible cigarettes, is
Surgeon General
Pushes for
Vapor
Regulation Policies
Citing an increase in usage by young Americans,
the surgeon general is advocating restrictions
on marketing and higher taxes.
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&
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