Cigar Wrap Suit To Move Forward

A federal judge is allowing a cheap cigarette online company to challenge a law that bans the sales of cigar wrappers in the District of Columbia.

According to the Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Robert Wilkins agreed with Louisville, Ky.-based National Tobacco Co. last week that the law lacks a clear penalty provision and is allowing the lawsuit to proceed.

National filed the lawsuit in February, and said the company had a "direct injury" from the law, which is aimed at making it more difficult for kids to get materials that can be used to smoke cigarettes marijuana.

The company's lawyer, Raymond Castello, said the city can regulate the sale of discount cigarettes products, but cannot ban the company's product outright, according to a previous Associated Press report. He said the company lost business from 26 retailers in the city.

A lawyer for the city, Chad Copeland, told the judge at that time that officials never enforced the ban.

National Tobacco manufactures and distributes the Beechnut, Durango, Havana Blossom and Trophy loose-leaf chewing tobacco brands, and distributes Zigzag premium cigarette rolling papers, smoking cigarettes tobaccos and other make-your-own tobacco products throughout the United States.

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Spam Email Promotes E-cigarettes To Children

Out-of-state advertisers flooded a Cedar Hills email service for children with thousands of messages promoting smoking cigarettes, according to a multimillion dollar lawsuit filed in federal court.

Zoobuh, which promotes itself as providing safe email for kids, claims an Arizona company named Smoke Freely spammed its servers with at least 16,188 emails since January touting its electronic or e-cigarettes. The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction to stop the messages.

The company contends the emails violate the federal CAN-SPAM Act because they contain misleading or false information in the subject line. In addition, the messages failed to include a conspicuous notice that they are advertisements and a clear opt-out link from receiving them in the future, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court last Friday.

Zoobuh seeks $225 per violation of six sections of federal law and asks for those damages to be tripled, bringing the amount sought to nearly $11 million.

In the lawsuit, Zoobuh says the emails caused it to upgrade its server capacity, buy spam-filtering software and experience server crashes. The company, which states that nearly all of its users are under age 18, also has had to deal with complaints and lost customers, the suit says.

Zoobuh alleges Smoke Freely, which sells a brand of e- cigarette called Prado, hired several marketing firms to pitch its products, all of which are named in the suit.

Prado e-cigarettes are sold as a smokeless, battery- powered alternative to traditional cigarettes, not as a smoking cigarettes cessation device. The e-cigs don't contain cigarettes but do contain nicotine. The company warns potential users they must be of legal smoking cigarettes age and that the products are not intended for children.

In 2010, the Utah Legislature made it a misdemeanor to provide e-cigarettes to anyone under age 19. It also made it illegal for those 18 and under to buy or possess them.

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Florida Woman Wins Lawsuit Against Tobacco Companies

Kim Mathews says she's been trying to quit smoking off and on for about ten years. She picked up the habit as a young teenager back in 1973.



"When I tried to quit I found that it's not as easy as just putting them down. Your body craves the nicotine," said Mathews.



In the case of 81-year-old Suwannee County woman Ann Huish, her husband's addiction and death is what brought her to a battle that some might say resembled that of David and Goliath.



Huish was awarded 3 million dollars in a lawsuit against RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company and Philip Morris Tobacco Company.



Tim Howard, a successful attorney who advocates for people who've lost loved ones as a result of tobacco addiction, says a case like this reveal how vulnerable people were years before commercials began speaking out against the product.



"Ninety percent of your smokers started when they were teenagers. Most of the time we do not give teenagers cocaine and heroine. And then they die drowning in their own blood," said Howard.



"The advertisements when I was younger were to buy cigarettes, nothing against cigarettes," said Mathews.



Howard says two thirds of Florida's active tobacco cases received verdicts in favor of the plaintiff. He says those rulings are a testament to how people are viewing tobacco companies these days.



"You'd see years ago Sylvester Stallone, Humphrey Bogart coming out smoking cigarettes, healthy, macho, sexy. The realty is decrepit, life destructing, and miserable way to die," said Howard.



As for the 81-year-old Suwannee woman, who's now a millionaire, she did not wish to comment about her personal loss.



WCTV contacted Phillip Morris and was told there was no one there to speak with us about the law suit. We also tried contacting RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company after hours via telephone and email, but have not heard back from them.

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