Randomly Noted

Who knew tobacco came in cherry, chocolate and even milk (!) flavors? (Maybe you did, but it’s news to me, and yet another thing to worry about on the homefront.) DJN colleague Jared Favole reports that tobacco interests in Washington, D.C., have asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to intervene in a trade issue involving Canada’s attempt to ban the sale of flavored tobacco to minors. Proposed legislation is winding its way through the House of Commons. The U.S. Congress recently passed a similar law, but Canada’s move has angered the tobacco lobby, which claims the Canadian law would effectively ban a long-established type of tobacco called “burley,” which contains some cocoa. The tobacco industry, Favole writes, contends “the flavoring in burley tobacco isn’t detectable by smokers and is different from the candy-flavored cigarettes that carry names such as “Twista Lime” and “Chocolate Mocha.” Senators and Representatives from Kentucky have asked  Clinton to stop the bill because it represents an “unfair assault” on U.S. tobacco growers. The stakes for the tobacco industry are high: fully 85% of burley tobacco grown in the U.S. is exported. Continue reading…