Thursday, November 19, 2015
The Property Rights Newsletter Issue #818
November 20, 2015 - Issue #818"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." - Hippocrates |
Red Meat Is Just As Likely To Give You Cancer As A Cigarette, The World Health Organization Says. International health experts are set to list processed meat among the most cancer-causing substances in the world, including arsenic and asbestos. The World Health Organization (WHO) will also be listing fresh red meat in the "encyclopedia of carcinogens," ranked as only slightly less dangerous than preserved products such as bacon, sausages, and burgers.
AND How valid are the studies that the WHO used to categorize processed meat as carcinogenic and red meat as probably carcinogenic? 
CVS burned again by tobacco ban. Sales at CVS were once again burned by its decision not to sell cigarettes. CVS Caremark reported that its general merchandise sales fell in the most recent quarter mainly as a result of its decision to pull cigarettes and other tobacco products from its shelves. due to their negative impact on health. This was the fifth straight quarter that CVS took a hit to merchandise sales.
Billionaires Who Want To Tax Poor People. Thomas Steyer is one of them. As a billionaire, he is, well, really rich. In the past, he has funded efforts to impose regressive taxes on energy. Now he is funding an attempt to significantly increase California's cigarette tax (from 87 cents per pack to $2 per pack). An initiative filed by Save Lives California will likely be on the 2016 ballot with Steyer's help. Besides the big tax increase, the initiative will impose an equivalent tax on electronic cigarettes. Cybersecurity: Everyone you know will be able to rate you on the terrifying ‘Yelp for people' - whether you want them to or not. So the most surprising thing about Peeple - basically Yelp, but for humans - may be the fact that no one has yet had the gall to launch something like it. When the app does launch, probably in late November, you will be able to assign reviews and one- to five-star ratings to everyone you know: your exes, your co-workers, the old guy who lives next door. You can't opt out - once someone puts your name in the Peeple system, it's there unless you violate the site's terms of service. And you can't delete bad or biased reviews - that would defeat the whole purpose. 
Outdoor Smoking Bans Debated At The Battle Of Ideas. I don't think anyone should be forced to give up smoking against their will. I know we are in the middle of 'Stoptober', but come on - giving up when you're in the middle of a mental breakdown is inhuman. I can't think of a worse time or place to quit. That's the way I see it, but public health quangos instead say it's a prime time to intervene because they have a powerless captive audience.
Sunnyvale, California City Council Considers In-Home Smoking Ban. Sunnyvale, California lawmakers are proposing new rules that would ban smoking and e-cigarette use in public and private spaces, such as restaurants' outdoor dining areas and even inside individual's' apartments. Currently, city law bans smoking and e-cigarette use in city government buildings and public parks, and it requires restaurants to reserve seating areas for nonsmokers. Lithuanian Seimas makes first move to ban smoking in balconies. The Seimas of Lithuania has made the first step towards banning smoking in balconies of apartment houses. On September 24th, MPs approved the relevant draft amendments to the Law on Tobacco Control Employers are wary of hiring smokers and obese people. According to various national reports, about one in three U.S. adults are overweight enough to be classified as obese. Other reports say one in six U.S. adults are smokers. Many forces, including genetics, economics, addictions, emotions and peer influence, affect those numbers. |
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Saturday, October 24, 2015
The Property Rights Newsletter Issue #817
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October 24, 2015 - Issue #817 "Shortly, the public will be unable to reason or think for themselves. They’ll only be able to parrot the information they've been given on the previous night's news." - Zbigniew Brzezinski (1979) |
Good laws create freedom, not a nanny state. Good legislation creates greater freedom, rather than impeding it. Senator David Leyonhjelm is running a Senate inquiry into government regulation of things such as alcohol, tobacco and drugs. Australia is facing a push from Libertarian politicians and market fundamentalists to roll back health legislation. But reducing the power of democratic governments to legislate for health is no way to increase freedom. Senator David Leyonhjelm? has organised a Senate inquiry into the "nanny state". The terms of reference of the inquiry relate mostly to public health, including sale and use of tobacco, nicotine, e-cigarettes, marijuana and alcohol, and bicycle helmet laws.
Nicotine nazis hate one thing: pleasure. Antipleasure puritans like our minister of health and his propaganda agency, the National Council Against Smoking, want tobacco added to the list of prohibitions. Official policy is headed towards tobacco prohibition followed by draconian measures against liquor, salt, sugar, complementary health, traditional healing, fast food, baby food and whatever else upsets killjoys. If you condone nicotine fascism, you have no principled argument against control of every aspect of life. The trend predicts prohibition of obesity and condomless sex, compulsory attendance at health clinics, mandatory exercise and the forced use of safe public transport. Harms or highs? Regulating narcotics, alcohol and nicotine. Think of the children: the danger of infantilising adult society. Given the emotion, fear and anger that surrounds this issue, the ideas discussed above represent an immensely challenging agenda for anyone holding office, even though a vast prize is there to be won for the leaders who will eventually make it work. The arguments against prohibitions and for enlightened risk-based regulation are extremely strong. However, opponents of this direction in policy thinking have what they consider a potent force majeure argument that overrides all else: "think of the children." Pressured by tobacco industry, Healdsburg halts groundbreaking law. Healdsburg broke ground this year by becoming the first city in California to raise the age for buying cigarettes from 18 to 21. But the tough stand didn't last. Less than three months after the law took effect, city leaders are backing off enforcement out of fear of legal action from the tobacco industry. This week, after the city was warned by a national tobacco group that its ordinance could trigger a court challenge, the police chief notified 14 retailers that they can resume selling cigarettes and other tobacco products to customers 18 and older. The Stacks: When Smoking Was Fun. My dad smoked Pall Malls—and for period of time, More, those long, thin, dark brown cigarettes that were advertised to women. He smoked a couple of packs a day for decades. His aunts and uncles had smoked more than that, and for those of us of a certain generation, our childhood was filled with cigarette smoke (you'll find ashtrays on living room tables and backyard decks in our family photo albums). I recall the haze of the smoking car on commuter trains, and it wasn't uncommon to see someone brazen enough to smoke in a subway car, never mind airplanes, movie theaters, and sports arenas. |
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Friday, October 09, 2015
The Property Rights Newsletter Issue #816
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October 9, 2015 - Issue #816 "A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom." - Bob Dylan |
Legal Tobacco
Watch: Ethan Nadelmann on Tobacco Prohibition. Drug Policy Alliance executive director Ethan Nadelmann discusses the dangers of incorporating the criminal justice system into the current and effective public health approach to discouraging cigarette use.
List of smoking bans in the United States. As further detailed in this list, smoking laws vary widely throughout the United States. Some places in the United States do not generally regulate smoking at all, some ban smoking in certain areas and not others, and some ban smoking nearly everywhere, even in outdoor areas (no state bans smoking in all public outdoor areas, but some local jurisdictions do). Illegal Drugs
Do Adults Have a Privacy Right to Use Drugs? Brazil's Supreme Court Decides. The past decade has witnessed a remarkable transformation in the global debate over drug policy. As recently as the mid-2000s, drug legalization or even decriminalization was a fringe idea, something almost no politician would get near. That's all changed. That the War on Drugs is a fundamental failure is a widely accepted fact among experts and even policymakers. Multiple nations no longer treat personal drug usage as a criminal problem but rather as one of public health. Many of them are actively considering following Portugal's successful example of decriminalizing all drugs. The global trend is clearly toward abandoning prohibitionist policies. The Court seems prepared to accept the pure civil libertarian argument against criminalizing drugs: namely, independent of outcomes, the state has no legitimate authority to punish adult citizens for the choices they make in their private sphere, provided that those choices do not result in direct harm to others.
Illegal and Legal Marijuana
Oregon: Marijuana. Before you head out to purchase marijuana, take a look at this Q&A link, for answers to many frequently asked questions, including who can buy marijuana, what can be bought and what can't, how to roll a joint and pack a pipe. So, where can you buy it in Oregon? Statewide, more than 200 dispensaries have told the state they plan to sell recreational cannabis.
Watch: Marijuana strain-guide for beginners. With practically an infinite number of marijuana strains to choose from at pot dispensaries in Oregon, we asked a 'budtender' at Panacea, a dispensary off NE Sandy, to explain the basic differences between strains and recommendations for beginners. AND Kids Get It: Cannabis Needs to be Regulated. AND The Flower. The animation is a meditation on the social and economic costs of marijuana prohibition. AND Truth in Media: Feds Says Cannabis Is Not Medicine While Holding The Patent on Cannabis as Medicine. Here's Why We Hear So Many False Claims About Cannabis. Because my research focuses on neurological function, I often come across claims about cannabis' impact on the brain. You've likely heard them too: claims that cannabis use lowers IQ by up to eight points, that use of the drug causes schizophrenia, and that it impairs cognitive function in the long term. What's fascinating about these claims is that they're almost always "based on the scientific evidence." But is that really the case? AND Could Marijuana Help Prevent the Rare Brain Disease Afflicting Football Players? The leading researchers studying the brains of deceased football players just released new figures showing they have found evidence of CTE in 87 out of 91 brains of former NFL players. AND Forget What You've Heard About Cannabis, Science Says It's Wrong. Many scientists are increasingly frustrated by the disregard of scientific evidence on cannabis use and regulation. To set the record straight, the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy (ICSDP), a global network of scientists working on drug policy issues, released two groundbreaking reports evaluating the strength of commonly heard cannabis claims. AND Prohibition Is the Real "Gateway Drug." Drug warriors claim that marijuana is a "gateway drug." On the contrary, it is the policy of drug prohibition - not the drug per se - that creates a gateway into a criminal underworld of crime and contaminated products. Canada: Marijuana. Marijuana is infinitely worse' than tobacco, Harper says as he encourages pot debate to go up in smoke. "Tobacco is a product that does a lot of damage - marijuana is infinitely worse and is something we do not want to encourage." Last year, Health Canada kicked off an anti-marijuana ad campaign - repeated shortly before the start of the election campaign - that said the drug was responsible for lower IQs, a statement derived from two separate studies whose conclusions have since been challenged. Kansas: Shona Banda Faces Decades in Prison Because Her Son Questioned Anti-Pot Propaganda. A fifth-grader's comments about marijuana lead to felony charges against his mother. Banda's son heard some things about marijuana that did not jibe with what he had learned about the plant from his mother. So he spoke up, suggesting that cannabis was less dangerous and more beneficial than the counselors running the program were claiming. That outburst of skepticism precipitated a visit to the principal's office, where the fifth-grader was interrogated about his mother's cannabis consumption. School officials called Child Protective Services (CPS), which contacted police, who obtained a warrant to search Banda's house based on what her son had said. Wisconsin: A 'deal with the devil'? Native American tribes push for marijuana legalization. Two Wisconsin tribes, the Menominee and the Ho-Chunk, look to follow South Dakota's Flandreau Santee Sioux, seeing a potential revenue stream – but it could force them to cede some of their sovereignty to federal and local governments. The idea of legal marijuana has some Native American tribes seeing green – but will it cost them in the long run? "Keep in mind some local law enforcement will not pause to ask whether they have any authority on tribal lands," he said. This, he said, could have far-reaching consequences. "That raises significant Indian sovereignty implications, potential civil rights violations for those individuals who will find themselves in the cross-hairs of non-tribal cops, and other profound legal consequences." |
 Watch New "Nolan Knows" Video Episodes |
Friday, October 02, 2015
The Property Rights Newsletter Issue #815
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October 2, 2015 - Issue #815 "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same." - Ronald Reagan |
Consider big picture of smoking restriction. Bluffton Town Council has found some smoke, but we're not sure they've found a fire. And it may want to package its discussion with other restrictions cities are adopting to shape behavior for the common good. How about the plastic bag issue? Beaufort also considered a ban on balloons at parks, due to litter left after birthday parties. These types of restrictions can be enacted. But don't think it will be a walk in the park.
Council Recommendation 2003/54/EC. By Frank Davis. The measures advocated are additional to the provisions of the Directive on tobacco products adopted in 2001, and those of the Directive on advertising and sponsorship of tobacco products adopted in May 2003. Europe's legislators have, moreover, ensured that these measures are consistent with the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO), which, at the time of adoption of the Recommendation, was still being negotiated. AND UKIP conference: Smoking ban 'more harmful' than pit closures. It was evidence of a "bankrupt" Labour telling people "what to do and think". In contrast to Labour, he said, UKIP would stand up for working people by giving them more power over their lives. Ecig consumer wants and "needs." By Julie Woessner and Carl V Phillips. The basics of what consumers and would-be consumers of low-risk tobacco products want is no mystery. You have heard it a thousand times: Consumers want high quality products, innovation, variety, and the freedom to choose which products they want to use, along with freedom from punitive taxes and other unjust laws that restrict use and enjoyment. 
Why adults do not need nannies. Over the last few weeks I have learnt two things. First, a lot of people dislike the nanny state. The incredible popularity of the Senate Inquiry into it - both in the media and among the general public - is testimony to that. However, it is also clear that lots of people are confused what the term "nanny state" means, even among those who ought to know. At its core, nanny-statism involves enacting laws and enforcing policies that interfere with or manage personal choices, when the only consideration is the individual's own good. If we can trust people to vote – a difficult and demanding choice with profound consequences – we can trust people to know what to eat, to drink, to buy, what video games to play, and whether or not to smoke. At its core, nanny statism is a threat to universal franchise.
Is the minimal state a reasonable response to the nanny state? David Leyonhjelm is chairing the Senate inquiry into 'Personal Choice and Community Impacts'. As we can see, an idea that seems intuitively appealing turns out to be quite radical. The great virtue of the harm principle is its clarity. As Mill says, it asserts: ... one very simple principle as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control. For many people, including myself, this parsimony comes at too heavy a price.
In the Habit: A History of Catholicism and Tobacco. By John B. Buescher. Saints who smoked, popes who puffed, and others who snuffed. In 1873, impoverished Confederate veteran Chiswell Langhorne (left) moved his family from Lynchburg to Danville, Virginia and began looking for work. The owner of a Danville tobacco warehouse had recently developed a new system of selling tobacco by auction... 
Macau total smoking ban may pare casino revenue by up to 4.6 percent. "According to the Gaming Inspection and Co-ordination Bureau‘s preliminary assessment, 23 percent of all visitors [to Macau] are smokers. Among these smokers, about 30 to 50 percent smoke while they are gambling," Lei said, adding that the city's gaming revenue would be "impacted" by 2.76 to 4.6 percent if 20 percent of all smoking gamblers who had originally intended to gamble in Macau would choose not to come due to the ban.
Belgium: One in 6 cafes disregarding anti-smoking legislation. The Public Health Minister’s office revealed that 3,000 inspections led to the conclusion that 16% of cafes do not enforce anti-smoking legislation. |
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Friday, September 25, 2015
The Property Rights Newsletter Issue #814
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September 25, 2015 - Issue #814 "Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside." - Mark Twain |
Kerry McCarthy, Shadow Environment Secretary, Says Treat Meat Eaters Like Smokers. Jeremy Corbyn's appointment of Kerry McCarthy, who is a vegan, to the post raised eyebrows given the job involves working with farmers. "I really believe that meat should be treated in exactly the same way as tobacco, with public campaigns to stop people eating it," she said. In an interview with vegan magazine Viva!life, McCarthy added: "Progress on animal welfare is being made at EU level... but in the end it comes down to not eating meat or dairy."
UK: New Nicotine Alliance. It has only been a 'mere' three months since we last sent our news update out to our supporters, and a lot has happened since then. Conferences, reports, reviews, you name it, and we have probably done it. Toward beneficial and practical standards for e-cigarettes. by Carl V Phillips. At the GTNF2015 conference I was on a panel discussing e-cigarette standards. The standards being discussed include manufacturing practices (e.g., clean rooms, hardware materials), specific technologies (e.g., whether a heating coil is capable of overheating, safe batteries), and ingredients (e.g., the perennial debates about whether some flavoring agents pose too much of a hazard). I decided to take the approach of addressing what the proper role for standards is, from a political economy perspective.
So Tourists Can Indulge: Denver May Allow Pot In Bars And Restaurants. It's already legal to smoke pot at home in Colorado. Now the Denver City Council is considering allowing use in public places. Actually, the police department cares. They've handed out more than 1,000 public consumption citations just last year. This is not what pot advocates had in mind when they promoted legalized marijuana. So they collected signatures to put yet another measure on the ballot, this time allowing pot use at many bars and restaurants in Denver.
CA: Davis City Council. By Robert J. Deitz, II. I have reviewed your recommended action on banning smoking in the Greenbelt, Parks, E St plaza. These are all large and open areas with no confined or restricted space where people might be forced to be in a area they do not want to be. This is the area smokers have been forced to go to since they were banned from being in bars or restaurants where they were previously welcomed. There are ample areas of any community in the State of California where there are smoke free places. There should be accommodation for other citizens who choose to smoke. We already make accommodation for handicapped people to access most areas, we make accommodations for overweight people, we make accommodations for all types of people to be in our communities. We should make accommodations for smokers also. To not do so is starting to slip down a slippery slope.
Georgia Update: 10 years after smoking ban, percentage of bars and restaurants using exemption has doubled. By Andy Miller. "While the law is well known and well accepted, restaurants have figured out how to work within the law and allow smoking," said Eriksen, dean of the School of Public Health at Georgia State. AND Smoky air: Zero complaints, multiple hideouts following ban. UGA is not alone in this. If you wander around to the campus newspaper sites around the country where bans have been implemented you will find instance after instance where it is either being reported on as being ignored or where antismoking students complain that it is not being enforced. These bans are usually the result of political pressures or funding blackmailing, and once they're on the record no one really cares about them. Oklahoma Update: State should reconsider tobacco trust fund priorities. So, "Education" would depend on Tobacco sales? They should simply stop the MSA and give the money back. AND Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust, By Theodore King. AND Letter to the editor: Tobacco settlement a social engineering project. By Jay R. Schrand. Our priorities need to be reconsidered. Wouldn't it be better if the money remained in the hands of those who earned it to buy legitimate goods and services? The right thing to do is decline to participate in the tobacco settlement. And in fairness, the accumulated funds ought to be returned to those who smoke. Ireland: The Smoker's Dilemma. By John Mallon. Circumstances have contrived to put smokers in a very awkward situation today. Due to persistent professional lobbying by the various arms of Public Health, cigarettes in Ireland cost twice the European average from all the legal outlets. However, as is the way of these things, the criminal fraternity have seen their opportunity and they would appear to have ridden to the rescue of the hard-pressed smoker by providing illegal cigarettes all over the country for the European average price or even below it. |
 Great recipes sent in by readers. |
Friday, September 18, 2015
The Property Rights Newsletter Issue #813
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September 18, 2015 - Issue #813 "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams |
LIBERTY: An interview with Christopher Snowdon. Ben Kelly questions Christopher Snowdon on the erosion of liberty, the public health lobby, the demonisation of E-cigs and more... The attack on free speech and the attack on lifestyle freedoms are connected insofar as they are both products of a puritanical outlook. The mindset is that nobody should hear impure views or consume impure products – a clean mind and a clean body. This is creepy, to say the least. We live in an era of outraged minorities and pressure group politics. Once people see government using the law to appease vociferous special interest groups, everybody wants a piece of the action. Had your feelings hurt by unkind words on social media? We've got a law for that. Don't like the smell of tobacco smoke? We've got a law for that. The solution is to have a limited government that encourages you to grow some skin and associate with like-minded people rather than insist the whole country changes to suit your preferences. Unfortunately, there is a great temptation for people to see one group get special privileges and demand special privileges for themselves.
HTML Cybersecurity. If you think that IP address, cookies and HTTP headers are the only factors used to uniquely identify and track users around the web… you are terribly wrong! New, modern fingerprinting techniques rely on multiple factors. Sign petitions to the German Parliament. Unfortunately the chances of getting that much support from German vapers alone is a pipe dream. Fortunately, EVERYBODY may support such a petition. Actually, getting a lot of international support could cause quite a stir by itself, since that usually doesn't happen. 
At 111, Woman to get reward for 'a healthy lifestyle. Consolacion typically eats vegetables and fish. Her children do not want her to eat meat but sometimes she asks for chicken or pork. Her only vice, her daughter said, is smoking rolled-up tobacco leaves during her free time.
How 'Big Pharma' bamboozled Brussels. Pharmaceutical companies spend tens of millions of euros on lobbyists every year to ensure "privileged access" to decision-makers in Brussels, according to a major new report that lifts the lid on their influence on EU drugs and health-care policy. Rachel Tansey, CEO researcher and author of the report, said: "The large-scale efforts of big pharmaceutical companies to mould EU policy to their own commercial benefit and their privileged access to EU decision-makers is deeply worrying. "Strong measures are needed to avoid capture of EU health policy by big pharma, beginning with full transparency over industry lobbying and ending of privileged access." Mortality Statistics. It is worth looking at what has been happening to lung cancer deaths. I remind you to look at the female charts above. Since 1970, progressively fewer females have smoked. That is over a period of 45 years (1970 to 2015). And yet LC deaths among females have grown and grown. Lies upon lies upon lies. CASAA: Calls to Action. Read about the newest calls to action, and search for actions by State. AND The Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA) is collecting success-story testimonials from smokers who used smoke-free alternatives to quit or reduce their smoking. The testimonials are posted on this public web page for everyone to see. |
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Sunday, September 13, 2015
The Property Rights Newsletter Issue #812
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September 13, 2015 - Issue #812 "Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth." - Buddha |
EPA proposes new rules for pharmaceutical wastes that qualify as RCRA hazardous wastes. The Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA" or the "Agency") signed a proposed rule that would establish special management standards for pharmaceutical wastes that are classified as hazardous wastes under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act ("RCRA"). The new standards would include separate requirements for healthcare facilities and pharmaceutical reverse distributors, such as rules for storage, labeling, recordkeeping, reporting, and off-site shipment. The Proposed Rule would also conditionally exempt hazardous waste pharmaceuticals that qualify as controlled substances under the rules of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration ("DEA"), add new provisions for hazardous waste pharmaceuticals from households, and amend the requirements for residues of hazardous waste pharmaceuticals in containers. It requests comments on amending the acute hazardous waste listing for low-concentration nicotine products, and on a potential strategy for listing additional pharmaceutical wastes as hazardous.
EPA withholds mine spill documents from Congress. A congressional committee blasted the Environmental Protection Agency today for blocking release of documents related to the Gold King mine disaster, which poured deadly chemicals into the largest source of drinking water in the West. They Live, We Sleep: A Dictatorship Disguised as a Democracy. There's the world we see (or are made to see) and then there's the one we sense (and occasionally catch a glimpse of), the latter of which is a far cry from the propaganda-driven reality manufactured by the government and its corporate sponsors, including the media. Conspiracy to Tell the Truth. Abby Martin talks to Lance deHaven-Smith, Florida State University professor and author of 'Conspiracy Theory in America', about some the US' most controversial events and how labeling truth-seekers as 'conspiracy theorists' damages democracy. UK surveillance "worse than 1984," says new UN privacy chief. World needs a "Geneva convention" for the Internet to safeguard personal data. Joseph Cannataci, has called the UK's oversight of surveillance "a rather bad joke at its citizens’ expense," and said that the situation regarding privacy is "worse" than anything George Orwell imagined in his novel 1984. There are four main tasks he has set himself: drawing up a universal law on surveillance; tackling the business models of the big Internet companies; defining what "privacy" exactly entails; and raising awareness of these issues among the public. 
Robots Will Steal Our Jobs: But they'll give us new ones. At The Dusseldorf airport, robotic valet parking is now reality. You step out of your car. You press a button on a touch screen. And then a machine lifts your car off the ground, moving all three tons of it into a kind of aerial parking bay. Built by a German company called Serva Transport, the system saves you time. It saves garage space, thanks to those carefully arranged parking spots. And it's a sign of so many things to come.
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Why a bag of heroin costs less than a pack of cigarettes. For cigarettes, the price is largely about taxes. They are a reliable revenue source for governments at various levels (addicted people will often pay what they have to), are considered a method of preventing young people from taking up the habit and can push some smokers to quit. So some states have loaded heavy taxes on that little pack of cigarettes. Now most of the heroin on U.S. streets is from Mexico, Moses said, and despite the efforts of the DEA and other law enforcement agencies, there is plenty of it, which keeps the price down despite the seemingly insatiable demand. The DEA is seizing more and working better with those other agencies, Moses said, but so far that hasn't resulted in higher prices.
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