Tulsa World: Older smokes still on shelves

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Older smokes still on shelves
Cigarettes without the new fire-safety paper have to be gone by Jan. 1, 2010.

TOM GILBERT / Tulsa World

By OMER GILLHAM & DEON J. HAMPTON World Staff Writers
Published: 10/25/2009 2:23 AM
Last Modified: 10/25/2009 3:52 AM

Several area Indian smoke shops are selling cigarettes without a new kind of fire-safety paper required by legislation enacted last year, a Tulsa World investigation shows.

The World bought several packs of discount-brand cigarettes at smoke shops in Tulsa, Broken Arrow, Sapulpa and Beggs. A new state law requires cigarettes to be wrapped in fire-safe paper, beginning Jan. 1, 2009, said Paula Ross, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Tax Commission.

To delay the law's effect, several area smoke shops appear to be selling old inventory bought before the law took effect about 10 months ago. The law allows retailers to sell old inventory until Jan. 1, 2010.

"Our plan for after January 1, 2010, is to contact the fire marshal's office if nonfire-safe cigarettes are found during a routine compliance check," Ross said.

Fire-safe paper is designed to extinguish a lit cigarette that is not being smoked, fire officials said.

Meanwhile, acting Tulsa Fire Marshal Mike Bailey said that cigarettes were the No. 1 heat source for fatality fires in Tulsa during the past seven years.

Between 2001 and 2008, 59 people lost their lives to fires caused by cigarettes or smoking material, Bailey said.

"Fire-safe paper is a step in the right direction, but there are no totally safe cigarettes," Bailey said.

The World purchased cigarettes without the fire-safe paper at five area smoke shops. They include: Riverside Indian Smoke Shop and Mingo Tobacco Outlet in Tulsa; BA Tobacco

Outlet in Broken Arrow; White Feather Smoke Shop in Sapulpa; and Duck Creek Smoke Shop near Beggs.

The cigarettes being sold without fire-safe paper are Seneca and King Mountain brand cigarettes. The smoke shops are affiliated with the Muskogee (Creek) Nation.

Creek Nation spokesman Thompson Gouge said that some tribal-affiliated stores are selling cigarette inventory purchased before the new law took effect. He said that smoke shops would begin pulling the cigarettes from their shelves Jan. 1, 2010.

Karen Goodson, manager of Riverside Indian Smoke Shop, said the World must have purchased cigarettes from previous shipments. She said her store has begun selling Seneca and King Mountain with fire-safe paper.

"You must have bought some of the only ones that I have in stock," Goodson said. "We will be compliant as of Jan. 1, 2010. We are not here to break the law."

When asked if she was selling old inventory, Goodson said: "You would have to ask the wholesaler about that. I have no idea."

State Fire Marshal Robert Doke said his office has contacted the state attorney general's office, trying to determine if the fire marshal has jurisdiction on Indian land.

"Typically we don't have jurisdiction on Indian land," Doke said.

Most of the Creek-affiliated stores within the Tulsa area refuse to sell the cigarettes, saying they are "illegal" when asked why they don't sell them.

Seneca and King Mountain cigarettes also are part of a tax controversy between the state and the Creek Nation. The cigarettes are considered contraband by the Oklahoma Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement Complementary Act.

The act requires that tobacco manufacturers and their brand families be listed on the Directory of Compliant Tobacco Manufacturers maintained by the attorney general's office. The cigarettes are not on the approved state list.

In a lawsuit against 14 Creek-affiliated stores, the state alleges the owners or managers are selling the cigarettes in violation of the Federal Contraband Cigarette Trafficking Act, the State Complementary Act and State Cigarette Tax Act, according to a lawsuit filed in February.

In addition to not having the fire-safe paper, the cigarettes are being sold without an Oklahoma tax stamp, which means no taxes are going to the state for programs to decrease the smoking rate or to help fund health initiatives.

All of the stores visited by the World, except White Feather, are named in the lawsuit, records show.

The Creek Nation has justified selling the cigarettes by claiming that the product involves a business transaction between sovereign tribes not subject to Oklahoma taxation.

Seneca brand cigarettes are manufactured by Grand River Enterprises Six Nations Ltd., a Canadian limited liability corporation. King Mountain is manufactured by King Mountain Tobacco Company Inc., an Indian-owned tobacco manufacturer located within the boundaries of the Yakima Nation in Washington state.

What are fire-safe cigarettes?

David Sutton, spokesman for Phillip Morris USa, said fire-safe cigarettes use a new method of paper wrapping to help extinguish a cigarette more quickly. The method is known as Reduced Cigarette Ignition Propensity. RCIP involves using banded paper, or thin layers of bands, which are attached to a cigarette rod. The paper bands act as “speed bumps” allowing the lit end of the cigarette to burn slowly.

“They extinguish more quickly than cigarettes that don’t have banded paper,” Sutton said.

Omer Gillham 581-8301
omer.gillham@tulsaworld.com

Deon J. Hampton 581-8413
Deon.Hampton@tulsaworld.com

By OMER GILLHAM & DEON J. HAMPTON World Staff Writers

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Some reader comments for this story were copied from "Sunday: Smoke shops sell cigarettes without fire-safe paper," which was published on 10/24/2009.

	Report Comment Midtown Res, Tulsa (10/25/2009 6:45:51 PM) The subject matter & the comments are so out there I can't wrap my mind around it. Only in Oklahoma. Fire safety paper on cigarettes?! The least of the problem, I think.
	Report Comment oldrustytulsa, Tulsa (10/24/2009 8:55:42 PM) Just quite buying those Charcoal cooked steaks, maybe the Oklahoma legislature will pass a bill outlawing them, Not...but the smoking thing is the politically correct thing to do, if your into Correct politics that is. And What about all those Smoked meat contest?Where is it all going to end, just wait a FAT people tax is about to come.
	Report Comment oldrustytulsa, Tulsa (10/25/2009 6:38:10 PM) The Government could pay all the bills with a sin tax.Everyone who sins has to pays a tax.
	Report Comment Few Clothes, America (10/25/2009 10:58:46 AM) Centrist, all cigarettes make people cough. I don't smoke but I have always heard the rattle and cough of smokers heading for lung cancer and COPD.
	Report Comment Few Clothes, America (10/25/2009 10:59:53 AM) Did the find any Old Golds, Chesterfields, Wings, or Lucky Strikes at the smoke shop?
	Report Comment Few Clothes, America (10/25/2009 12:15:02 PM) It baffles me Cherylann why they keep it up knowing the consequences. My older brother died of a heart attack smoking and having COPD his final years. It's an addiction that I don't understand. I drank for decades, woke up one morning and told myself that was enough and quit. It's been nearly 8 years without AA. You have to want to quit first!
	Report Comment Few Clothes, America (10/25/2009 2:47:43 PM) Cherylann. My condolences to you for losing both parents this way. God bless you for taking care of them.
	Report Comment Few Clothes, America (10/26/2009 10:34:56 AM) Maybe the time is right for you smokers to go back to rolling your own. Unless the papers are made of this same stuff. It will bring out the cowboy in you.
	Report Comment my view, Sand Springs (10/25/2009 11:05:09 AM) Most fires in the home start in the kitchen.
	Report Comment FUTURE WORLD, Tulsa (10/24/2009 7:30:08 PM) Thry also might want to check QT and neighborhood stores. Mine burn like torches. Still having a red glow in the smoldering ashes after they've been put out. But I never empty an ashtry in the trash until serveral hours have passed. I use a larger glass container that I empty the ashtry into first. Then later I empty the glass butt container into the trash. Like I said mine burn like torches.
	Report Comment FUTURE WORLD, Tulsa (10/24/2009 8:22:11 PM) Good job okie ridgerunner. I'm havin gtrouble quitting to. Thanks for the tarblocker info. This is a great opportunity for us smokers to come together as a group and have some healing time. LOL
	Report Comment FUTURE WORLD, Tulsa (10/24/2009 9:07:25 PM) Check the airlines. They already force overweight people to buy tweo seats.
	Report Comment FUTURE WORLD, Tulsa (10/24/2009 9:45:26 PM) OK thanks.
	Report Comment TulsaTulsa, Tulsa (10/24/2009 7:23:11 PM) the last thing smokers should be worried about...
	Report Comment owl, Tulsa (10/25/2009 8:35:54 PM) Tobacco is a 'known devil'. Wouldn't it be an additional health issue - introducing into a smoker's already abused lungs, fumes from paper chemically treated to be fire-safe?
	Report Comment owl, Tulsa (10/25/2009 8:39:06 PM) I guess filter tips aren't exactly organic...haha.
	Report Comment Justun, tulsa (10/25/2009 4:35:54 PM) Smoking is a bad addiction....let me tell you...I've been free from it for 23 years....I always used to joke that quiting was easy....I've done it many times. Then, one day I realized that my dad always told me, as he smoked, I'll kill you if I ever catch you smoking....well all three of us kids smoked. I doesn't work to tell your kids(at least most of the time) to not smoke if you are their example and you smoke....that's when I quit. All of my boys were young when I quit. I didn't want to be a bad example to them.
	Report Comment FS, Broken Arrow (10/24/2009 3:44:28 PM) ... it must be a slow day at the TW offices ...
	Report Comment FS, Broken Arrow (10/25/2009 5:45:49 PM) "The law allows retailers to sell old inventory until Jan. 1, 2010." OK - so why is this news, TW? Today's date is 25 October 2009.
	Report Comment FS, Broken Arrow (10/25/2009 5:47:56 PM) 007, Tulsa (10/25/2009 10:28:14 AM) Fat people and smokers are the two main reasons health insurance is so high, they should be made to have to purchase a different policy that does not make the rest of us subsidize it. __________________________ It's always nice to hear from the "perfect" segment of society.
	Report Comment AngelsCu, Tulsa (10/25/2009 6:29:11 PM) Marlboro are the worst at the fire falling off as it gets to the "special band" while still lit and the cost of them are highest! (It's a trick and they are really trying to burn us instead of them going out). Yeah,I smoke, maybe one or two cigarettes a day because I don't want to quit. I still think you should get a decent cigarette for what they cost! I learned if you wait 15 minutes later after you want one, you can train yourself to wait later and later. Cigarettes are legal! Why do we get treated as though we aren't?!
	Report Comment AngelsCu, Tulsa (10/25/2009 6:31:31 PM) Marlboro are the worst at the fire falling off as it gets to the "special band" while still lit and the cost of them are highest! (It's a trick and they are really trying to burn us instead of them going out). Yeah,I smoke, maybe one or two cigarettes a day because I don't want to quit. I still think you should get a decent cigarette for what they cost! I learned if you wait 15 minutes later after you want one, you can train yourself to wait later and later. Cigarettes are legal! Why do we get treated as though we aren't?!
	Report Comment TLFKRF, Tulsa (10/24/2009 3:19:26 PM) If they have until Jan 1 how is this news on Oct 24? Why would you "investigate" something they are legally doing? This headline is grossly misleading.
	Report Comment SS_Hippy, Tulsa (10/26/2009 10:56:13 AM) koff koff
	Report Comment Centrist, the burbs (10/24/2009 7:05:46 PM) The new cigarettes do not stay lit and I agree something they are putting in this paper is not good and is making people cough.

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