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Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
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Bill to Restrict Online Tobacco Sales Receives Boost on Capital Hill [08/04-3]
Excerpts from: Unplugging Online Tobacco Sales
By Robert MacMillan WashingtonPost.Com
[08/04/03]
An effort to restrict online tobacco sales got a boost on Capitol Hill last week even as senators scrambled to vote on a number of hot-button topics before leaving for their summer break.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) was able to get his colleagues on the committee to approve the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking -- or PACT -- Act.
The bill, which Hatch and Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) introduced in June, would try to cut down on the spread of illegal cigarette sales on the Internet by requiring tobacco merchants to keep records of and report their interstate tobacco sales. People who are caught evading cigarette taxes would face prison terms of up to two years, along with up to $100,000 in fines. It also says that merchants who sell more than 10,000 cigarettes every month would have to register with the Justice and Treasury departments, or risk being charged with selling contraband. Those rules currently apply only if the merchant sells more than 60,000 cigarettes monthly.
Support from the tobacco companies, along with the cash-hungry states and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, should go a long way toward boosting the prospects of the Hatch bill. Also, watch the progress of similar legislation introduced earlier this month in the House of Representatives by Rep. Mark Green (R-Wis.). House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) plans to mark up the House bill after the August recess, according to Green and his Democratic cosponsor, Marty Meehan of Massachusetts.
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