UPDATE for 5 February 2008 Here's another tobacco news update for you, providing items of interest to smokers and anyone else interested in good deals, in justice, and in telling it like it is. In a hurry? Take a look at these updated Web Pages: SSO's Referral Opportunity - it's very good: you get paid to help smokers save. SSO smokers' savings site - clearer, faster, cheaper - for savings and total privacy. Anti-Smoking Hysteria - Okay! So, just in case you've been wondering . . . the answer is definitely YES: Yes, today's Anti-Smoking Hysteria is no haphazard accidental development. In fact, it has been engineered, funded, and very intentionally generated by powerful economic interests that stand to make zillions by making you and other smokers suffer hugely unfair punitive taxation, social ostracism, invasive and humiliating legal bans and social taboos, tax attacks, embarrassment, and psychological distress. The interests behind the recent hysteria are known today as the Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex. They are the most powerful economic force on earth after the Military Industrial Complex and, perhaps, Big Oil. This blindly profit driven force has pored hundreds of millions of dollars into bogus junk science and international anti-smoking campaigns. They're doing this, of course, because they stand to make even larger amounts in the lucrative smoking cessation business. Have we been had by them? You bet we have! Read details and more on this below. . . BAD Cigarette Tax States - I included something like this in another update and it was very popular, so here it is again. These states are known to be very aggressive in going after smokers to get "their" cigarettes taxes, they are the lands of the Tax Surprise! New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, Michigan, New York, California. And there are certainly others. But if you live in one of these, you MUST protect your privacy or you WILL receive a tax bill for online tobacco purchases. SSO is the only safe source I know of for residents of these states: SSO smokers' savings site. If you have smoker friends any of in these states, do them a favor and them to this site! Do you know of other states that are actively pursuing smokers with tax bills for online cigarette purchases? If so, please send me some details so I can pass them along. Thanks. Why Not DutyFree or Indian Sites for Smokes? I'm always going on about SSO, our very private smokers' buyers club. And there are good reasons for that. Among them is the fact of how very bad the alternative online sources really are! Let's get real about this: You should avoid both DF and Native American online cigarettes sources like the plague. It's as simple as that. Buying from them is like playing Russian Roulette. . . DF Site Problems: In the case of overseas DF sources, you may have problems with having to pay duty (tax) on your smokes, or you might have the US Customs Service seizing your order. Either event can be a major pain, and worrying about them is certainly a pain too. Then, of course, there are the long and uncertain delivery delays, uncertain product quality, and the questionable ethical practices of these firms, some of which are rumored to be controlled by international crime syndicates. I personally know of more than one person who has been "scr__ed" by them. Indian Sites Problems: Indian tobacco sites are, of course, businesses that are located within the United States judicial system. That makes them subject to browbeating, threats, and intimidation by all sorts of government types. These threats lead these good folks to report your purchases to your state's tax authorities, and that leads to YOU getting a big TAX surprise from them. Any company that is within US jurisdiction can be expected to report you, and that means. . . ALL the Native American Indian site. Stay clear of them. Payment Method Problems: The main problem that shared by both DF and Indian sites is their Payment Methods. Your bank or credit card company is in the middle of your transaction, they keep records, and they may report your purchases. You leave a paper trail with them and it can come back to haunt you. This problem of tobacco-hostile banks and cc companies is exactly why SSO turned to using its own private payment systems. Your purchases are totally discrete with SSO's private systems, they happen under the radar, off the screen, they leave no telltale paper trail. And that makes this the only really safe way to buy smokes discreetly online. SSO's Solutions: SSO, of course, does NOT accept Credit Cards or Bank e-Checks for purchases because those payment methods can compromise your privacy and lead to unexpected tax bills and other informational woes with insurers or bosses. SSO's PRIVATE PAYMENT SYSTEM makes it the ONLY safe and smart source for tobacco purchases online. What's more, since our club is incorporated in the Republic of Panama - again for your protection - it cannot be pressured by US agencies. Are you a member yet? What are you waiting for? The arrival of a tax bill? SSO instantly activates your SSO Buyer Membership, your in-house Private Payment Account, and all the powerful tools in your online Private Office the moment it receives your $9.95 activation fee. If you have pre-funded your private account when you joined you can order immediately. As a member, you will be in complete command and you will have a lifetime of savings, safety, and worry-free convenience. Choose "Register" on the site and a few minutes later you can start saving, be safe, and stop worrying: https://www.sovran-solutions-online.com/?ref=100048 Anti- Smoking Hysteria: What's Really Going On. . . Check out these important items that provide a good clear peek behind the Anti-Smoker Smokescreen put up by the rich cabal that stands to profit from prohibition. Read this important article from Le Monde Diplomatique on their site here. And read this from Clearing The Air US pharmaceutical companies have long known that the potential market for their products is limited ... Thirty years ago the head of one of the world’s best-known drug companies, Merck, made some over-candid comments. He told Fortune magazine of his distress that Merck’s potential markets had been limited to sick people; he said he would have preferred Merck to be able to “sell to everyone”; it had long been his dream to make drugs for healthy people. His dream has since come true. This article has everything to do with Anti-Smoking Hysteria and the worldwide campaigns against smoking. Read the rest of this important article from Le Monde Diplomatique on their site here. And Read this from Clearing The Air Private pharmaceutical firms fund the smoking ban movement to promote their profits... The following is from Clearing The Air Smoking bans: good public policy? Or simply a great pharmaceutical marketing plan? To the average non-smoker as I am, it might appear that the American Lung Association, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Non-Smoker's Rights, the American Medical Association, countless research Universities around the country, etc. are lobbying our politicians for smoking bans for health reasons. However, upon some preliminary investigation it is clear that these NGO's are backed by $200,000,000.00 + from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) which has direct ties to the Johnson & Johnson Company, and J & J is the manufacturer of Nicoderm & Nicoderm CQ via its wholly owned subsidiary ALZA. Recently, the buyout of Pfizer means J & J profits even more from the passage of smoking bans thru additional sales of Nicotrol and the new smoking cessation drug Chantix. The data supplied to these NGO's and subsequently our politicians should be viewed as highly dubious at best, since it comes from the largest manufacturer of pharmaceutical nicotine products which benefits by selling their alternative nicotine products like Nicoderm, Nicoderm CQ, Nicotrol, etc. when tobacco nicotine use is prohibited via smoking bans. In fact according to this industry watchdog pharmaceutical nicotine product sales is a $500,000,000.00+ annual business almost exclusively owned by the Johnson & Johnson conglomerate, of which RWJF is an entity and single largest shareholder of J & J stock, with a $5.4 billion dollar holding. For whatever reason our local lawmakers seem to ignore the conflict of interest, if they know about it at all. I am curious if some of these local lawmakers receive campaign support from any or all of these special interests........Are local media outlets, or attorneys general interested in investigating? We'll see. Here are some links to financial grants from the Nicoderm people at Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to: Recipient: American Medical Assoc. $88,000,000.00 http://www.rwjf.org/reports/npreports/smokeless.htm Recipient: American Lung Association, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association $99,000,000.00 http://www.rwjf.org/research/researchdetail.jsp?id=2002&ia=143 Read the rest here. Okay, that's it for now, but before I go, here they are again: SSO smokers' savings site - clearer, faster, cheaper - for savings and total privacy. SSO's Referral Opportunity - worth considering: you get paid to help smokers save. Ah, yes: And please send your friends to this page. Thanks. Afterword: I think you'll like my original online smokers' store. It's got an excellent variety of carefully selected stuff just for my smoking friends: http://www.nativeblend.net/smokershealth/books.htm Nativeblend is for smokers: http://www.nativeblend.net