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Statewide ballot initiatives to raise Missouri’s tax narrowly failed in 2002 and 2006, gaining 49 percent of the vote each time. Health groups fervently supported the measures, but tobacco lobbyists pushed back.
"We found that these are very profitable sites, because they're actually paying for advertising on search engines to actually lead people to counterfeit sites," Felman says.
Besides,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], "they just don't look right,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]," Song says. "The material's crappy; it doesn't look as good. You get what you pay for." ([link widoczny dla zalogowanych])

"If it smells a little bit funny, if the website looks a little bit strange, then you should think twice about doing business with them," he says.
Felman says the advertising may cost the fraudsters anywhere from a few cents to a couple dollars per ad. He says that's a good indication that the counterfeiters are making a good profit.
But Missouri taxpayers pay dearly for the failure of its leaders to act responsibly.
"There's probably 500,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],000 fake jerseys floating on eBay right now," Song says. "So if you ever want to buy a real jersey, you can't buy it on eBay,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], or on Craigslist or any of these ads."
The brand protection company MarkMonitor says websites that advertise counterfeit jerseys generate about 56 million page visits a year.
Hard To Stop
Tony Song does.
Song owns about $2,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],500 in sports jerseys, he says.
His fanaticism is pretty easy to see: He's wearing a Steelers baseball cap, Steelers tennis shoes, and an authentic Ben Roethlisberger jersey. "This is exactly pound for pound what he's going to be wearing on the field," Song says of the Steelers quarterback.
([link widoczny dla zalogowanych]) Collecting jerseys is an expensive hobby for Song because he does it by the books. He only buys authentic gear and he makes sure that it's not counterfeit.
"In one instance where we've purchased goods,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], we've found that the ISP was U.S., the phone number was listed in the U.S., but the people answering the phone were Russian, the credit card that we gave them was processed in Israel, and the goods were shipped from somewhere in Asia," he says.
Missouri is one of just three states that have not increased the tax on cigarettes since 2002. Smokers here pay a rock bottom 17 cents a pack in state taxes. Virginia, with the second-lowest cigarette tax,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], charges 30 cents a pack.
Menthol cigarettes make up about 30 percent of industry sales. Lorillard -- not the only tobacco company against a menthol ban -- makes Newport, the leading brand. Newport menthols have driven an increase in the company's market share, from 9 percent in 2001 to 13 percent in the third quarter of 2010, even as overall domestic cigarette sales declined.
The material's crappy; it doesn't look as good. You get what you pay for.
They cost taxpayers millions of dollars in health costs that must be borne by state and federal governments.
"I'm a die-hard fan. I spend all of my money on them, watch them every week, get extremely upset when they lose," he says. "It's not a game. It's do-or-die. It's life."
They invite citizens,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], especially young people,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], to take up and continue a harmful habit.
Buying Counterfeit
Song, 22, is a Steelers fan. Not just the run-of-the-mill,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], watch-the-occasional-game Steelers fan, but the die-hard, bleeds-black-and-yellow variety.
- Tony Song, [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] collector
The chief marketing officer, Frederick Felman, estimates 800,000 counterfeit jerseys are sold online each year.
([link widoczny dla zalogowanych]) More than a hundred million people are expected to watch Sunday's Super Bowl XLV.
([link widoczny dla zalogowanych]) An FDA advisory committee, the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], will make its recommendations on menthol in March. The agency may recommend responses less stringent than a ban, such as restrictions on advertising.
Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon and Republican lawmakers use those votes to justify the unconscionably low tax.([link widoczny dla zalogowanych])
Since Newport menthols make up the vast majority of Lorillard cigarette sales,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the company may fear a "doomsday scenario if menthol gets banned and they can't keep a majority of their customers,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]," according to Philip Gorham,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], an analyst with Morningstar, Inc.
They damage the state’s economy by contributing to a loss of worker productivity.
The FDA is not bound by the committee's recommendations and has no deadline to act.
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And Felman says it's hard to stop them. One counterfeiting company can create multiple websites,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], so if one gets shut down, sales can keep going. It also allows them to spread out internationally,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], making it harder for Internet service providers (ISPs) and law enforcement agencies to catch them.
Pittsburgh Steelers fans will be twirling their "Terrible Towels" and Green Bay Packers fans will be sporting their foam cheese-heads. And fans on both sides will be wearing jerseys — lots and lots of [link widoczny dla zalogowanych]. Many of which will be fakes,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], bought online from counterfeiting companies by people who don't know any better.([link widoczny dla zalogowanych])
Thanks to the governor and legislature, Missouri has parked itself in the nation’s ashtray.
The jersey is just one of Song's 15 Steelers jerseys — and that doesn't include the 10 or so others he has for his favorite hockey and basketball teams.
And they stand by while Missourians continue to suffer heart attacks, strokes,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], smoke-related cancers and premature deaths at a higher rate than the national average.
The FDA was given the authority by Congress to regulate tobacco in legislation passed in 2009. Although the law specifically outlawed flavorings such as candy, spice and fruit,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], which might be especially appealing to youth,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], it left it to the FDA to assess whether menthol flavoring should remain legal.
to stop the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from banning menthol in cigarettes, The Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 5.([link widoczny dla zalogowanych])
By refusing to increase the state’s lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax, elected officials do more than create a gaping hole in the budget. ([link widoczny dla zalogowanych])
MarkMonitor finds 20 percent of the people who buy counterfeit jerseys don't know they're getting an illegitimate product.
The others may just not have cared. But that's a dangerous way to look at it, Felman says, because buying from a fraudulent company online is a good way to get your identity stolen.
([link widoczny dla zalogowanych]) For a recent study, MarkMonitor chose five major sports brands and searched the web for jerseys with their logos. The company found more than 1,300 merchant websites selling questionable gear.
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