As of Tuesday, you'll have to cross a border to buy a clove. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's ban on flavored cigarettes went into effect and prohibits the sale of candy and fruit-flavored cigarettes. Authorized under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, the measure is intended to reduce the number of children who take up the habit.

Under the new ban, cigarettes that include "an artificial or natural flavor (other than menthol) or an herb or spice" cannot be sold in the United States. The long, but not exhaustive list of flavors, consists of strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon, pineapple, vanilla, coconut, licorice, cocoa, chocolate, cherry and coffee.

A Harvard report was release this week that again is setting the tobacco world on fire. Well, at least figuratively. In the report, the compound Menthol was the focus, and it was concluded that by varying the amount of it in certain brands of cigarettes, tobacco companies could recruit and keep younger smokers and those who may have had an initial bad reaction to smoking upon starting the habit.

The strategy was to "lock in lifelong adult smokers," said the researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health. After all the past shenanigans that the tobacco industry has admitted to, it's not surprising to hear that using a varying chemical level strategy to recruit smokers and get them hooked was tried. It was found that milder cigarette brand with lower menthol levels were more appealing to younger smokers. hence, these products were marketed to that age group as a result, according to the report.

One particular example cited was the strategy Philip-Morris USA used when it introduced "Marlboro Milds" back in 2000. The product instantly became a hit with younger smokers was responsible for almost 80% of the menthol product category sales for the company that year.

For the purposes of this examination, let's set aside the fact that you can find reliable clinical research that shows that tobacco smokers cost the insurance industry less over their lifetimes than svelte nonsmokers do. This is simply due to the fact that we tend to die sooner. But that's a matter of insurance industry/government/pharmaceutical hijinx, to possibly discuss another time.

That aside, the item I'm bringing forward today is how the issue of lying smokers should be pursued by Whirlpool Corp.(NYSE: WHR). I'll not take issue against Whirlpool's insurance plan demanding a different level of premium payment from smokers. I'll not take issue against Whirlpool asking smokers to document their participation in the addiction. I'll not take issue against Whirlpool taking action against smokers who lied when claiming that they don't smoke. What I do argue against is the ludicrous notion that Whirlpool employees have turned on one another. It appears that's what the company expects us to believe.

Whirlpool management wants you to believe that they had 39 instances of one employee reporting another for serving their nicotine addiction in violation of what should be a confidential declaration of status. Whirlpool expects you to believe that these company "rats" know which smokers lied on their paper work and which didn't. Whirlpool expects you to believe that all policy violators are of hourly status and that violations by management staff either don't exist or aren't yet worth pursuing. Whirlpool expects us to believe that the company itself wasn't at the root of this all.

Wall Street has speculated for some time that Altria's (NYSE: MO) international units will be spun-off from its domestic tobacco operations. The company's board believes that this will allow overseas operations to work without the baggage of regulations and lawsuits that the firm faces in the US.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "the separate entity, for example, would be exempt from US tobacco regulations and out of reach of American litigators. Importantly, its practices would no longer be constrained by American public opinion, paving the way for broad product experimentation." Put another way, the international operations will be able to make stronger, and perhaps more dangerous tobacco products, for large markets in Europe and Asia.

China will be a major target for the new public company to be called PMI. Other large markets the company will focus on include Indonesia and Pakistan.

The Altria international operations are about four times as large as those in the US. That alone may make the case for the company to be independent.

But, at the end of the day, the name of the game is selling much stronger cigarettes to people who want them in markets where regulation is lax. A good way to make money, but bad for the lungs.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Congressional Democrats looking to spend an additional $35 billion on health coverage for children are drawing criticism for the method they've selected for funding the program: An increased tax on cigarettes. The program would increase the tax from 39 cents per pack all the way up to $1.

Given that smoking is more common among lower-income Americans, the tax is seen as regressive: Health coverage for children will come out of the pockets of those who can't afford it.

Disney (NYSE: DIS) will be banishing cigarette smoking from all future Disney-branded movies, and placing anti-smoking public service messages in titles that are already out on DVD. The announcement is part of a string of moves designed to bolstered Disney's image as a family-friendly company. It has already begun making an effort to lessen the promotion of unhealthy snacks in its products and, according to The Wall Street Journal, it will soon be taking on environmental issues.

Few Disney movies have references to smoking these days, but this decision has strong symbolic value. A major studio is recognizing that it can play some small role in fixing societal problems like obesity, lung cancer, and perhaps global warming.

Corporate social responsibility has become a game of one-upmanship. It's not just about being green, it's about being even greener than the competition. Hopefully Disney's moves will inspire other studios to become more socially responsible.

Shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE: MO) fell today after the cigarette maker disappointed Wall Street, missing analysts' expectations and cutting its earnings guidance for the year to $4.05 to $4.10 per share down from April's $4.20 to $4.25 level.

Earnings per share were $1.05, down from $1.29 last year and under the $1.13 of First Call estimates. Revenues grew almost 10% year-over-year to $18.8 billion, the company said. Bloomberg News notes that the U.S. business is declining at a faster rate than analysts expected.

Simultaneously, the company is acquiring a 30% stake in a Mexican tobacco business from Grupo Carso. CFO Dinyar S. Devitre noted that the international businesses are ready to be split up, although no timing has been given. And who said smoking is a dead-end business? Altria shares are actually up since the company completed its Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) spin-off, and shareholders still have the likely spin-off of Phillip Morris International coming down the pipe.

Many investors would have thought the company's future was in the ashtray, but the company has defied the skeptics, even though everyone knows that its products kill. Actually, shares are up considerably over the last 10-years and it has paid significant dividends. Even the states don't want the company to entirely disappear because cigarettes are responsible for generating huge amounts of tax revenue.

Investors may not all be tobacco fans, but they probably all will say "Keep Smoking!, thanks for the money."

Jon Ogg is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Cigarettes can kill you, or at least assist in the project. But, in the interest of equal attention I must mention that french fries, alcohol, stress, and overexertion can assist in killing you also. Perhaps now this blog post needs a rating of X. In the ever-present mind-set of those who are paid to protect you from the bad choices you can make that might harm you, the Motion Picture Association of America has again taken up the daunting task of sculpting artistic creation to better fit within its own concepts of what you need protection from. This time the MPAA wishes to include certain smoking scenes as criteria for an "R" movie rating.

As a smoker I haven't minded being relegated to the status of second-class citizen while being summarily tossed to the street in the interest of protecting others from my habit. In fact, I don't even smoke in my own home because I don't want to expose my daughter to secondhand smoke. It's my habit, it's dangerous and I have no right to expose anyone else to the stuff. I do however find it disconcerting that a regulatory agency wishes to take it upon itself to demonize approximately 30% of the American population by declaring that our nicotine addiction is unfit for general public viewing. Excuse me please but I'm a human being too you know, and 90 percent of the nonsmokers I know have no problem with my habit as long as I do not force them to inhale my smoke.

So here's my answer to the MPAA's declaration that as smokers we are evil people who need to be labeled so that parents may protect their children from looking at us:

The American Medical Association has determined that obesity is at least as detrimental to the public health as smoking is. In fact, a majority of health studies make clear that people who are overweight face greater health risks in a shorter time span than even the heaviest smokers do. Obesity places a greater burden on health care resources than tobacco does, and being chronically overweight exposes one to more vast and varied health concerns than smoking ever will. Additionally, excessive consumption of calories assists in depriving the rest of the world from adequate nutritional sustenance. Therefore, it is my solemn duty to inform the MPAA that being overweight is a life choice that poses greater risks to society than smoking does, and I demand that it does something about it. Never mind the fact that probably two-thirds of its own board meet the criteria for being chronically overweight. MPAA owes it to society to protect us from the dangers of being overweight, and it should restrict the viewership of motion pictures that display obese people.

Now stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

Camel, which is an R.J. Reynolds Tobacco company, which is owned by Reynolds American Inc (NYSE: RAI), has a new brand of cigarettes out -- Camel No. 9 -- which are targeted at the adult female audience.

I was blissfully unaware of the new brand, being a male non-smoker. However, thanks to a bit of negative press, I am now conscious of Reynold's "cynical ploy" to lure young females to the world of smoking. Fortunately for Reynold's, so are a host of young women that read the newspaper, because while I may not be intrigued by a cigarette that is "chic, a little European, maybe a little Sex in the City," I am willing to bet more of the girls that read that article will be than not. It is a classic case of the effectiveness of negative publicity.

The worst part is that I am only increasing the new brand's awareness with each keystroke. But I digress.

The bottom line is that no matter how many times America's youth is warned about the dangers of cancer from smoking, it will fall on deaf ears that only read the words "chic," "sleek" and "sophisticated" from the very same negative article. And that spells profit for tobacco companies such as Reynolds America.

On Friday, a federal appeals court judge ruled that Altria Group's (NYSE:MO) Philip Morris will not be able to sell low-tar or no-tar cigarettes anywhere in the world. In August, it was ruled that the company could not sell low-tar or no-tar products in the United States. Judge Gladys Kessler (great name, by the way) said in her ruling: "To rule otherwise would ... allow the defendants to spread fraudulent and misleading health messages and descriptors about their products throughout the world, even though they are prohibited from doing so in the United States."

To me, the fact that Philip Morris even went to court for this is indicative of just how serious they are about their mission statement as it's listed on the website: "Our goal is to be the most responsible, effective, and respected developed manufacturer of consumer products, especially products intended for adults."

Note to CEO Mike Szymanczyk: There is nothing responsible or respectable about seeking to market products internationally as no-tar when it has been ruled in the United States that such a description is "fraudulent and misleading" because the implication is that it is somehow a safer cigarette.

A federal judge today granted a group "class action" status in a suit that claims the cigarette companies fooled customers by calling some of their products "light." The argument is simple: The big tobacco companies were trying to sell "light" as safer. Smokers figured that it was OK to have a coffin nail if it was manufactured with less poison in it.

The suit seeks up to $200 billion in damages. If the plaintiffs can show that the tobacco companies planned the whole thing, the suit might take on racketeering status, which could triple damages.

Altria Group (NYSE: MO), the parent of Philip Morris, watched its stock drop almost 5% on the news, down to $78.64 as of 1:55 PM. The company has been trading near its 52-week high of $85.00.

With such a big suit, what isn't Altria's stock down more? Because suits filed in the past seeking damages for heath issues arising from smoking have not won big damages from the tobacco companies. Courts and juries have been reluctant to blame the cigarette manufacturers for people's bad habits, especially when each cigarette package says that smoking will kill you faster than stepping in front of an oncoming train.

While all large suits represent some risk, Wall Street is clearly not betting that there will be a full reversal of the way the judicial system views the liabilities involved in cigarette smoking. Tobacco may be a dirty business, but so far, the actions of cigarette companies are not viewed as criminal.

Douglas McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.