Universal Corporation has closed a $1.4 billion senior unsecured credit facility, effective December 9. The newly named 2025 Facility replaces the company’s prior $1.15 billion arrangement.

The 2025 Facility comprises a five-year $780 million revolving credit line, a $275 million five-year term loan, and a $345 million seven-year term loan.

Chairman and CEO Preston Wigner said the refinancing enhances liquidity, lowers borrowing costs and expands the company’s banking relationships, positioning Universal to advance strategic priorities and deliver long-term shareholder value. JPMorgan Chase, Truist Securities and AgFirst Farm Credit Bank served as joint bookrunners and lead arrangers for the facility.

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This article was adapted from an original report published on tobaccoreporter.com. All rights belong to the original publisher.

South Africa’s proposed Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill, 2018, would overhaul the country’s tobacco laws with what Caxton Network News calls “radical changes.” The draft would introduce 100% smoke-free indoor public spaces, ban point-of-sale displays and vending machines, and bring e-cigarettes under strict regulation.

One of the most controversial measures appears to extend restrictions into private spaces, including homes and vehicles, through a clause tied to the Sectional Titles Act. The South African Police Service and the National Prosecuting Authority raised enforcement concerns, but the clause was kept on the grounds of protecting workers’ constitutional rights.

The bill also mandates plain packaging for all tobacco products and would subject e-cigarettes and vapes to the same rules that govern combustible cigarettes. Industry requests to exempt vaping products from display bans, plain packaging and smoke-free rules were rejected.

Other measures include bans on single-stick sales, vending-machine sales and the public display of all tobacco and vaping products. After extensive public hearings earlier this year, the Department of Health was expected to present responses to submissions in November; the parliamentary committee rejected that document and pushed the meeting to early next year. The bill remains under consideration in the Portfolio Committee on Health.

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This article was adapted from an original report published on tobaccoreporter.com. All rights belong to the original publisher.

Fourteen U.S. agricultural and tobacco-sector organizations sent joint letters to President Donald Trump, Secretary Brooke Rollins, and Secretary Scott Bessent thanking the Administration for expressing willingness to support flue-cured tobacco farmers who are facing severe trade disruptions.

The letters lay out urgent challenges: exports have fallen 20–25%, farm-gate prices have dropped 15–20%, and demand from key markets such as China has shrunk. Rising input costs are adding further financial pressure as growers make plans for 2026.

“On May 29th, China wrote to the U.S. leaf merchants that it would not honor its purchase as much as 60 million pounds of flue-cured leaf in 2025. This exit resulted in adverse impacts on prices and values as the season progressed. The surplus created a soft demand that caused a market downturn of 27 cents per pound on average.”

Although the Administration recently announced a $12 billion Farm Bridge Assistance Program, tobacco is currently excluded. The coalition urged targeted relief, noting that tobacco was included in market facilitation programs during the first Trump Administration. The groups warned of the risk to family farms and called for prompt inclusion of tobacco in relief measures.

Tobacco Associates circulated the letters to industry members and encouraged growers to contact local, state, and federal representatives to share personal experiences and the real impact of the downturn, stressing that those voices can influence policy decisions.

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This article was adapted from an original report published on tobaccoreporter.com. All rights belong to the original publisher.

Altria Group announced that CEO Billy Gifford will retire after the company’s 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders on May 14, ending a more than 30-year career with the company. Gifford, who has led Altria since 2020, will stay on as a consultant through at least the end of 2026 to help ensure a smooth leadership transition. Company leaders praised him for guiding Altria through a turbulent period and stressed continuity in advancing the company’s “Moving Beyond Smoking” strategy under the incoming team.

The board has named Salvatore “Sal” Mancuso, currently Altria’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, to succeed Gifford as CEO. Mancuso began his career at Philip Morris USA in 1990 and has held senior roles spanning strategy, finance and compliance. Board Chair Kathryn McQuade said his selection came after a long-term succession process that evaluated both internal and external candidates.

Heather Newman will become Altria’s next chief financial officer, also effective at the 2026 Annual Meeting. Newman joined Altria in 1999 and previously served as president and CEO of Philip Morris USA.

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This article was adapted from an original report published on tobaccoreporter.com. All rights belong to the original publisher.

Norwalk police raided the Smokey Bear Tobacco and Vape shop on North Main Street Wednesday, seizing a range of marijuana products and arresting a 19-year-old employee, investigators said.

Officers took into custody employee Islam Altahami, a Norwalk resident, on an active warrant for the illegal sale of marijuana. Police also charged him with an additional count of illegal sale and with possession of more than 8 ounces of marijuana found at the scene.

The search was carried out under a warrant and was part of an ongoing probe into city smoke shops allegedly selling marijuana products without authorization. Police noted shops cannot legally sell products with a total THC concentration greater than 0.3% without a state-issued license.

During the search, officers seized 1.405 pounds of illegal marijuana edibles, 0.1375 pounds of THC vape product, and 0.54 pounds of marijuana flower. Much of the marijuana was hidden in a magnetic compartment near the cash register. Among the confiscated edibles were 89 seltzer cans containing 25 mg of THC, 120 cans containing 50 mg, and three cans containing 5 mg. Authorities also recovered just over $1,700 in cash.

Altahami’s bond was set at $60,000, and he is due to appear in state Superior Court on Dec. 24.

Police previously raided the same shop in August, seizing marijuana products and several bottles of nitrous oxide and arresting a Stamford woman at that time.

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This article was adapted from an original report published on thehour.com. All rights belong to the original publisher.

A new study links short-term nicotine abstinence to greater pain sensitivity and higher postoperative analgesic needs, driven by altered activity in specific brain regions.

Summary
Researchers found that smokers who abstained before surgery experienced stronger pain and used more postoperative pain medication—especially opioids—than nonsmokers. The increase in pain sensitivity grew with longer abstinence but appeared confined to a limited window, consistent with previous evidence that pain responses may normalize after about three months. Mapping brain activity revealed distinct neural networks tied to heightened pain processing and to the increased need for postoperative care.

Key findings
– Higher pain sensitivity: Abstinent smokers had lower pain thresholds and required more postoperative analgesics than nonsmokers.
– Brain activity changes: Resting-state fMRI showed reduced fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), increased regional homogeneity (ReHo) in the left middle occipital gyrus, and decreased functional connectivity (FC) between the vmPFC and both the bilateral middle temporal gyrus and precuneus.
– Time dependence: Pain sensitivity increased with the length of abstinence but tended to normalize after roughly three months.
– Distinct networks: Different sets of brain regions were associated with pain sensitivity versus withdrawal-related postoperative care needs.
– Mediation effects: Preoperative pain threshold correlated positively with abstinence duration and specific regional brain activity/connectivity. The link between abstinence time and pain threshold was mediated by calcarine and posterior cingulate cortex activity. Dysfunction in the vmPFC and left anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) fully mediated the relationship between withdrawal symptoms and postoperative analgesic requirements.

Study details
The prospective cohort study enrolled 60 male patients undergoing partial hepatectomy: 30 abstinent smokers and 30 nonsmokers. Investigators collected clinical data, smoking histories, pain measures, and resting-state fMRI scans. Compared with nonsmokers, the abstinent group showed lower pain thresholds, greater postoperative analgesic use, and specific alterations in brain functional measures (fALFF, ReHo, and FC).

Interpretation and implications
The findings suggest nicotine withdrawal can alter supraspinal brain function and contribute to hyperalgesia in abstinent smokers, helping explain why these patients may need more pain relief after surgery. Because the effect appears time-limited, the results do not mean smokers should avoid quitting before surgery. Rather, the authors emphasize the need to understand and manage short-term withdrawal-related pain to reduce reliance on opioids.

Research directions
The team is already investigating a postoperative analgesic that might work better than opioids for abstinent smokers, and they are studying the mechanisms and effectiveness of preoperative nicotine replacement therapies.

Quote
“We’d like to emphasize that our study does not discourage smokers from quitting before surgery,” said Kai Wei. “Our aim is to encourage researchers to delve deeper into the mechanisms underlying elevated pain sensitivity during short-term abstinence, with the goal of developing strategies to mitigate the clinical challenge of increased analgesic (especially opioid) use associated with preoperative smoking cessation.”

Source
Study published in the Journal of Neuroscience: “Altered Regional Brain Activity Underlying the Higher Postoperative Analgesic Requirements in Abstinent Smokers: A Prospective Cohort Study” by Zhijie Lu et al. Reported by SfN Media.

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This article was adapted from an original report published on neurosciencenews.com. All rights belong to the original publisher.

Agents with the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), working with local partners, carried out coordinated raids this week at vape shops across the Palmetto State, multiple sources told FITSNews.

The operation could produce potentially hundreds of charges against dozens of defendants, with a mass arraignment scheduled for 10:00 a.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025 before S.C. circuit court judge Heath Taylor. S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson—whose statewide grand jury division is leading the prosecutions tied to these raids—plans to review the charges in detail at a press conference tentatively set for 9:30 a.m. EST on Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. Neither SLED nor the attorney general’s office had commented publicly ahead of that event.

Sources say SLED and local officers hit “dozens of stores” earlier this week, seizing products and cash. News accounts from Darlington, Florence, Greenville and Surfside Beach offered snapshots of the activity, and the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office (GCSO) posted details from one enforcement action on its social media pages.

GCSO said its raid, which included help from several local agencies, was part of “an on-going investigation involving the distribution of illegal marijuana products.” The agency added the probe began, in part, after complaints about high school–age children using similar products.

It’s not clear whether the Greenville raid is part of the statewide sweep, but law enforcement and prosecutors—led by Assistant Attorney General Jennifer McKellar—are clearly mounting a coordinated effort to shut down synthetic cannabinoids and other illegal intoxicants sold at vape shops.

“These products are incredibly dangerous,” SLED Chief Mark Keel told lawmakers at a legislative hearing last month. “These users have no idea what they are ingesting.” Keel also warned of enforcement challenges, saying the current regulatory framework is “unenforceable” and that authorities lack the manpower to seize, store and analyze the vast quantity of THC products now in the state.

FITSNews earlier examined one stark example of the dangers Keel described: the case of 29-year-old Zachary East Elias of Columbia. Elias is charged with two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder and one count of possessing a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in connection with a shooting at Budiman’s Smokeshop & Art Gallery in Rock Hill at about 9:40 p.m. EST on Dec. 4, 2024.

Police say Elias entered the store shirtless and barefoot, armed with an assault rifle. After asking about the whereabouts of the “mushroom man,” he opened fire, killing 27-year-old employee Celci Johnson and 49-year-old customer Emad Saadalla. Saadalla’s wife was shot but survived.

Elias’ attorney, Alexandra Benevento, says the shooting resulted from “involuntary intoxication induced by mislabeled and deceptively marketed products sold as legal substances.” She says the products were marketed as containing only lawful mushroom derivatives and promoted as a CBD-style legal alternative by the shop. Subsequent SLED testing of the chocolate bars Elias consumed reportedly found psilocin, “an illegal, dangerous Schedule I controlled substance.” Authorities say Elias then suffered acute drug-induced psychosis.

“Zach’s alleged actions were not the product of malice, planning or criminal disposition, but rather the direct and involuntary effect of ingesting a mislabeled, illegal product,” his bond motion states.

Law enforcement sources tell FITSNews they are pressing to more aggressively enforce state limits on Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) under current hemp laws and to target the distribution networks behind some of these products. At the same time, critics argue the raids are the wrong tool.

“They want to look like they’re doing something to give the legislature cover for not doing anything,” one skeptical source told FITSNews. “This is a political, (cover your ass) clickbait prosecution—not a real crackdown.” That critic added SLED and the attorney general are “going after the wrong people,” saying distributors who mislabeled products, not shop owners who sold items based on those representations, are most culpable.

The statewide sting comes as South Carolina lawmakers consider a new regulatory framework for hemp-infused products. Federal lawmakers also acted last month on “marijuana-adjacent” products, though those federal provisions don’t take effect until November 2026.

FITSNews will continue to follow this investigation and will report developments from Thursday’s arraignment and Friday’s attorney general’s press conference.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Will Folks is the founding editor of FITSNews. Before launching the site, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands with his wife and eight children.

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Virginia Attorney General Jason S. Miyares and the state’s tax commissioner asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging Virginia’s ban on unapproved e-cigarettes, arguing the plaintiffs lack standing because the products at issue are illegal under federal law.

In court filings, the state told the court that Novo Distro Inc. and Tobacco Hut and Vape Fairfax Inc. cannot claim injury or seek an injunction when the products they sell have not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Virginia argued that because the e-cigarettes are unlawful under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA), the sellers have no legal basis to challenge the state restriction.

Virginia also stressed that neither the FDCA nor the Tobacco Control Act preempts the state’s power to regulate tobacco products. The state said the ban is applied uniformly to all sellers and is rooted in public health concerns, not favoritism toward any company.

The plaintiffs counter that the law disproportionately harms small businesses while benefiting large tobacco companies. Virginia responded that the statute merely requires FDA approval for all products and is not arbitrary, framing the requirement as a public-health-driven standard rather than a protection for larger firms.

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This article was adapted from an original report published on tobaccoreporter.com. All rights belong to the original publisher.

Altria Group, Inc. today announced that its Board of Directors has declared a regular quarterly dividend of $1.06 per share. The dividend will be paid on January 9, 2026, to shareholders of record as of December 26, 2025; the ex-dividend date is December 26, 2025.

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This article was adapted from an original report published on tobaccoreporter.com. All rights belong to the original publisher.

KT&G said it has earned an “AAA” ESG rating from global investment research firm MSCI — the highest rating ever achieved by a tobacco industry player, the company noted. MSCI reviews about 8,500 publicly listed companies each year and assigns ratings from AAA to CCC that institutional investors use to judge sustainability and ESG competitiveness. The new score breaks KT&G’s four-year run of AA ratings.

MSCI cited several strengths behind the upgrade: a strong governance structure, systematic supply chain management, responsible marketing, and active environmental management initiatives. The firm specifically highlighted KT&G’s governance practices, including the separation of the CEO and board chair roles, a board composed of 75% independent directors, and the operation of active board committees.

KT&G also received recognition for its supply chain labor management, the expansion of on-site water reclamation infrastructure, and its execution of responsible marketing practices. Young-ah Shim, Director of KT&G’s ESG Management Office, said the rating reflects the company’s ESG management meeting global standards and underscores its commitment to ongoing environmental and supply chain efforts.

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This article was adapted from an original report published on tobaccoreporter.com. All rights belong to the original publisher.