Free Republic

A Times editorial about the decision by CVS to stop selling tobacco products speaks of the need to "drive home the message that the availability of this lethal consumer product should be curtailed as much as possible and that tobacco use is socially unacceptable." Contrast that with the Times' much more permissive attitude toward smoking marijuana, which a January 30 Times editorial recommended as a pain treatment for football players, and which a January 7 Times editorial recommended making widely available in New York even to non-football-playing customers. The distinction seems to be that marijuana has magical elixir-like qualities on...

Health officials have begun to predict the end of cigarette smoking in America. They have long wished for a cigarette-free America, but shied away from calling for smoking rates to fall to zero or near zero by any particular year. The power of tobacco companies and popularity of their products made such a goal seem like a pipe dream. But a confluence of changes has recently prompted public health leaders to start throwing around phrases like “endgame” and “tobacco-free generation.” Now, they talk about the slowly-declining adult smoking rate dropping to 10 percent in the next decade and to 5...

IT IS GREAT CVS is ending cigarette sales by October, and I know exactly what other dangerous products should go behind the counter when the wall of cancer sticks comes down: Coke, Pepsi, Gatorade, Red Bull, and all other sugary beverages. I say this because I take CVS’s new public health pronouncements seriously. In announcing the tobacco ban, CVS chief medical officer Troyen Brennan said the drugstore industry is positioning itself to offer more clinical services for chronic diseases. He wrote Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association that it is a “paradox” to sell cigarettes as pharmacies...

The Food and Drug Administration is launching a new campaign against youth tobacco use. "The Real Cost" advertisements graphically depict the health consequences of smoking, such as tooth loss and skin damage. Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of disease, death, and disability in the U.S. Every day, more than 3,200 Americans under age 18 try their first cigarette, and more than 700 become regular smokers. The FDA is targeting its efforts toward the 10 million Americans ages 12 to 17 who have never smoked a cigarette but are open to it. "We know that early intervention is critical,...

Exposure to surfaces and objects that have been saturated in cigarette smoke, labeled as “third-hand smoke,” may be as deadly as smoking the cigarette itself. A new study from the University of California, Riverside finds that the third-hand smoke that has soaked into the surfaces, objects and environment around people becomes increasingly toxic over time. Third-hand smoke is defined as the second-hand smoke that is allowed to settle on objects in any environment. Non-smoking children, co-workers, spouses and friends of smokers breathe in such carcinogens left in rooms exposed to smokers.

For the third year in a row, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is poised to deliver a bold, no-holds-barred, anti-tobacco message to the American public. Starting Monday, the agency will launch the 2014 phase of "Tips From Former Smokers" (Tips), an ambitious annual TV, radio and print campaign. As was the case during its first two incarnations, the upcoming Tips campaign, which will last nine weeks, will feature real people speaking in frank and often frightening terms about the high price paid for a lifetime of exposure to cigarettes. "Over 20 million Americans have died because of...

<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — Eric Lawson, who portrayed the rugged Marlboro man in cigarette ads during the late 1970s, has died. He was 72.</p> <p>Lawson died Jan. 10 at his home in San Luis Obispo of respiratory failure due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, his wife, Susan Lawson said Sunday.</p>

A doctor on his morning walk, noticed the the nice lady above... She was sitting on her front step smoking a cigar, so he walked up to her and said:  "I couldn't help but notice how happy you look! What is your secret?"  "I smoke ten cigars a day, she said. Then, before I go to bed, I smoke a big, fat joint! Apart from that, I drink a whole bottle of Jack Daniels every week, and eat only junk food. On weekends, I do other drugs, have sex and, most importantly-- I don't exercise at all."  "That is...

Smoking while pregnant has been shown to cause delayed growth, low birth weight, and premature delivery, but now an Amsterdam University professor is claiming that smoking and undergoing stress during pregnancy for a developing fetus can in fact impact the child’s sexual orientation, reports The Sunday Times. According to neuroscientist Dr. Dick Swaab, pre-birth exposure to nicotine can increase the chances of girls becoming lesbian or bisexual and drinking or drug taking can lower a child’s IQ. The researcher also surmised that a boy with several older brothers has a higher chance of being gay possibly because the development of...

(CNSNews.com) - "We're still a country very much addicted to tobacco," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a news conference last Friday, as she urged communities, schools and businesses to "help make the next generation a tobacco-free generation." A transcript of that news conference runs around 8,300 words, but there isn't a single word about the adverse health effects of marijuana smoking -- even as more states jump on the pot-legalization bandwagon. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, marijuana smoke is an irritant to the lungs, and "frequent marijuana smokers can have many of the same...

It's no secret that smoking causes lung cancer. But what about diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, erectile dysfunction? Fifty years into the war on smoking, scientists still are adding diseases to the long list of cigarettes' harms - even as the government struggles to get more people to kick the habit. A new report from the U.S. Surgeon General's office says the nation is at a crossroads, celebrating decades of progress against the chief preventable killer but not yet poised to finish the job.

The presence of e-cigarettes and "vaping" have led to multiple conversations on whether they're really safer than the real thing, and a group of U.S. senators are none too pleased with the use of one in a skit during Sunday's Golden Globes. One of the gags during the broadcast involved co-hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler talking about Julia Louis-Dreyfus being nominated for her roles in both the film Enough Said and the TV show Veep. After mentioning her decision to sit in the film section of the room, the camera cut away to Louis-Dreyfus, who snobbishly puffed on an...

The central government is set to ease the design requirements for tobacco stores as a response to the recent wave of robberies targeted at the units, commercial broadcaster RTL Klub has reported.

WASHINGTON -- Certain current or former heavy smokers should start getting yearly scans for lung cancer to cut their risk of death from the nation's top cancer killer, government advisers said Monday — even as they stressed that the tests aren't for everyone. The long-anticipated decision by the influential U.S. Preventive Services Task Force says these CT scans of the lungs should be offered only to people at especially high risk: those who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 30 years or an equivalent amount, such as two packs a day for 15 years — and who are...

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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Gov. Mary Fallin has issued an executive order that bans the use of electronic cigarettes and vapor devices on state property, saying the potential long-term health effects of the products are unknown. snip Fallin is an anti-smoking advocate and says that electronic cigarettes and similar products emit vapor that contains chemicals and can impact bystanders

Now it can be told. Now that smoking has been banned everywhere but the dryer vent at your apartment based on the notion that secondhand smoke kills everyone around you, The Journal of the National Cancer Institute can tell us this via Jacob Sullum:

In a perfect world, it wouldn’t be necessary for me to begin this article by affirming that I am not a supporter of smoking, nor am I a paid shill of the tobacco industry. But in our real world–in which a goodly amount of scientific research grant money is awarded on the basis of sensationalized fearmongering results–those who question the validity of such results are often attacked. “Kill the messenger” is hardly a new phenomenon, having been recorded as early as 442 BC in the play Antigone by Sophocles. That said, let’s proceed to the matter at hand: The overblown...

Restaurants and bars would have the option of allowing smoking on patios and other outdoor portions of their businesses under bipartisan legislation recently introduced in the state Legislature. "I think this something businesses should be able to offer if they choose to," said Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, the sponsor of House Bill 5159. "People step outside to smoke now anyway. "I am not a smoker, but to me this is an issue of liberty and property rights," Rep. McMillin continued. "That's why I didn't support the smoking ban legislation when it was in the House. If I was in...