Free Republic

By now, there’s little doubt in anyone’s mind that smoking is dangerous both to smokers and those around them, though that doesn’t stop 40 million American adults from lighting up almost every day. Banning cigarettes outright might encourage people to kick the habit, but a blanket prohibition on smoking seems unlikely to happen any time soon. Rather than focusing on banning cigarettes themselves, states (along with cities and the federal government) have passed various tobacco laws making it more difficult for people to smoke. They’ve raised taxes on tobacco, banned smoking in many public and private spaces, and required warning...

Americans everywhere are struggling to come to grips with recent high-profile tragedies arising from violent encounters between police and civilians. For both police and many motorists, routine traffic stops have become nerve-wracking events. This is the backdrop against which the trustees of Michigan State University have imposed a new ordinance that will increase the number of needless traffic stops on its campuses. The measure takes effect on Aug. 15, and bans smoking or using smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes anywhere on MSU property. The ordinance applies even to personal vehicles on public streets that pass through the university. Violators can be...

The sale of e-cigarettes to minors will be banned starting Monday, as part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's long-awaited plan to extend the agency's regulatory powers across all tobacco products. The new rules halt the sale of e-cigarettes and any other tobacco product to anyone younger than 18. The regulations also require photo IDs to buy e-cigarettes, and ban retailers from handing out free samples or selling them in all-ages vending machines. The rules also cover other alternative forms of tobacco like cigars, hookah tobacco and pipe tobacco. Electronic cigarettes are battery-operated devices designed to create an aerosol...

Although only about 8 percent of pregnant women in a new U.S. study reported smoking cigarettes, twice as many tested positive for high levels of a chemical that indicates nicotine exposure. The researchers analyzed data on 787 women who self-reported any cigarette use during the last trimester of pregnancy and had provided urine samples. The samples were tested for cotinine, which indicates nicotine exposure, and for evidence of other drugs including amphetamines, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, cannabinoids such as marijuana, cocaine, muscle relaxants, short-acting opioids such as heroin, long-acting opioids including buprenorphine and methadone, and phencyclidine (PCP). The average age was 28....

Knoxville vape companies are fuming mad after the FDA passed new regulations this month. They say this new law will put an end to the vaping industry. They are shocked at how far reaching the regulations are, and now they're afraid the new restrictions will destroy the industry. Hunter Allison with Tri State Vape Company will have to submit an application for each new product. He says that would come with a hefty price tag. Allison says, "The absolutely lowest price I've seen is $300,000 per product and that's $4.5 million for me and there's no possible way. He's already...

<p>NEW YORK (AP) — The nation seems to be kicking its smoking habit faster than ever before.</p> <p>The rate of smoking among adults in the U.S. fell to 15 percent last year thanks to the biggest one-year decline in more than 20 years, according to a new government report.</p>

The Chinese government has banned all depictions of gay people on television, as part of a cultural crackdown on “vulgar, immoral and unhealthy content”. “No television drama shall show abnormal sexual relationships and behaviours, such as incest, same-sex relationships, sexual perversion, sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual violence, and so on.” The ban also extends to smoking, drinking, adultery, sexually suggestive clothing, even reincarnation. China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television told television producers it would constantly monitor TV channels to ensure the new rules were strictly adhered to.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday enacted California’s most significant new tobacco regulations in decades, signing laws that will place tight restrictions on use of the increasingly popular e-cigarette and make California the second state to raise its smoking age to 21. Brown signed five closely watched bills, which will also expand smoking restrictions in the workplace and on school properties. California now joins jurisdictions like Hawaii, New York City and San Francisco that have bumped the tobacco-buying age to 21 in an effort to block young people’s route to obtaining tobacco. But Brown vetoed one measure that would have allowed...

"Duane Stone is a veteran Seattle mental health specialist. He's seeing a surprising increase in patients experiencing psychotic episodes as well. Many have never had any mental health problems before. "I get lots of first break kind where this person doesn't have an experience with mental illness, they don't have a diagnosis, they're 30 or 40-years-old. And the only thing they've been doing has been smoking marijuana for the last year or two," Stone said. It's not just your stereotypical stoner. They're family people working at places such as Microsoft and Amazon."

Moscow Anti-Smoking Campaign Uses Obama's Image as Deterrent The Moscow Times Feb. 16 2016 17:34 Last edited 17:34 Anti-smoking posters in Moscow have used the image of U.S. President Barack Obama smoking to deter smokers -- saying that both he and cigarettes are killers. The poster has a photoshopped image of the U.S. president and the words: "Smoking kills more people than Obama, although he kills a lot of people. Don't smoke -- don't be like Obama." Russian State Duma opposition deputy Dmitry Gudkov published a photograph of the bus stop poster on Facebook, adding a Soviet joke about freedom...

MOSCOW, - An anti-smoking poster on the streets of Moscow is going viral online due to its unusual star -- U.S. President Barack Obama. Dmitry Gudkov, Russian State Duma opposition deputy, posted a picture to Facebook of the anti-smoking ad, which features Obama with a cigarette in his mouth. "Smoking kills more people than Obama, although he kills a lot of people. Don't smoke -- don't be like Obama," the poster reads in Russian. "I am disgusted and ashamed of what appears on the streets of the Russian capital," Gudkov said. Obama famously quit smoking under pressure from first lady...

An anti-smoking poster featuring Barack Obama has appeared on bus stops around Moscow, with the caption: "Don't smoke - don't be like Obama." "Smoking kills more people than Obama, although he kills a lot of people," the ad reads.

U.S. tobacco giant Altria Group Inc. MO, +2.48% on Thursday said it would cut roughly 5% of its workforce in an effort to reduce costs by $300 million annually as industry volumes decline. The Marlboro maker announced the layoffs on the same day it reported profit and revenue for the fourth quarter that missed Wall Street expectations as cigarette shipments slipped and earnings declined from its stake in SABMiller PLC's beer business. Altria's earnings rose slightly to $1.25 billion, or 64 cents a share, from $1.24 billion, or 63 cents a share, a year earlier. The results foreshadowed some of...

New York is reaping the whirlwind of sky-high cigarette taxes with a wave of smuggling decimating the state’s revenue. New York raised taxes on cigarettes to $4.35 in 2010 from $2.75. In total, cigarette taxes have increased by 190 percent since 2006. The sharp rise has resulted in a raft of unintended consequences which are dealing a significant blow to the state’s finances. New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli reports New York’s revenue from cigarette taxes has plunged by $400 million over the past five years.

Smoking would be prohibited in public housing homes nationwide under a proposed federal rule to be announced on Thursday, a move that would affect nearly one million households and open the latest front in the long-running campaign to curb unwanted exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke. The ban, by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, would also require that common areas and administrative offices on public housing property be smoke-free. ~ snip

A new ordinance sponsored by New York City Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Queens) would bar tenants of government-subsidized housing from smoking in their apartments. The rule would apply to an estimated 178,000 units controlled by the City's Housing Authority. Richards maintained that "as hard as it may be on some of the tenants, the measure is for their own good. The fact that a person lives in subsidized housing is a pretty good indication of a basic lack of competence to make good decisions," he said. "Inability to support yourself imposes this burden on someone else. Whenever that someone else is...

The World Health Organisation (WHO) will publish a report on Monday on the dangers of eating processed meats. It is expected to list processed meat as a cancer-causing substance, while fresh red meat is also expected to be regarded as bad for health, the Daily Mail said. The classifications, by the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer, are believed to regard processed meat as "carcinogenic to humans", the highest of five possible rankings, shared with alcohol, asbestos, arsenic and cigarettes.

D.C. Council Member Yvette Alexander announced Tuesday that the week of Sept. 20, 2015, would forever be known as “DC Calls It Quits Week.” The announcement comes just one week before the city plans to implement a 67 percent tax on e-cigarettes, effectively taxing vape shops out of existence. Alexander brought a gaggle of people to the front of the council chambers to make the announcement and to encourage “everyone in the District of Columbia to put down those cigarettes.” "Put down those tobacco product today, and hopefully this can be the beginning of a new beginning for anyone who...

Electronic cigarettes are around 95 percent less harmful than tobacco and should be promoted as a tool to help smokers quit, a study by an agency of Britain's Department of Health said on Wednesday. E-cigarettes, tobacco-free devices people use to inhale nicotine-laced vapor, have surged in popularity on both sides of the Atlantic but health organizations have so far been wary of advocating them as a safer alternative to tobacco and governments from California to India have tried to introduce bills to regulate their use more strictly. "E-cigarettes are not completely risk free but when compared to smoking, evidence shows...

Update on new law on smoking in cars and other vehicles with someone under 18. From 1 October 2015 it will be illegal to smoke in a car (or other vehicles) with anyone under 18 present. The law is changing to protect children and young people from the dangers of secondhand smoke. Both the driver and the smoker could be fined £50. The law applies to every driver in England and Wales, including those aged 17 and those with a provisional driving licence. The law does not apply if the driver is 17 years old and is on their own...