Free Republic

Tobacco industry once had high hopes for marijuana business USA -- Richard Nixon was in the White House, his "war on drugs" was in full swing, yet Big Tobacco was secretly exploring the possibility of becoming Big Pot. Newly discovered documents from tobacco company archives at UC San Francisco show that major companies in the cigarette industry investigated joining the marijuana business in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The companies were driven then by the same shift in public attitudes that is now pushing legalization around the country. One company even asked a federal counter-narcotics official to secretly secure...

Tobacco sales on Navy ships and in stores on Navy and Marine Corps bases would be a thing of the past under a plan being considered by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, but some congressional members are pushing back. The Navy Department, which includes the Marine Corps, would be the first military department to prohibit tobacco sales. […] Congress is considering a measure that would prevent Mabus from instituting a sales ban, with the prohibition’s opponents arguing it overreaches on a habit that is unhealthy but still legal. …

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Cigarette smuggling costs states an estimated $5.5 billion annually. Much of that traffic takes place on the East Coast along Interstate 95, as cigarettes from lower-tax states are being smuggled to states with higher taxes in the Northeast. A new website, sponsored by RAI Services Co., a subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc., calls the I-95 corridor "The New Tobacco Road."The website draws attention to the problem to encourage states to pass stiffer penalties for smuggling and devote more resources to enforcement.The website, www.thenewtobaccoroad.com, shows how I-95 has become a key transit route for cigarette smuggling from southern...

The disastrous smoking habits of the Irish have been highlighted in two new studies—we are far more prone than other Europeans to continue smoking after suffering a stroke and one in 10 of us cut back on food to fund our craving. […] Just what lengths smokers will go to to feed their habit is borne out in a separate study by Pfizer Ireland, which found: 10% cut back on buying food35% said they cut down on eating out24% pulled out of social engagements22% also said that they cut back on holidays to avoid cutting their smoking budget.More than half...

London - A group of 53 leading scientists has warned the World Health Organisation not to classify e-cigarettes as tobacco products, arguing that doing so would jeopardise a major opportunity to slash disease and deaths caused by smoking. The UN agency, which is currently assessing its position on the matter, has previously indicated it would favour applying similar restrictions to all nicotine-containing products. In an open letter to WHO Director General Margaret Chan, the scientists from Europe, North America, Asia and Australia argued that low-risk products like e-cigarettes were "part of the solution" in the fight against smoking, not part...

If the government wants to make progress in lowering obesity rates, it needs to start regulating fatty foods much the way it does tobacco. That's the recommendation from a pair of international health organizations pushing policies it says would answer the obesity epidemic. Specifically, the groups recommend that the government control the way the food and beverage industry advertises, to ensure companies aren't implying unhealthy food is good for children and adults. Additionally, they advise governments to require statements on food packaging about how high or low the content of salt, saturated fat, and sugar is in relation to dietary...

Every person covered by Medicare would shell out an additional $3 a month if the government agreed to pay to screen certain current and former smokers for lung cancer, a new study estimates. It would cost Medicare $2 billion a year to follow recent advice to offer these lung scans—and fuel angst about rising health costs that are borne by everyone, not just smokers, the study found. […] Lung cancer is the world’s top cancer killer, mainly because it’s usually found too late for treatment to do much good. Most deaths involve Medicare-age people, and most are due to smoking....

For reasons passing understanding, the FDA announced recently that it was moving forward with invoking its authority to regulate cigars, along with other forms of tobacco. It’s a part of the Tobacco Control Act, signed into law in 2009, which gave the agency the option of casting its net down on cigars at the time of its choosing. In other words – it was only a matter of time before bureaucrats decided to be bureaucrats. It’s not set into stone, yet. Between now and July 9 the FDA will accept comments on its proposals, at which point it will the...

The Obama administration clarified rules Friday regarding plans covered under ObamaCare to help people quit smoking. Group health plans and health insurance issuers under ObamaCare must provide free tobacco use screening and offer smokers at least two tobacco cessation attempts each year. Each attempt should also include four tobacco cessation counseling sessions and 90-day prescriptions for approved medication to help patients break the habit. The clarifications were posted on the Department of Labor's website but were drawn up in collaboration with Health and Human Services, and the Treasury Department. While ObamaCare requires most health plans to cover tobacco cessation services,...

The Food and Drug Administration announced Friday it will convene a public meeting in October to review the risks of psychiatric and behavioral side effects with Pfizer’s anti-smoking drug Chantix. […] Since 2009, Chantix has carried the government’s strongest safety warning—a “black box” label—because of links to hostility, agitation, depression and suicidal thoughts. The warning was added after the FDA received dozens of reports of suicide and hundreds of reports of suicidal behavior among patients taking the smoking-cessation drug. …

https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2014-09491.pdfThis is the docket reading

The federal government wants to extend its oversight of tobacco to include cigars, hookah, nicotine gels, pipe tobacco and dissolvable tobacco products. The Food and Drug Administration proposal being issued Thursday would ban sales to minors and require approval for new products and health warning labels. …

Fox Host Bill O'Reilly on Wednesday claimed that he could have been the Marlboro Man. "While I was covering the News in Denver, I was approached by a modeling agency to be the Marlboro guy dressed as a cowboy," he said on the "O'Reilly Factor" while lamenting the lack of a public health campaign warning about the dangers of weed. He lauded the U.S. government's campaign against smoking tobacco, but said that the U.S. has taken the opposite approach to pot. "Smoking marijuana is quite the opposite. That’s on the rise, as pot use is considered cool in many...

Every drug of addiction must have its day. Morphine remains one of the most potent painkillers ever discovered. Cocaine’s chemical cousin lidocaine is still used by physicians and dentists as an effective local anesthetic. Even demon alcohol, when taken in moderation, cuts the risk of heart attacks, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis and a hodgepodge of other ailments. Now comes nicotine, perhaps the most unlikely wonder drug ever to be reviled. If dozens of human and animal studies published over the past six years are borne out by large clinical trials, nicotine — freed at last of its noxious host, tobacco, and...

Australian researchers published findings this week on a newly-discovered plant compound that destroys cancer cells, but leaves healthy cells unharmed. They found it in possibly the last place you'd look for a cancer cure: the family of plants that brings us cancer's number-one culprit, tobacco.

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie’s administration wants to increase taxes on electronic cigarettes for the sake of the public’s health, state Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff said today. “Our goal is to achieve rough parity with the tax burden on conventional cigarettes. Why? Our main concern is public health,” Sidamon-Eristoff said at an Assembly Budget Committee hearing today. “Contrary to the claims of some users, e-cigarettes have not been shown to be a ‘safe’ alternative to regular cigarettes. Nor are they a proven path to smoking cessation.” Christie’s budget anticipates $35 million in revenue by applying the $2.70 per pack regular state...

A dangerous new form of a powerful stimulant is hitting markets nationwide, for sale by the vial, the gallon and even the barrel. The drug is nicotine, in its potent, liquid form — extracted from tobacco and tinctured with a cocktail of flavorings, colorings and assorted chemicals to feed the fast-growing electronic cigarette industry. These “e-liquids,” the key ingredients in e-cigarettes, are powerful neurotoxins. Tiny amounts, whether ingested or absorbed through the skin, can cause vomiting and seizures and even be lethal. A teaspoon of even highly diluted e-liquid can kill a small child. But, like e-cigarettes, e-liquids are not...

Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter is speaking out against a reported proposal being considered by the Navy to ban the sale of tobacco products on all its bases and ships, calling it a “political decision.” The Military Times reported Monday that Navy officials are considering removing tobacco from all retail outlets, including exchange-operated sales venues and Morale, Welfare and Recreation program outlets. Navy commissaries do not sell tobacco products. Hunter, a Marine veteran who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, said in a letter to Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus he strongly opposes the ban, saying it...

Some statements and arguments are so asinine that you'd have to be an academic or a leftist to take them seriously. Take the accusation that Republicans and conservatives are conducting a war on women. Does that mean they're waging war on their daughters, wives, mothers and other female members of their families? If so, do they abide by the Geneva Conventions' bans on torture, or do they engage in enhanced interrogation and intimidation methods, such as waterboarding, with female family members? You might say that leftists don't mean actual war. Then why do they say it? What would you think...

A majority of the cigarettes for sale in New York are illegally smuggled into the state, according to a report out Wednesday from the conservative research group the Tax Foundation. According to the report, 56.9% of the cigarettes sold in New York—the highest importer of smuggled cigarettes—originated from out of state. Since 2006, cigarette smuggling in the state has risen sharply, by 59%, in tandem with a massive hike in cigarette taxes of 190%. New York state now has the highest cigarette taxes in the country, at $4.35 a pack. Residents of NYC must also pay an extra $1.50 per...