Free Republic

Yes, cigarette smoking is declining and has been for decades. Globally, the number of tobacco users dropped from 1.38 billion in 2000 to 1.2 billion in 2024. In the United States, 11.6% of adults smoked cigarettes in 2022, down from roughly 21% in 2005 and over 42% in the mid-1960s. The trend is clear and consistent, but the decline is uneven, with certain populations and regions lagging behind. The Global Picture About one in five adults worldwide still uses tobacco or nicotine products, roughly 20% of the global adult population. That’s a significant number, but it represents real progress. The...

Homeless individuals were allegedly bribed with cash, cigarettes, and marijuana in exchange for signing voter registration forms and ballot petitions — often using fake addresses Independent investigative journalist James O’Keefe and his team at O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) have released explosive undercover footage documenting what appears to be widespread voter registration and petition fraud on Los Angeles’ Skid Row, where homeless individuals were allegedly bribed with cash, cigarettes, and marijuana in exchange for signing voter registration forms and ballot petitions — often using fake addresses. The investigation, titled “CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS FRAUD CASH FOR BALLOTS PART I,” captured at least 28...

Nearly half a century after a young California woman was strangled, officials say a thumbprint on a carton of cigarettes has led to an arrest. Willie Eugene Sims was arrested in Jefferson, Ohio, in connection with the death of Jeanette Ralston, according to a Friday statement from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office. Sims, 69, has been charged with murder and was arraigned on Friday in Ashtabula County Court before being sent to California. (snip) A thumbprint found on Ralston’s cigarette carton in her car was found to match Sims’s last fall after law enforcement had asked to run...

A new rule by the FDA could change smoking as we know it.No drug is quite like nicotine. When it hits your bloodstream, you’re sent on a ride of double euphoria: an immediate jolt of adrenaline, like a strong cup of coffee injected directly into your brain, along with the calming effect of a beer. Nicotine is what gets people hooked on cigarettes, despite their health risks and putrid smell. It is, in essence, what cigarette companies are selling, and what they’ve always been selling. Without nicotine, a cigarette is just smoldering leaves wrapped in some fancy paper. But if...

In its last few days of power, the Biden administration is expected to officially propose a limit on nicotine in cigarettes. It’d be a last-minute move to push back against the tobacco industry after President Joe Biden failed to finalize a long-standing pledge to ban menthol cigarettes. The proposal, which could come as soon as Monday, is not expected to include tobacco products like e-cigarettes or nicotine replacement patches and lozenges. Precise details of the proposal to cap nicotine levels have not been released. Multiple studies have suggested, however, that levels may have to be slashed by up to 95%...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is moving forward with a regulatory rule in the final days of the Biden administration that would effectively ban cigarettes currently on the market in favor of products with lower nicotine levels, which could end up boosting business for cartels operating on the black market, an expert tells Fox News Digital. "Biden's ban is a gift with a bow and balloons to organized crime cartels with it, whether it's cartels, Chinese organized crime, or Russian mafia. It's going to keep America smoking, and it's going to make the streets more violent," Rich Marianos, former...

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to ban the sale of filtered cigarettes in unincorporated areas of the county. This measure was passed to cut down on the pollution of cigarette butts and promote human health by restricting the use of plastics. The ordinance was created by the Board’s Tobacco Waste Ad Hoc Subcommittee. It was supported by a coalition of environmental, health, educational and other groups and stakeholders. "This is a momentous day that builds on the work our community has been doing for generations to protect our environment and establish Santa Cruz County...

Stop & Shop will stop selling cigarettes and vapes this week as part of its dramatic commitment to 'community wellness'. The American retailer will remove tobacco products from all 360 of its stores across the northeast from August 31. The decision has been embraced by the American Cancer Society and health organizations. The announcement follows the lead of CVS, Target and Walmart. 'From our team of registered dietitians that serve our customers at no cost to our trained and trusted pharmacy associates, Stop & Shop aims to support the health and well-being of the neighborhoods we serve — and this...

The sale of tobacco products from self-service cigarette and vape vending machines is to be banned next year under measures being introduced by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly. The machines are often found in bars and nightclubs. […] … Donnelly said the ban was a continuation of Government policy to “de-normalize” the sale of tobacco products. “On ‘World No Tobacco Day’, I am bringing into operation further elements of our overall tobacco control strategy,” he said. […] The Department of Health said the ban was a recommendation of Tobacco Free Ireland and is in line with the Program for Government...

A health guru claimed puffing on cigarettes is linked to longer living — but now he’s trying to extinguish the controversy. “The men in Sardinia have a seven year longer lifespan than the women because they’re smokers. That’s what brings them up,” Dr. Steven Gundry, a former cardiac surgeon and contributor to Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow’s website, insisted in a viral December interview with celebrity physician Dr. Mikhail Varshavski. During the combative, nearly two-hour-long debate, which has racked up over 2.4 million views on YouTube, the far-out physician also cited a 2020 study that found a decrease in deaths from...

The U.K.’s House of Commons approved a bill on Tuesday that will ban tobacco sales for anyone born in 2009 or later, a policy pushed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who hopes to create a “smoke-free generation” in Britain despite opposition from conservatives.

The House Oversight investigation into President Joe Biden and his family's influence-peddling schemes digs all the way back to ties to the late-’90s big tobacco settlement, including James Biden's deal-working caught on FBI tapes in an unrelated 2008 bribery scheme. James Biden's deal-making getting picked up on FBI tapes in 2008, as The Washington Post reported Sunday, are resurfacing amid the House Oversight investigation and the official impeachment inquiry. Mississippi trial attorney Richard Scruggs admitted to paying James and Sara Biden's "consulting firm" $100,000 to help grease the wheels for the Senate to pass a 1997 big tobacco law that...

WASHINGTON (AP) — White House officials will take more time to review a sweeping plan from U.S. health regulators to ban menthol cigarettes, an unexpected delay that anti-tobacco groups fear could scuttle the long-awaited rule. Administration officials indicated Wednesday the process will continue into next year, targeting March to implement the rule, according to an updated regulatory agenda posted online. Previously, the rule was widely expected to be published in late 2023 or early January.

Scorching heat and a lack of rain have made much of Louisiana a tinderbox, causing wildfires across the state. As firefighters tackle the blaze, state officials are urging people not to go sightseeing for them — and to stop sending drones up to take pictures. "We have aircraft in the air and people’s drones are getting in the way," Department of Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain said. Strain emphasized that there is a statewide burn ban in place, and urged residents to be hypervigilant about fire risk. "It is imperative that everyone adhere to the burn ban and take...

Two 7-Eleven workers in California took matters into their own hands and used a stick to wallop a man who tried to steal a trash can full of cigarettes. Shocking video of the attempted robbery shows one employee holding the thief down on the ground while his colleague relentlessly whacks him roughly 25 times. “Okay, okay!” the thief screamed at this attacker while pleading for mercy. Before he was taken down by the retail workers, the robber had casually sauntered behind the California convenience store’s register with a 20-gallon trash can in tow. He nonchalantly grabs fistfuls of tobacco products...

Sasha Obama has stepped out in Los Angeles sporting baggy denim overalls while showing off her long chrome manicure and holding a lit cigarette. The former First Daughter, 21, graduated earlier this month from the University of Southern California and her parents, 44th president Barack and Michelle, were there to cheer her on. Sasha started college at the University of Michigan and later transferred to USC, where she majored in sociology. Less than two weeks later, the 21-year-old graduate was seen on Tuesday during a Starbucks run in LA. Sasha picked up a grande iced vanilla latte with caramel, using...

The amount of environmental exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAH for short, is strongly linked to a person's risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, suggests research. These chemicals, formed from the burning of coal, oil, gas, wood, or tobacco as well as the flame grilling of meat and other foods, also seem to account for most of smoking's impact on risk of the disease, the findings indicate. The researchers drew on the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 2007 and 2016. NHANES evaluates a wide variety of toxicants, along with data related to health, nutrition, behaviors and...

Parkland gun control activist David Hogg believes the gun control lobby can succeed in restricting the Second Amendment if everyone will come together and target guns the way anti-tobacco activists targeted cigarettes. Hogg was interviewed by CBS News on February 12, where he talked of how gun rights groups such as the NRA have often appeared unbeatable. But he believes the gun control lobby can succeed by taking cues from the anti-tobacco movement. He said, “The tobacco industry is exactly the model that I think of in terms of the decades of work that it will take to address this...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand on Tuesday passed into law a unique plan to phase out tobacco smoking by imposing a lifetime ban on young people buying cigarettes. The law states that tobacco can’t ever be sold to anybody born on or after Jan. 1, 2009. It means the minimum age for buying cigarettes will keep going up and up. In theory, somebody trying to buy a pack of cigarettes 50 years from now would need ID to show they were at least 63 years old. But health authorities hope smoking will fade away well before then. They...

A clinical trial to test whether three proven smoking cessation treatments could also reduce alcohol intake found no differences between the medications, but the rates of behavior change for alcohol consumption and smoking were high in all treatment groups. Results suggest these medications could play an important role to reduce alcohol use and smoking at the same time. Unexpectedly, nicotine replacement therapy performed as well as the prescription drugs varenicline and cytisine. The study showed that after three months, alcohol consumption decreased regardless of whether participants were given nicotine replacement therapy, varenicline or cytisine. The main outcome was number of...