Nicotine vaping should be legal

This month, the New Zealand government agreed in principle to allowing the sale of nicotine e-cigarettes as a consumer product. Evidence for the safety and effectiveness of nicotine e-cigarettes for helping smokers quit is now compelling and Australia should make similar changes. New Zealand authorities are satisfied that nicotine e-cigarettes can help smokers quit and can substantially reduce smoking-related disease.

2016-08-15
smh.com.au

What makes marijuana users different from everyone else

A massive study published this month in the Journal of Drug Issues found that the proportion of marijuana users who smoke daily has rapidly grown, and that many of those frequent users are poor and lack a high-school diploma. Examining a decade of federal surveys of drug use [...] study authors Steven Davenport and Jonathan Caulkins paint one of the clearest pictures yet of the demographics of current marijuana use in the U.S.

2016-08-15
washingtonpost.com

Tobacco giant shrinks packs from 25 to 23 cigarettes [...]

A tobacco giant has made the decision to reduce the amount of cigarettes per pack rather than hiking the price, as another tax rise looms. British American Tobacco brand, Dunhill, will be reduced to 23 per pack [...] ‘Dunhill smokers told us that instead of paying a higher price after the next tax hike in September, they’d prefer to have slightly fewer sticks and have the price stay the same.

2016-08-15
dailymail.co.uk

FDA’s asinine vaping rule costs lives

E-cigarettes could lead to a 21 percent decline in deaths from smoking-related diseases for people born after 1997 [...] Even accounting for harms people might suffer from vaping who otherwise would not have smoked at all, the researchers found a net public-health gain from the presence of e-cigarettes. So why is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration putting up big regulatory barriers for e-cigarettes starting this month?

2016-08-15
lasvegassun.com

CMU researcher discovers link between aging and smoking

For the first time, research has pinpointed the mechanisms within our cells that link smoking and aging. “We can tell people to stop smoking but we can’t tell them to stop aging. That’s a process we just have no control over,” said Vij, associate professor of molecular and cell biology in CMU’s College of Medicine. “But, in this study, we linked the pathophysiology by which both of these processes occur.”

2016-08-15
themorningsun.com

Vaping thrives in UAE despite ban

While electronic cigarettes and vaping are banned in the UAE, these continue to be sold unhindered, with many online stores peddling vaping paraphernalia to UAE residents. Dr Wedad Al Maidour, head of the Tobacco Control Programme at the ministry, told Gulf News: “E-cigarettes are banned in the UAE and vaping is illegal. We have not given permission to anyone to make this stuff available here.”

2016-08-15
zawya.com