April 16, 2015
Yesterday (April 16, 2015), the CDC and FDA released the 2014 data on youth smoking in the MMWR.
Consistent with earlier results from the Monitoring the Future and several state studies, e-cigarettes are now the leading form of recreational nicotine use among kids. Hookahs also increased. (Some of this may be e-cigarettes because some kids call e-cigarettes “e-hookahs’.) Use of conventional cigarettes dropped.
E-cigarette advocates are making a big deal about the drop in cigarette use, claiming that this shows that e-cigarettes are a good thing because they are keeping kids from smoking.
A close look at the data, however, shows that:
April 13, 2015
In mid-June, Time Warner (who owns Warner Bros) will become the first major movie studio to hold a shareholder vote on a Smoke Free Movies proposal. As soon as Time Warner’s proxy ballot is released in late April, every share of stock in the company becomes one vote. At Time Warner’s annual meeting of shareholders in mid-June, there will be a presentation about the proposal, and the company will announce preliminary vote totals. This historic vote comes in the wake of Disney’s announcement that it will become the first movie studio to eliminate smoking in youth-rated films.
The full proposal is available here; the operative language is
April 13, 2015
There has been an aggressive move to legalize recreational marijuana through ballot initiative by national marijuana advocacy groups after four states, Colorado, Washington, Alaska, and Oregon, legalized retail sales in 2012 and 2014 respectively.
Several states, including California, likely will consider similar legislation for the 2016 presidential election. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and their local chapters, among others, are pushing legislation that would preempt local jurisdictions from taxing and regulating the sales, production, and cultivation of marijuana. Health groups in California (and, perhaps, elsewhere) have been absent from these early policy discussions.
In order to ensure a ballot initiative that promotes public health standards, including granting local authority to cities and counties to regulate marijuana, the health groups must get engaged now rather than wait until November 2016.
Despite the significance of local control of marijuana, little attention has been paid to the issue. Policy discussions in California have been centered on how to appropriately tax marijuana in order to prevent fueling the black market.
April 12, 2015
My colleague in the Division of Cardiology Matt Springer and I just released this policy briefing on secondhand marijuana smoke exposure. These findings highlight the importance of including marijuana in smokefree laws as marijuana legalization continues to develop. A PDF version of this briefing is available here.
Marijuana Use and Heart Disease:
Potential Effects of Public Exposure to Smoke
Matthew L. Springer, PhD and Stanton A. Glantz, PhD
April 13, 2015
April 12, 2015
My colleagues Ben Chaffe, Chaffee, Elizabeth Couch, and Margaret Walsh just released a report, Smokeless Tobacco in Sport and Use Among Adolescents, that provides a current summary of the evidence on sports as promotional venues for smokeless tobacco use. This report is particularly timely given debates around the state on whether cities and the state should prohibit smokeless tobacco use in baseball stadiums.
Here is a summary of the main points:
• Smokeless tobacco use substantially increases the risk of oral and pancreatic cancer, gum disease, nicotine addiction, and initiation of cigarette smoking among adolescents.
• Nearly 15% of U.S. high school males currently use smokeless tobacco, and use prevalence is higher among high school students who participate in organized sports than among non-athlete peers.
• There is little evidence that smokeless tobacco improves athletic performance, yet use among participants in certain sports and athletic events, such as ice hockey, baseball, wresting, and rodeo, far exceed levels observed in the general population.
• Modeling of smokeless tobacco use by family, friends, respected coaches, and elite athletes is strongly associated with smokeless tobacco initiation among adolescent males.