August 4, 2016
After a long battle, including lawsuits that went to the Supreme Court, the Government of India implemented strong policies to counter the effects of smoking and other tobacco use in movies.
Now, India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, which fought sensible regulation of onscreen smoking, is trying to re-open the issue and roll back the current rules, which will make it easier for the kind of backroom deals between multinational tobacco companies and Bollywood described in the World Health Organization (WHO) 2016 report, Smoke-free movies: From evidence to action:
August 3, 2016
Ventura County just released a very well done report on severe problems with the proposed marijuana legalization initiative, The 2016 California Marijuana Initiative and Youth: Lessons from Alcohol Policy
Here is their press release; the report is here; I also deposited a copy in the UC eScholarhip library where it is freely available here.
July 30, 2016
The MPAA, studios, NATO, and the plaintiffs in the national class action lawuit alleging that their rating system defrauds parents have agreed that the defndants' response to the plaintiff's June filing will be due on September 15, 2016 and proposed to the judge that the hearing on the Motion to Dismiss and SLAPP Motion will be held on October 27.
The judge will have to approve this schedule, but such approvals when both sides agree are usual.
You can read about the case and all the legal documents at https://smokefreemovies.ucsf.edu/take-action/class-action. The plaintiff's July 15 response is especially entertaining.
This item is cross-posted from the Smoke Free Movies blog at https://smokefreemovies.ucsf.edu/blog/mpaa-studios-and-theaters-will-fil...
July 29, 2016
Heikki Hiilamo and I just published “FCTC followed by accelerated implementation of tobacco advertising bans” in Tobacco Control. This paper shows a statistically demonstrable positive effect on implementation of national advertising bans but, as with similar positive effects on smokefree laws and health warning labels, the effect is fading.
These three papers point to the need to redouble efforts at implementation, especially in countries with limited state capacity.