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.
April 9, 2015
The CDC TIPS for former smokers has release an ad warning people who are trying to quit smoking about the dangers of dual use of e-cigarettes and cigarettes. This is an important and timely addition to the Tips from Former Smokers campaign that the CDC has been running.
This is an important message to counter the misinformation that just replacing some cigaretters with e-cigarettes is a good thing.
When people ask me about using e-cigarettes to quit, I tell them that e-cigarettes are not FDA approved for smoking cessation and that there are other products that have been tested and demonstrated to be effective. But if they want to try quitting cigarettes using e-cigarettes, it is very important that they stop smoking cigarettes entirely. (Read more)
You can learn more about Kristy and hear her story in her own words here.
The CDC needs to make this one of their TV and radio ads.