October 2, 2016
http://elections.kqed.org/article/2010101856865/is-marijuana-safe-enough...
Broadcase September 28, 2016
October 2, 2016
Every two years, 180 nations meet for the Conference of the Parties (COP) to review progress and problems in implementing the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and develop new guidelines and protocols.
Implementing guidelines for FCTC Article 13 (Advertising and Promotion) consider smoking in movies —paid-for or not — to be a form of tobacco promotion that needs to be controlled. In preparation for the COP this November in Delhi, India, the Convention Secretariat prepared a report, Tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship: Depiction of tobacco in entertainment media, to guide discussion of this issue. The report notes that
October 1, 2016
It has been no secret that I have been critical of the campaign to pass Proposition 56, the $2 tobacco tax that would reinvigorate the California Tobacco Control Program and fund expansion of medical care for poor people. In particular, the campaign didn’t seem to have learned from defeats of past tobacco tax initiatives in California (Propositions 29 and 86 in 2012 and 2006), which also failed to engage the tobacco companies’ misrepresentations of what the tax actually did.
The Yes on 56 campaign was running a soft feel good ad (“Butterfly”) about smoking and kids that ignored the tobacco industry’s arguments. That strategy may work in elections when you have as more money or at least about as much money as the opposition. But it never works when fighting Big Tobacco, which will spend whatever it takes to stop public health.
October 1, 2016
Vivian Ho and colleagues recently published “A Nationwide Assessment of the Association of Smoking Bans and Cigarette Taxes With Hospitalizations for Acute Myocardial Infarction, Heart Failure, and Pneumonia” that concluded that “Smoking bans were not associated with acute myocardial infarction or heart failure hospitalizations, but lowered pneumonia hospitalization rates for persons ages 60 to 74 years. Higher cigarette taxes were associated with lower heart failure hospitalizations for all ages and fewer pneumonia hospitalizations for adults aged 60 to 74. Previous studies may have overestimated the relation between smoking bans and hospitalizations and underestimated the effects of cigarette taxes.”
September 27, 2016
A new analysis of marijuana legislation offers a framework for states that are considering legalizing the drug and want to protect public health, rather than corporate profits.
The policy analysis by researchers at UC San Francisco is intended as a roadmap to help prevent a legalized marijuana industry from becoming a new version of the tobacco or alcohol industries, replete with aggressive marketing and political strategies to protect their economic interests.
The paper draws upon historical accounts from tobacco and alcohol control to conclude that policy makers could learn from those regulatory lessons to shape marijuana laws that would minimize consumption and protect the public. In such a process, marijuana would be treated like tobacco, not alcohol, and would be subject to a robust, demand reduction program, using evidence-based strategies from tobacco control.
"Current state marijuana laws and pending legalization initiatives are modeled on U.S. alcohol policies, which prioritize commercialization and tax revenue generation at the expense of public health," said lead author and UCSF policy analyst Rachel Barry, MA, who is now a doctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh’s Global Public Health Unit.