Tobacco & Marijuana
Virtual coach designed to help smokers quit
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If you’ve tried to give up smoking but don’t have the willpower or are too embarrassed to seek help, Dutch researchers may have the answer.
They are developing a virtual coach to provide smokers with round-the-clock reinforcement to help them kick the habit.
“Shrouded in the anonymity provided by the Internet, smokers can log on to a Web site and type questions and confessions into a chat box,” New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday.
Team to Examine Impact of Genetics and Exposure to Secondhand Smoke
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Whether exposure to secondhand smoke increases the chance that children with a family history of cardiovascular disease will develop the disease themselves is under study at the Medical College of Georgia.
If those children also have a variation in at least one of four genes responsible for metabolizing nicotine, their risk may increase even more because nicotine might stay in the body longer and do more damage, an interdisciplinary research team says.
Researchers will study 585 children age 15-20 who have a parent, grandparent or both with essential hypertension and/or a heart attack by age 55.
FDA speaks out against marijuana legalization
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will publish a statement on Friday criticizing state measures to legalize the medical use of marijuana, calling them attempts to bypass scientific review.
The agency said it was posting the statement in response to requests from lawmakers and others, but advocates for legalizing marijuana said the FDA was making an unusual and inappropriate foray into politics.
“In response to inquiries, including from Congress, we are clarifying our position on the science,” said FDA spokeswoman Susan Bro in an interview.
Multifaceted quit-smoking program works well
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A comprehensive smoking cessation program involving counseling, support and a tailored medication regimen can help even highly stressed individuals quit, new study findings show.
The program, the New York City Fire Department’s “Tobacco Free with FDNY,” was offered free-of-charge to FDNY rescue workers and family members in the aftermath of the 2001 World Trade Center collapse.
Its effectiveness suggests that “medication alone is not as effective as medication with a social support mechanism,” study author Dr. David J. Prezant, chief medical officer of the New York City Fire Department’s Office of Medical Affairs, told Reuters Health.
Smoking May Cause Far More Cancer Deaths in Asian Americans than Recognized
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Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese American males living in California die of cancer at three times the rate of South Asian females in California, whose cancer mortality rate is one of the lowest in the world.
According to a new study by UC Davis Cancer Center researchers, such disparities between genders and Asian and Pacific Islander ethnic groups can be explained almost entirely by tobacco smoke exposure—suggesting that if smoking were eliminated, Asian and Pacific Islander Americans all would have very low cancer mortality rates, with minimal variation from group to group.
“Among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, non-lung cancer death rates, like lung cancer death rates, correlate very closely with their smoke exposures,” said Bruce N. Leistikow, associate professor of public health sciences at UC Davis and a leading expert on the epidemiology of smoking-related illnesses. “If all Asian and Pacific Islander Americans had as little smoke exposure as South Asian females in California, our work suggests that their cancer mortality rates across the board could be as low as that of the South Asian females.”
Canada scraps plan to decriminalize marijuana use
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Canada’s new Conservative government will scrap draft legislation that would have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Monday.
The legislation, drawn up by the previous Liberal government, alarmed police officials in Canada and the neighboring United States who said it would only encourage the already booming trade in pot.
Once the Liberals lost the January 23 election after 12 years in power, the bill looked to be in deep trouble. One of Harper’s five priorities is to clamp down on crime.
Scotland to go smoke-free to shake “sick man” tag
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Scotland on Sunday becomes the first part of Britain to ban smoking in pubs, restaurants and workplaces, aiming to tackle the poor public health record that has earned it the nickname “sick man of Europe”.
Officials say the blanket ban on lighting up in enclosed public spaces, inspired by similar measures in Ireland and other countries in the past few years, will eventually stop some 1,000 deaths a year from passive smoking.
Tobacco giants gain $4.1 billion from Hollywood films with smoking
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The 390,000 new teen smokers recruited each year by U.S. movies are worth $4.1 billion in lifetime sales revenue to the tobacco industry, UCSF researchers report in the April 2006 issue of Pediatrics.
Combining health data with business figures from Philip Morris USA and RJ Reynolds, UCSF’s Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, supported by the National Cancer Institute, also calculates that Hollywood movies with smoking generate $894 million per year in lifetime tobacco profits. (Sales revenue and profits are net present value).
Phone counseling helps smokers quit
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The more help that smokers get, the easier it is for them to quit, a new study shows.
“It’s all about trying to make the whole process more convenient for people,” Dr. Lawrence C. An of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, told Reuters Health. The current study, involving a group of veterans, demonstrates that standard medical care for smoking cessation is generally not enough, he added.
“Nobody expects a doctor to cure a patient with diabetes and hypertension in one visit,” An said. “That tends to be the way the health care system has dealt with smoking, and we’re really trying to change that.”
Loud music prolongs the effects of taking ecstasy
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Loud music prolongs the effects of taking ecstasy for up to five days.
A study published in the open access journal BMC Neuroscience shows that the reduction in rats’ brain activity induced by 3,4 -Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or ecstasy) lasts long after administration of the drug - up to five days - if loud music is played to them simultaneously. The effects wear off within a day when no music is played.
Worst Off Will Be Most at Risk Under Partial Smoking Ban
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A partial as opposed to a full ban on smoking in public places could put those living in the most socially deprived areas of the country at most risk, warn doctors writing in this week’s BMJ.
The letter comes as MPs prepare to vote next week on Government proposals for a part-ban across England - a move which would worsen health inequalities say the authors, a Director of Public Health and colleagues working in South London.
Rethink of how toxins measured in cigarettes urged
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Scientists and a leading anti-smoking group called on Wednesday for an overhaul of how toxins in cigarette smoke are measured after industry documents showed how they can be used to deceive smokers.
Tar and nicotine content, the cancer-causing and addictive elements of cigarettes is tested on machines. But because of the way people smoke, blocking filters or taking deeper drags on so-called light or mild low tar brands, the levels they receive are actually higher than a machine reading would be.
Heavy marijuana use linked to bladder cancer
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Pot smokers could be putting themselves at risk for developing bladder cancer, according to the results of a study of middle-aged men who were seen at two Veterans Administration facilities.
Marijuana smoking “might be an even more potent stimulant” of malignancy than cigarette smoking, Dr. Martha K. Terris of the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta and her colleagues write in the medical journal Urology.
Terris and her team point out that head and neck and lung cancers have been tied to marijuana use, and there is evidence that these marijuana-associated malignancies may strike at an earlier age.
Dutch government to back cheap medicinal marijuana
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Patients seeking pain relief may soon be heading for the Dutch city of Groningen to buy affordable and potent medical marijuana in the country’s first pharmacy specializing in the pungent plant.
Although cannabis is readily available in the country’s famous coffee shops, the foundation for Medicinal Cannabis Netherlands wants to launch a pharmacy in the northern Dutch city so patients can buy high-grade cannabis at affordable prices, evening daily NRC Handelsblad reported on Wednesday.
Just quit - you’re more likely to succeed
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According to British scientists smokers who suddenly decide to quit immediately, without making plans about how or when, are far more likely to succeed.
Robert West, a professor of psychology at University College London says though this appears contrary to what many experts and others believe, that in order to succeed a smoker must plan and prepare for the quitting, it is not necessarily true.
