Menthol cigarettes: Is this racist?
I’ve got a good one for the “Is it Racist?” segment on the popular Tosh.0 show on Comedy Central. How about the tobacco industry’s marketing of menthol cigarettes to African Americans, and the...
View ArticleThe war Down Under: Big Tobacco’s assault on Australia
You’d think it would be tough marketing a product that kills half the people who use it as directed. The fact that it’s the most addictive substance on the planet helps. Still, you have to get new...
View ArticleHow smokefree laws for adults protect children
A funny thing happened with Scotlands’ smokefree law, which banned smoking in public places such as restaurants, bars, shops, cinemas, offices, hospitals, work vehicles and sports centers. Research...
View ArticleLocal governments ignore laws against hookah lounges in California (not to...
Hookah bars are proliferating in California, and around the country. Though they claim to be about a multicultural experience, they are really about attracting young people to smoke tobacco. People...
View ArticleSome good news from California: Smoking is waaaay down!
By Jim Gogek These days, Californians don’t hear a lot of good news about our state, not with budget cuts decimating our once vaunted education system, our parks and other public services. But one...
View ArticleSome bad news from California: We’re not a smoke-free state
By Jim Gogek Not too long ago, I was bragging on California in this blog because we have one of the lowest smoking rates in the country, lower than some other states by half. I said that was because...
View ArticleMentally ill, addicted and tobacco: Public views change slowly as clinicians...
By Jim Gogek The new frontier in the war against tobacco is special populations, particularly people with mental disorders, including addiction. Unfortunately, an uninformed, paternalistic public view...
View ArticleBig Tobacco: The biggest and most willing liar
By Jim Gogek In the film noir The Naked City, Detective Muldoon tells the smarmy Frank Niles, “…you are probably the biggest and most willing liar I have ever met.” Muldoon never met the modern day...
View ArticleDeadly scourge will kill three-quarters of a million AA and NA members
"...724,153 worldwide members of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous – who are alive today -- will die from tobacco, including 499,410 in the United States and Canada..." Continue reading →
View ArticleIf electronic cigarettes can help people quit smoking, then why is Big...
...The tobacco industry knows something that some harm reduction theorists don’t realize, and that the e-cigarette industry doesn’t care about: Electronic cigarettes can be an adjunct to smoking...
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