Read the behind scenes story of the 1964 Surgeon General Report on Smoking and Health

The 1964 Report on Smoking and Health represented a turning point in the history of tobacco in the United States and the world. Now Don Shopland [photo above], who at the time was an eighteen year-old, “newly working at the National Library of Medicine,” who found himself moonlighting for the Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee thatContinue reading “Read the behind scenes story of the 1964 Surgeon General Report on Smoking and Health”

Over 1 million previously secret Juul documents now available, with more to come

The UCSF Industry Documents Library released another 519,000 new Juul Labs documents, bringing the total number of documents to 1,053,233. This is about one-quarter of the complete collection of more than 4 million documents. Check out the Juul documents here.

Contrary to public position, Juul founders wanted to attract former and non-smokers from the beginning

Juul co-founders Adam Monsees and James Bowen portray themselves as idealistic entrepreneurs committed to improving the health of billions of adult smokers with no intent to sell nicotine to non-smokers. Documents released as part of the settlement of North Carolina’s lawsuit against Juul, however, tells quite a different story. In particular, Monsees & Bowen’s 2006Continue reading “Contrary to public position, Juul founders wanted to attract former and non-smokers from the beginning”

Juul’s internal playbook opens a rare window into influence in Washington

Nicholas Florko at StatNews just published an excellent piece using the newly-released Juul internal documents to describe how the company worked behind the scenes in Washington all the way down to local governments to influence, legislators, the Administration, regulatory agencies, local governments and public opinion generally by campaign contributions, quietly hiring a range of politicalContinue reading “Juul’s internal playbook opens a rare window into influence in Washington”

Relevant to COP10: Pharmaceuticalisation as the tobacco industry’s endgame

Yogi Hendlin, Eileen Han and Pam Ling’s new paper Pharmaceuticalisation as the tobacco industry’s endgame provides a detailed analysis of how the multinational tobacco companies have developed and used the companies efforts to reposition themselves a source for “clean” nicotine while simultaneously maintaining and expanding their sales of cigarettes and other “traditional” tobacco products whereContinue reading “Relevant to COP10: Pharmaceuticalisation as the tobacco industry’s endgame”

Opioids: Internal Documents reveal Corporate Strategy, National Tragedy

A new article, “Corporate Strategy, National Tragedy” in UCSF Magazine details how Dorie Apollonio and her pharmacy students have been mining the UCSF Opioid Industry Documents Archive to understand how the drug companies worked behind the scene to create the opioid epidemic on their way to maximizing profits. In the process, it provides practical examplesContinue reading “Opioids: Internal Documents reveal Corporate Strategy, National Tragedy”

Netflix documentary Big Vape is worth watching

Like Jamie Ducharme’s book Big Vape, the four hour (in four episodes) Netflix documentary Big Vape tracks Juul’s development from an idea by two Stanford grad students to compete with Big Tobacco by creating a less dangerous product to replace cigarettes into part of the tobacco industry. It does a particularity good job of highlightingContinue reading “Netflix documentary Big Vape is worth watching”

UC publishes oral history of Stanton Glantz: Putting Cardiovascular, Epidemiological, Economic, Political, and Policy Research into Action at UC San Francisco and Beyond

Today the Oral History Center at the University of California Bancroft Library published an oral history of my career, which is freely available to all. Beginning in elementary school in Cleveland, Ohio, the history follows me through college and gradual school.  It discusses my work to develop the emergency protocols for the Apollo 5 missionContinue reading “UC publishes oral history of Stanton Glantz: Putting Cardiovascular, Epidemiological, Economic, Political, and Policy Research into Action at UC San Francisco and Beyond”

Federal Judge orders Philip Morris to release documents from Juul litigation. Meanwhile, after more than two years, Juul’s documents under NC settlement have not been made public.

Thanks to the efforts of the public health intervenors led by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, Judge Paul Friedman has ordered Philip Morris to make 875,000 documents produced in the multi-party litigation against Juul public under the document disclosure provisions of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization case against the big cigarette companies.Continue reading “Federal Judge orders Philip Morris to release documents from Juul litigation. Meanwhile, after more than two years, Juul’s documents under NC settlement have not been made public.”

Free webinar and workshop to learn how to use previously secret opioid documents May 5

The UCSF-JHU Opioid Industry Documents Archive (OIDA) is holding a webinar and workshop, Exploring the Opioid Industry Documents: Research Communities, Educational Opportunities, and Community Data on May 5, 2023. This event will feature a webinar where scholars will discuss how they successfully used OIDA and other Industry Documents Library (IDL) collections. There will also beContinue reading “Free webinar and workshop to learn how to use previously secret opioid documents May 5”