My UCSF colleagues and I submitted this comment to DOJ supporting reschduling marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III ( PDF). The regulations.gov tracking number is lyx-h4jq-93z8. The Department of Justice and Drug Enforcement Agency should reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III to allow consideration of the health, safety, and abuse liability impactsContinue reading “DOJ and DEA should reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III to identify regulatory approaches from tobacco to apply to cannabis”
Category Archives: vaping
New meta-analysis of e-cigs and cardiovascular disease shows increased risks
Chen Chen and colleagues recently published Assessing the association between e-cigarette use and cardiovascular disease: A meta-analysis of exclusive and dual use with combustible cigarettes that found significantly elevated cardiovascular disease risk in dual users (people who use both e-cigarettes and cigarettes) and former smokers who had switched to e-cigarettes compared to people who hadContinue reading “New meta-analysis of e-cigs and cardiovascular disease shows increased risks”
Tobacco free generation is a bad idea that should be abandoned
In the last few years the idea of a free generation in which tobacco sales would be prohibited to all people born after a certain date has gained some traction. Ever since the idea was first proposed by some Singapore researchers in 2010, I have thought it was a bad idea. Other than declining toContinue reading “Tobacco free generation is a bad idea that should be abandoned”
Smoking gun document ties Al Sharpton to Juul, efforts to protect menthol cigs
Fenit Nirappil’s comprehensive Washington Post story How Black activists became defenders of Big Tobacco (June 21, 2024) includes the 2018 smoking gun document linking Al Sharpton the African American leader who played a key role in convincing Biden to pull FDA regulations ending menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, as well as other African American andContinue reading “Smoking gun document ties Al Sharpton to Juul, efforts to protect menthol cigs”
UCSF makes 299k Juul documents public on the internet; more to come
On June 27. 20-24 the UCSF Industry Documents Library added of 289,868 new JUUL Labs documents to the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents Library, bringing the total number of publicly available previously secret Juul documents to 1,870,542. There are about 2 million Juul documents from the North Carolina settlement to be loaded plus another about 2Continue reading “UCSF makes 299k Juul documents public on the internet; more to come”
Cannabis associated with bad COVID-19 outcomes, like tobacco
Many studies have shown that current and past tobacco use is associated with poorer outcomes among people infected with COVID-19. Now Nicholas Griffin and colleagues have published a large well-done study showing that cannabis use is also associated with poorer outcomes among people who have developed COVID-19. The collected data on cannabis and tobacco useContinue reading “Cannabis associated with bad COVID-19 outcomes, like tobacco”
Implications of new RCT showing similar effects on quitting for nicotine e-cigs vs varenicline
Almost all the randomized controlled trials of e-cigarettes as clinical interventions for smoking cessation have compared e-cigarettes to nicotine replacement therapy. Varenicline, which is a prescription medication that works by blocking nicotine receptors rather than replacing the nicotine that cigarettes provide, is more effective than NRT. Anna Tsiku and colleagues new paper “Electronic Cigarettes vsContinue reading “Implications of new RCT showing similar effects on quitting for nicotine e-cigs vs varenicline”
English vaping reverses nicotine decline
In England, the country that has most aggressively embraced e-cigarettes, authorities have long minimized the effects of e-cigarettes on youth and argued that they were improving public health by attracting smokers or displacing cigarette use. Now Harry Tattan-Birch and colleagues have blown those arguments away. Their May 23, 2024 paper Trends in vaping and smokingContinue reading “English vaping reverses nicotine decline”
FDA did the right thing when it withdrew its 2022 Juul marketing denial order; it should finish the job quickly by prohibiting Juul on solid grounds
On June 6, 2024, two years after the FDA issued, then suspended its Marketing Denial Order for Juul e-cigarettes based on narrow toxicology issues, FDA formally withdrew the MDO. This does not mean that the FDA has authorized Juul for sale in the US, it just lets FDA start over in its assessment of whetherContinue reading “FDA did the right thing when it withdrew its 2022 Juul marketing denial order; it should finish the job quickly by prohibiting Juul on solid grounds”
Evidence that e-cigarettes promote breast cancer
E-cigarette advocates and pro-tobacco forces generally love to point on that nicotine does not cause cancer. While they are correct that nicotine does not cause cancer, i.e., does not lead to cancer initiation, the fact is that once someone has cancer, nicotine makes it worse. In particular, nicotine promotes growth of blood vessels into tumorContinue reading “Evidence that e-cigarettes promote breast cancer”