“Smoking” on The Daily Caller

Many studies have linked marijuana use with early onset of psychosis. The question is, does smoking marijuana cause earlier psychosis? A new review of 83 studies involving more than 22,000 participants seeks an answer. (more)

Tobacco’s damaging impact on smokers’ lungs and hearts is well established, but ongoing research into its impact on the brain is yielding startling results. New evidence comes from New York City, where the City Council just voted to outlaw smoking in public parks and beaches. (more)

The New York City Council is preparing to ban smoking in all parks, beaches, boardwalks, and even Times Square, reports The Wall Street Journal. (more)

City University students will have to take a hike if they want a nicotine fix. (more)

Here’s a word of advice to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulators deciding this week whether or not to ban menthol cigarettes: Cool it. If the FDA sows this wind, I fear we will reap the whirlwind. (more)

(MADRID) — The tapas bar — the noisy and bustling Spanish success story that combined delicious morsels with good wine and, often, an ever-present cigarette — is now smoke-free. So are restaurants, discos, casinos, airports and even some outdoor spaces. (more)

As we begin a new year, the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) would first like to try and slay the demons and hobgoblins of the past year. We do this each New Year’s Eve by making a list of the top unfounded health scares of the outgoing year. These bouts of hysteria are prompted by many different things. But what they have in common is that there’s no scientific evidence to back up the alarms being sounded. (more)

Let’s all thank Surgeon General Regina Benjamin for demonstrating beyond all doubt last week that “nannyism” is more dangerous than smoking. (more)

In a groundbreaking decision, a Suffolk Superior Court jury yesterday found a tobacco company liable for the death of a Roxbury woman who said that, at age 9, she received free samples of Newport cigarettes in a targeted marketing campaign. (more)

WASHINGTON — More U.S. teens may be smoking marijuana than cigarettes but fewer are binge-drinking, federal health officials said Tuesday. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama apparently hasn’t had a cigarette since March, but the White House stopped short Thursday of declaring that he has officially kicked the habit bedeviling millions of Americans. (more)

Even brief exposure to tobacco smoke causes immediate harm to the body, damaging cells and inflaming tissue in ways that can lead to serious illness and death, according to the U.S. Surgeon General’s new report on tobacco, the first such report in four years. (more)

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A smokeless tobacco company has agreed to pay $5 million to the family of a man who died of mouth cancer in what the family’s attorney and an expert called the first wrongful death settlement from chewing tobacco. (more)

Recently, it was announced by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that the Food and Drug Administration, which now regulates tobacco, will require all cigarette packages to carry scary warning labels depicting the evils of tobacco use, complete with gruesome photos of a cancerous lung, a man smoking a cigarette through a tracheotomy tube, and a corpse. (more)

Second-hand smoke globally kills more than 600,000 people each year, accounting for 1% of all deaths worldwide, according to a new study. (more)

This month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revealed a new strategy to combat smoking by inundating smokers with graphic images depicting the repercussions of smoking on cigarette packaging. (more)

The notice on the door to the hotel-casino was emphatic. “The Westin Casuarina is a Smoke Free Environment. Thank you for not smoking.” Just beyond, four people were hunched over slot machines the other afternoon, wisps of cigarette smoke swirling around them as they happily puffed away. (more)

It’s going to be harder to feel “alive with pleasure” with a photo of an emaciated man, dying of cancer, staring back at you from your cigarette package. (more)

In the first major change to cigarette packaging in a quarter-century, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday it will require graphic warning labels that cover half a package’s front and rear and the top 20% of all cigarette ads. (more)

Now that the midterm elections are over, the political climate should begin to be more business-friendly than it has been in recent years because, beginning in January, there will be many new Republican governors and state legislators who should be more favorably disposed to individual rights and freedom than their Democrat predecessors were.  Among the states that will have new Republican governors are Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio, and Wisconsin, all of which have draconian indoor smoking bans.  These bans should be either repealed or revised, especially concerning bars, restaurants, and hotel rooms. (more)