Addiction Solution Source

A three-judge panel from the 9th Federal U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rejected a challenge by Phillip Morris USA Cigarette company. The company claimed that the law violated its right to free speech by banning sales of tobacco in the City of San Francisco pharmacies.

Chief Judge Kozinski wrote that the city law only “limits where cigarettes may be sold; it doesn’t prevent the cigarette company from advertising.” Judge Kozinski also wrote that advertising may be a form of free speech, but “selling cigarettes isn’t”.

The US Senate voted today (June 11, 2009) to give the FDA new power to limit nicotine in cigarettes, drastically curtail ads and ban candied tobacco products aimed at young people.

The legislation, one of the most dramatic anti-smoking initiatives since the U.S. surgeon general’s warning 45 years ago that tobacco causes lung cancer, would give the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate the content, marketing and advertising of cigarettes and other tobacco products.

“This legislation represents the strongest action Congress has ever taken to reduce tobacco use, the leading preventable cause of death in the United States,” declared Matthew Myers, president of Campaign for Tobacco-free Kids.

Candy cigarettes predispose children who play with them to smoke the real things later.

For more than 100 years, the American Lung Association has been the lead organization working to prevent lung disease and promote lung health, including fighting illness and death caused by tobacco use.

The American Lung Association’s State of Tobacco Control 2008 report assigns letter grades to each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the federal government for specific tobacco control policies.

Not one state earned all “A”s in the report.

California earned an A grade for its smoke-free air laws; a D for its cigarette tax rate; an F for tobacco prevention and control program funding; and a D for coverage of cessation treatments and services. Grades are calculated by comparing policies against standards that are based on the most current, recognized scientific criteria for effective tobacco control measures.

The American Lung Association of California also released local grades for 297 cities and 30 of the 58 counties in California. The local grades cover three key policy areas including: smoke-free outdoor air, smoke-free housing, and reducing sales of tobacco products. An overall tobacco control grade was awarded to each of these municipalities. While there are some excellent local grades, a majority of the grades reflect the need to do more to protect against secondhand smoke in multi-unit housing and outdoor environments. To see results for the 10 largest cities as well as a complete report of local grades, go to http://californialung.org/sotc-ca-local.

A UC Riverside study shows that smoke from “light” or “low-yield” harm-reduction cigarettes retains toxicity and that this toxicity can affect prenatal development.

The research also studied the effects of two kinds of cigarette smoke: mainstream smoke, which is smoke actively inhaled by smokers; and sidestream smoke, which is smoke that burns off the end of a cigarette.

Tobacco companies market harm-reduction cigarettes as being safer than traditional “full-flavored” brands, leading many smokers to conclude that the use of harm-reduction brands lowers their exposure to toxicants.

“Many chemicals found in harm-reduction cigarette smoke have not been tested, and some are listed by manufacturers as safe,” said Prue Talbot, a professor of cell biology who led the study. “But our tests clearly show that these chemicals adversely affect reproduction and associated development processes. Pregnant women would be particularly vulnerable to the effect of smoke from these cigarettes.”

The Member States of the World Health Organization created World No Tobacco Day in 1987 to draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable death and disease it causes.

The World Health Organization (WHO) released a new report that states 80% of the more than eight million annual tobacco-related deaths projected by 2030 are expected to occur in the developing world.

This results from a global tobacco industry strategy to target young people and adults in the developing world, ensuring that millions of people become fatally addicted every year. The targeting of young women in particular is highlighted as one of the “most ominous potential developments of the epidemics growth”.

While efforts to combat tobacco are gaining momentum, virtually every country needs to do more. The six MPOWER strategies are within the reach of every country, rich or poor and, when combined as a package, they offer us the best chance of reversing this growing epidemic, said Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO. Dr Chan launched the WHO Report of the Global Tobacco Epidemic at a news conference with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg Philanthropies helped fund the report.

The six MPOWER strategies to better protect the population are:

Neurotransmitter Restoration (NTR) is the restoration and re-balancing of normal neurotransmission in the brain through IV amino acids and is one way to overcome a drug addiction. Thousands of people have successfully used this program to beat their addiction.

Research has shown that the key risk periods for drug abuse are during major transitions in childrens lives. The first big transition for children is when they leave the security of the family and enter school. Later, when they advance from elementary school to middle school, they often experience new academic and social situations, such as learning to get along with a wider group of peers. It is at this stage early adolescence that children are likely to encounter drugs for the first time.

When they enter high school, adolescents face additional social, emotional, and educational challenges. At the same time, they may be exposed to greater availability of drugs, drug abusers, and social activities involving street drugs. These challenges can increase the risk that they will abuse alcohol, tobacco, and other substances.

Since 1964, 28 Surgeon General’s reports on smoking and health have concluded that tobacco use is the single most avoidable cause of disease, disability, and death in the United States. In 1988, the Surgeon General concluded that cigarettes and other forms of tobacco, such as cigars, pipe tobacco, and chewing tobacco, are addictive and that nicotine is the drug in tobacco that causes addiction. Nicotine provides an almost immediate “kick” because it causes a discharge of epinephrine from the adrenal cortex. This stimulates the central nervous system and endocrine glands, which causes a sudden release of glucose. Stimulation is then followed by depression and fatigue, leading the user to seek more nicotine.

Nicotine is absorbed readily from tobacco smoke in the lungs, and it does not matter whether the tobacco smoke is from cigarettes, cigars, or pipes. Nicotine also is absorbed readily when tobacco is chewed. With regular use of tobacco, levels of nicotine accumulate in the body during the day and persist overnight. Thus, daily smokers or chewers are exposed to the effects of nicotine for 24 hours each day. Adolescents who chew tobacco are more likely than nonusers to eventually become cigarette smokers.