Man fights for right to smoke medical marijuana in casino smoking area

A New Jersey man is considering suing for the right to use medical marijuana in an Atlantic City casino.
Daniel Price's lawyer, Michelle Douglass, says that Revel Casino Hotel failed to accommodate his disability when a security guard told him he could not take his marijuana into the casino last month.
The 23-year-old Atlantic City resident is a registered medical marijuana patient. He tells The Press of Atlantic City that he uses the drug to treat seizures and irritable bowel disease.
State guidelines encourage patients to smoke cannabis at home. But they are not barred by law from using it in private businesses.
Revel, like all Atlantic City casinos, has a smoking area. Lisa Johnson, a Revel spokeswoman, declined to comment to the newspaper.

Study shows smoking ban could have positive affect on Kearney's economy

At the tip of the theoretical iceberg that could be a smoking ban for Kearney is how that iceberg might affect the city’s economy.
At a public hearing at the April 7 Board of Aldermen meeting, Amanda Petelin with the American Cancer Society introduced a recent study on how smoking bans have affected various municipalities in Missouri, specifically those cities’ economies. The study was written by Noaman Kayani, Stanley R. Cowan, registered nurse Sherri G. Homan, Janet Wilson, Victoria Fehrmann Warren and Dr. Shumei Yun. It was published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of its publication on preventing chronic diseases.

“Overall, the smoke-free ordinance was associated with a significant increase in revenue for eating and drinking establishments in 8 of the 11 cities,” the study stated. “For the other 3 cities, we were unable to detect a significant effect of the ordinance on the taxable sales revenues.”

The study found that Nixa had the largest increase in revenue at 36 percent. Nixa enacted its smoking ban in 2007. Maryville had the second highest increase at 18 percent.

“Consistent with findings of most peer-reviewed economic studies of smoke-free ordinances, we found that smoke-free ordinances had no negative effect on the local economy,” the study stated.

The authors did note that their study had limitations. When analyzing restaurant and bar data, they had access to only aggregate data, therefore they were unable to determine whether such bans had a negative impact on specific businesses.

Chip Glennon, president of the Kearney Area Development Council, said that while he didn’t smoke and a ban wouldn’t affect his business, it could have an affect on other businesses and those effects should be taken into consideration.

“As a business owner, I think it affects some of my peers in the community that own restaurants and bars,” Glennon said. “I think how they feel about this is important. It doesn’t affect me, but it affects them financially.”

The Board of Aldermen was asked why the city couldn’t bring the issue to a public vote, like other cities have. Dane said that Kearney, being a Class 4 city, couldn’t bring the issue to a public vote because it doesn’t involve a taxing issue. Additionally, Dane said he believed a decision on this issue shouldn’t solely be based on how it would affect the local economy.

“In my mind, it’s not a revenue issue. I don’t think this should be about gaining revenue,” Dane said. “This is more important than gaining a dollar here and a dollar there.”

Dane said the issue was more about the public’s health and the rights of small businesses. Dane added that there were many businesses in town that offered quality food that also prohibited smoking in their establishments.

“If I want a really good steak, I might go to Liberty, but not to avoid the smoke,” Dane said.

Tobacco-free cigarettes may be more carcinogenic

A team of researchers have found that tobacco-free cigarettes may be more carcinogenic by actually inducing more extensive DNA damage than tobacco products

The research team was led by Zbigniew Darzynkiewicz, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pathology. Their study, "DNA damage response induced by exposure of human lung adenocarcinoma cells to smoke from tobacco- and nicotine-free cigarettes," will appear in the June 1 issue of Cell Cycle (Volume 9, Issue 11).

Using the same technique they developed to document the harmful effects of tobacco products, a team of researchers found that cigarettes made without tobacco or nicotine may be more carcinogenic because they actually induce more extensive DNA damage than tobacco products. The technique has been awarded U.S. patent No. 7,662,565.

The authors conclude that their methodology to assess the potential carcinogenic properties of tobacco smoke, based on measurement of DNA damage response as assessed by LSC, provides a useful addition to the battery of genotoxic tests for probing cigarette smoke hazards.

Using laser scanning cytometry (LSC) technology to measure DNA damage response to the smoke from commercially available tobacco- and nicotine-free cigarettes, the research team expected to find the alternative products were less hazardous than regular tobacco cigarettes.

However, their data suggest that exposure of cells to smoke from tobacco- and nicotine-free cigarettes leads to formation of double-strand DNA breaks (DSBs). Since DSBs are potentially carcinogenic, the data indicate that smoking tobacco- and nicotine-free cigarettes is at least as hazardous as those containing tobacco and nicotine.

Such tests, which can be applied to evaluate the effects of cigarettes and cigarette surrogate products on human health, can be important tools for regulatory agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration or, in the case of environmental smoke, by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Parents Should Not Smoke With kids Around

The effect was particularly strong if young people were exposed to a parent's tobacco use before their teen years, Dr. Stephen E. Gilman of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and his colleagues found. But they also found that in children of ex-smokers "that risk goes away if parents quit," Gilman explained in an interview.

To investigate, they looked at 559 boys and girls ages 12 to 17. The researchers also spoke with one parent of each adolescent participant.

Among parents, 62.4 percent had ever smoked in their lives, while 46 percent had met criteria for nicotine dependence during their lifetime.

While there is mounting evidence that children of smokers are more likely to be smokers themselves, less is known about whether one parent has a stronger effect than the other, and whether the influence of parents on their offspring's smoking behavior is the same throughout childhood and adolescence, Gilman and his team note.

Overall, 27.8 percent of the adolescents reported having used cigarettes, with the prevalence of use increasing with age; 7.2 percent of 12-year-olds said they had smoked, while 61.3 percent of 17-year-olds did.

Each parent independently influenced the likelihood that a young person would start smoking, the researchers found. A mother's smoking cigarettes affected sons and daughters' risk equally, but a father's smoking had a stronger effect on boys than girls, and the smoking habits of fathers who did not live with their families had no affect on offspring's smoking risk. The longer a parent smoked, the greater an adolescent's likelihood of starting smoking. Whether or not the parent was actually dependent on nicotine didn't affect the strength of the relationship.

There are many other factors that influence the likelihood of becoming a smoker, the researcher noted, from the media to genetic susceptibility to addiction. Nevertheless, he and his colleagues write, "a deeper understanding of the intergenerational transmission of cigarette smoking will provide additional insight into avenues of prevention." And, they add, smoking cessation efforts for families and parents "will not only reduce the parent's smoking but likely reduce smoking uptake in subsequent generations."

"What was striking to us is that the effects were strongest at younger ages," Gilman told Reuters Health. Children who were 12 or younger when their parents were actively smoking were about 3.6 times as likely to smoke as children of non-smokers. But the adolescents who were 13 and older when their parents smoked were only about 1.7 times more likely to use tobacco.

UK set for plain cigarette packaging

The public health minister Jane Ellison told the House of Commons today (3 April) the ban on branded packaging would move forward as “swiftly as possible” following a short consultation. Draft regulations will follow along with details of when the changes will take place, she added.

The plan comes after a “compelling” review, commissioned by the government last November, revealed plain packaging would curb the number of child smokers. If the rate of children smoking was reduced even by 2 per cent, for example, it would mean 4,000 fewer children taking up smoking each year, the report found.
Ellison said: “In light of this report and the responses to the previous consultation in 2012 I am therefore currently minded to proceed with introducing regulations to provide for standardised packaging. I intend to publish the draft regulations, so that it is crystal clear what is intended, alongside a final, short consultation, in which I will ask, in particular, for views on anything new since the last full public consultation that is relevant to a final decision on this policy.”
Health charities including the British Heart Foundation welcomed the green light to strip tobacco products of their branded designs.Tobacco brands, however, claim it would be a boon for criminals selling counterfeit goods.
A spokesman from the Tobacco Manufacturers Association (TMA), which represents the UK’s tobacco sector, said it was “extremely disappointed” with the plan and claimed there is no “credible evidence” that plain packaging would improve public health.
He added: “Plain packaging will simply lower the barriers to entry for criminals, as tobacco products would become far easier and cheaper to copy, adding to the £7.9m per day in tax revenue that is currently lost to the illegal tobacco market. Australia is the only country to have introduced plain packaging and the illegal tobacco market has increased markedly, whilst smoking rates have remained the same.”
The Government pushed back on making a decision on plain packaging last summer, when it said further evidence was needed before considering legislation.
Britain’s tobacco market is worth around $28bn (£16.9bn) annually, according to market intelligence firm Euromonitor International.