February 11th, 2019The first large, systematic study of whether e-cigarettes help people to quit smoking was published on 30 January in the New England Journal of Medicine, and covered by The New York Times, the BBC and many other major outlets, writes psychologist...
January 14th, 2019Addiction was once viewed as an unsavoury fringe disease, tethered to substances with killer withdrawal symptoms, such as alcohol and opium. But now the scope of what humans can be addicted to seems to have snowballed, from sugar to shopping to...
January 14th, 2019Despite much debate in the United Kingdom and United States there is little agreement over how safe e-cigarettes are, write University of Edinburgh public health Professor Linda Bauld and the University of Liverpool’s Dr Suzi Gagein The...
January 14th, 2019Tobacco remains the biggest public health threat, killing more than seven million people globally every year. The World Health Organization has recognised progress in Nigeria, but concerns remain about effective implementation, write researchers...
December 5th, 2018Government’s proposed anti-tobacco bill lacks any scientific assessment as an underlying principle of legislation, argues Tim Cohen, senior editor of Business Day. In a news story, Nick Hedley says tobacco company Philip Morris International sees...
December 3rd, 2018The Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) and e-cigarette policy scene continues to evolve in a direction that will result in substantially more tobacco-related addiction, illness and death, than what would likely occur with the skilled addition of a THR...
December 3rd, 2018Ill-informed opinion, rather than evidence, and an often misguided sense of what is moral shape attitudes to addiction and its treatment. In this fake news era it behoves addiction researchers to take evidence to the public and to governments more...
November 5th, 2018Public Health England recently published Health Matters guidance focusing on the range of smoking quitting routes that are available and the evidence for their effectiveness. Two-thirds of smokers say they want to quit, however most try to do so...
November 5th, 2018On 12 October the US Food and Drug Administration said it had sent letters to 21 e-cigarette companies questioning the legality of 41 of their products – the latest in a series of actions to thwart e-cigarette sales to youth. Earlier, the FDA sent...
November 5th, 2018Nearly three-quarters of US employers feel guilty about how they have handled employees’ drug or alcohol addiction-related problems, according to a survey of 737 employers and employees, writes Karen Higginbottom for Forbes. The Workplace and...
October 8th, 2018Following the legalisation of cannabis for personal use in South Africa, the SA Society of Psychiatrists and the SA Medical Association warned of its addictive nature and the need for support measures to deal with dagga’s negatives effects....
October 8th, 2018The Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control closed its eighth session – COP8 – on 7 October after adopting a new action plan to scale up the global tobacco control agenda over the next few years.The meeting...
October 8th, 2018The International Center for Law & Economics in the US has produced a white paper it describes as a call to action for economists and health policy researchers to undertake the analysis – thus far absent from the debate – needed to...
September 3rd, 2018Tobacco companies are thriving in Africa due to weak anti-tobacco and tax laws. A study by the University of Cape Town’s Economics of Tobacco Control Project found that tobacco use rose by 44% between 1990 and 2012, writes Amy Green for...
September 3rd, 2018Following a cacophony of criticism of South Africa’s Tobacco Bill, supporters the legislation are having their say. An article in Daily Maverick outlines a campaign by the tobacco industry to thwart planned moves to control smoking and...
September 3rd, 2018There are many ways to tackle America’s growing opioid addiction crisis. In articles in USA Today, a behavioural economist and a chief medical examiner propose letting doctors know when patients overdose and die, in order to reduce opioid...
