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Harm Reduction

Cannabis legalisation may reduce perceptions of cigarette smoking harm

While ordinary smoking has been declining for decades in the US, adults who use cannabis daily do not perceive smoking a pack a day...

More than five glasses of wine weekly may hasten ageing – Biobank analysis

Weekly exceeding 17 units of alcohol – roughly five large glasses of wine or five beers – damages the DNA and hastening ageing, found...

Cannabis potency linked to higher risk of addiction and psychosis – 1st systematic review

Regular users of high-strength cannabis are up to five times more likely to develop addiction and psychosis, found a systematic analysis in The Lancet...

Smokers' nasal damage not repaired by switch to e-cigarettes – small US study

The damage done to the nasal epithelium by smoking may not be repaired by switching to electronic cigarettes, found a University of California study in Toxics. The...

Younger drinkers face more risk from alcohol, global study finds

Alcohol carries significant health risks and no benefits for young people: in fact, they face higher death risks from drinking than older adults, some...

Cannabis use significantly increases risk of ER visits and hospitalisation

Emergency room visits and hospitalisation are 22% higher among cannabis users, according to a Canadian study in BMJ Open Respiratory Research. The large six-year retrospective...

Cannabis recreational consumption ‘not benign’ – Ontario cohort study

Cannabis is the most commonly used psychoactive drug worldwide and its use is rising but data published on the association between cannabis smoking and...

Ban flavoured vapes, says EU as as e-cigarette use rises

Flavoured heated tobacco products – like vapes – are likely to be banned after a proposal by the EU as part of its efforts...

UK punts e-cigs in ambitious smoke-free plan, but US more cautious

As the UK prepares for a Smoke-free 2030 goal, the use of vaping as a means of doing so has again created divisions, with...

Adolescent vaping – monitoring needed to detect potential future health issues

With a surge in electronic cigarette (EC) popularity among youth over the past decade, and insufficient data on the effect of its use in...

US moves to reduce cigarette nicotine levels

The US is planning to develop a rule requiring tobacco companies to reduce nicotine levels in cigarettes to minimally or non-addictive levels, an effort...

Reducing adolescent e-cigarette use will lower lifetime CVD risk – AHA

E-cigarettes are becoming increasingly popular among adolescents and the latest evidence suggests this can lead to adverse health effects in the future, and an...

KZN state hospitals offer no nicotine alternatives to smoking TB patients

South Africa’s healthcare system’s regulation of patients’ access to cigarettes is so far behind the government’s ambitions to curb tobacco consumption that drug-resistant tuberculosis...

PMI: Survey shows balanced approach needed for tobacco harm reduction

 Market-level findings from a new international survey conducted by independent research firm Povaddo reveals that the South African public wants a more balanced approach...

Recreational cannabis legalisation significantly increases youth usage – large US study

A large US study found that when individual states legalised recreational cannabis, usage spread significantly, especially among younger people, according to a study in...

Smoking doubles risk of heart failure in both subtypes – Johns Hopkins 13-year study

Cigarette smoking is associated with twice the risk of heart failure – in both subtypes – found a first-of-kind study from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg...

‘Safe’ levels of alcohol consumption challenged by Irish heart-failure study

Levels of alcohol consumption currently considered safe by some countries are linked to development of heart failure, according to research presented at Heart Failure 2022,...

Little evidence of cannabis efficacy for chronic pain relief – US DoH systematic review

Evidence is lacking for the effectiveness of cannabis-related products to treat chronic pain, according to a systematic evidence review funded by the Agency for...

E-cigarette Summit: Vaping improves odds of quitting tobacco smoking

While scientists and the lay public are daily confronted with a large volume of often conflicting information about tobacco dependence and harm reduction, experts...

E-cigarette Summit – Unlocking the harm reduction potential of e-cigarettes

Regulating to “normalise” low nicotine cigarette smoking would prevent 2.6m tobacco-related deaths in the United States by 2060 – and would accelerate already declined...

Huge uptick in adolescent cannabis vaping – Columbia study

Cannabis vaping is increasing as the most popular method of cannabis delivery among US adolescents, as is the frequency – reported at six or...

E-cigarettes as effective as patches for pregnant smokers to quit – UK study

E-cigarettes are as safe as nicotine patches for pregnant women and may help more women stop smoking, a UK study in Nature Medicine, involving...

Anti-vaping bias undermines e-cigarette research? Study raises questions

A recent study in the United States, published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, suggests that vaping is much less harmful than smoking....

Alcohol, tobacco and junk food common on reality TV shows

Alcohol and tobacco products, in addition to foods high in sugar and fat, appear frequently in reality TV programmes, according to a study by...

Another systemic review shows brain stimulation may help smokers quit

A systematic review by researchers in France, published in the journal Addiction, has found that non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) may improve smoking abstinence rates three...

Cannabis linked to heart disease, supplement may mitigate risk – Stanford

Marijuana use and heart attack risk have been correlated in a large human study in the United States. Also, Stanford University scientists and international...

How far should the menthol ban go? Michigan’s Professor Clifford E Douglas

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States recently proposed a ban on menthol-flavoured cigarettes. Professor Clifford E Douglas, of the University...

US study finds many physicians have misconceptions about e-cigarettes

Many physicians in the United States incorrectly believe that all tobacco products are equally harmful and thus are less likely to recommend e-cigarettes for...

E-cigarette flavoured liquids 80% lower risk than smoking – Italian study

A study by the Centre of Excellence for the acceleration of Harm Reduction (CoEHAR), by researchers at the University of Catania in Italy, found...

Beer, spirits detrimental to visceral fat and heart, but not wine – US study

Drinking beer and spirits is linked to elevated levels of visceral fat – the harmful type of fat that is associated with an increased...

Anti-vaping research drowns out harm reduction advocates in Australia

Is it better to vape than smoke? Definitely, but it is still worse than quitting entirely, writes Dr Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz in The Guardian. The...

US study suggests why most smokers do not get lung cancer

Cigarette smoking is overwhelmingly the main cause of lung cancer, yet only a minority of smokers develop the disease. A study led by the...

South Africa’s first legal medicinal cannabis pharmacy is open for business

Medical marijuana has gone mainstream, with three cannabis pharmacies opening in South Africa this month – complete with an online doctor and chef –...

Labat enters agreement with CSIR to produce medicinal cannabis

Venture capital company Labat Africa says it wants to be involved in every part of the cannabis value chain, from genetics to retail and...

Secondhand bong smoke worse than that from tobacco – Berkeley study

A study from the University of California, Berkeley, has found that second hand cannabis smoke from bongs can be even more harmful than tobacco...

Researchers expose the ‘pitiful quality’ of highly cited vaping studies

Research on the safety and efficacy of vaping has been hotly contested for over a decade. The two sides are neatly drawn, writes Helen...

How to stop vaping – Guidelines available

Guidelines to assist vapers who want to quit vaping were released last week by the Canadian Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). The...

Denmark, Britain, Malaysia may follow New Zealand in youth smoking ban

Denmark and the United Kingdom may follow in the footsteps of New Zealand by banning smoking by people born after a certain year, such...

Alcohol consumption changes the ageing clock – Yale study

Does drinking alcohol make you age faster? The answer is not straightforward, based on a study by researchers at Yale School of Medicine in...

Medical marijuana may trigger substance abuse – US study

Obtaining a medical marijuana card may pose a risk for people who use cannabis products to treat pain, anxiety or depression, according to a...