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Harm Reduction
Prenatal cannabis exposure linked to adolescent mental health issues
Cannabis exposure during pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of psychopathology into adolescence, especially if exposure continued later into the pregnancy, according to...
Chronic e-cigarette users may risk pulmonary damage: small US study
E-cigarette users may incur small airway–centred fibrosis, including constrictive bronchiolitis, found a four-patient study published in the New England Journal of Medicine Evidence. The...
Vaping could save 104,000 Australian lives – modelling study
Relaxing Australia’s regulations on vaping could save the lives of 70,000 to 104,000 people by 2080, according to a modelling study published in Nicotine...
More American adults now smoke cannabis than cigarettes
For the first time on record, regular cannabis usage has surpassed cigarette use in the US, according to a new Gallup poll, which found...
Alcohol addiction cut by 83% after psilocybin therapy – NYU study
Just two doses of psilocybin, a compound found in psychedelic mushrooms, reduced heavy drinking by 83% on average among heavy drinkers when combined with...
US young adults using cannabis and hallucinogens at highest rates ever – NIH
The numbers of American 19-30-year-olds using marijuana and hallucinogens are at their highest rates ever since the research first began in 1988, while binge...
Cochrane Review: Lower toxicant exposure from HTP but uncertainty over smoking cessation
A Cochrane Review concluded that the effectiveness of heated tobacco use for smoking cessation remains uncertain. There was moderate‐certainty evidence that heated tobacco users...
Unlike cigarettes, electronic nicotine delivery shows no increased risk of CVD – US study
A University of Michigan study found that while exclusive cigarette use was associated with an increased risk of self-reported incident diagnosed cardiovascular disease over...
Smoking cessation drugs may have role in also reducing alcohol use – clinical trial
A clinical trial to test whether three proven smoking cessation treatments could also reduce alcohol intake found no differences between the medications, but the...
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...