tobacco

Old as dirt, pink slime trial and death caps + this day in history w/R. Kelly arrested and our song of the day by Secret Sisters on your Morning Monarchy for June 7, 2017.

On May 10th, the Conseil d'Etat, the highest administrative court in France, decided to ask for clarifications from the European Union Court of Justice regarding the recent EU Tobacco Products Directive. The directive would require larger health warnings, banning packs with under 20 cigarettes, banning characterizing flavors like menthol or vanilla, standardizing the shape of all packs, and heavily regulating the sale of e-cigarettes. Beyond the obvious restriction of freedom of choice, when does this regulatory action cross the line to restricting free speech?

It may be common knowledge that smoking cigarettes leads to a host of diseases and early death, but did you know that 30% of all cancer deaths are smoking-related? This is according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. [1]
Smoking is the biggest preventable cause of death from cancer and other diseases, yet 40 million people continue to puff away on cigarettes, according to U.S. researchers from the American Cancer Society (ACS).

John Boehner took immense sums of money from Big Tobacco over the course of his slimy career-- not just the $464,312 in direct bribes from the industry but far more from them to help him build power by writing checks at his direction to other House Republicans. In the video above 60 Minutes explored the time Boehner got caught handing out tobacco bribes to other members.

Opiate terror, satellite markets and goth ice cream + this day in history w/Madeleine McCann and our song of the day by The Drums on your Morning Monarchy for May 3, 2017.

A recent survey by Yahoo News and The Marist Poll reveals, among other things, that people – regardless of whether they have children or not – are more concerned about kids smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol than they are about kids using marijuana. [1]
For the survey, 1,122 adults age 18 and older were polled from March 1 through March 7, 2017.

"Tobacco counterfeiting has been a problem ever since tobacco was commercialized, but the French government’s aggressive anti-tobacco tax policy has made the situation considerably worse."

Fake meat, bad water and black market cigarettes + this day in history w/the Mad Bomber and our song of the day by Foxygen on your Morning Monarchy for March 29, 2017.

In an interview with Rolling Stone published November 29, Barack Obama said that he doesn’t think legalizing marijuana would end America’s drug problem, but he believes it should be regulated like cigarettes and alcohol. The outgoing President added that regulating marijuana is a wiser way of handling the issue than continuing to treat it as a Schedule I drug. [1]
Source: Rolling Stone

The federal government said on November 10th that cigarette smoking among American adults is still dropping dramatically. [1]
But the good news comes with 1 major caveat: smoking still causes 40% of all cancer diagnoses in the United States. Not just lung cancer, either. That percentage encompasses a dozen other parts of the body, including the throat, stomach, pancreas, and liver.