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March, 2016:

North Carolina man loses eye after e-cig explosion

Mar 5th, 2016
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http://www.whdh.com/story/31393198/north-carolina-man-loses-eye-after-e-cig-explosion

A man in Wilmington, North Carolina is telling his story after an e-cigarette blew up in his face.

It all started as a way to quit smoking.

“I should have just stop using the electric cigarette because I had the nicotine down to zero. There was no nicotine in it or anything so,” Christopher Roberts said.

When he went to take an inhale of this milky white smoke, he never expected it to explode.

“I started saying out loud ‘Oh my God, Oh my God’ because I had grabbed a rag and I put it on my face, and as I was putting it on my face I noticed below me there was just a pool of blood,” Roberts said.

The e-cig exploded in his face with such force Chris said it broke a piece of the steering wheel off.

The explosion gave him second and third degree burns on his chest, over 50 stitches in his nose and cost him his left eye.

“The night before they took my eye out I was at a 15,” Roberts said. “I was literally crawling up the walls in pain.”

A month and a half after his three different surgeries, Chris says he’s still getting used to some things, but it’s changed his perspective.

“I have friends that are missing limbs and stuff like that and they’re not limited to anything,” Roberts said. “So losing my eye is not going to limit me to anything.”

But he does have a message to anyone who is about to take a quick hit from an e-cig.

“Just for people to be aware that not everything is safe about it,” Roberts said. “There is harm in it as well.”

Hong Kong Customs detects suspected illicit cigarettes smuggling case in Man Kam To Control Point

Mar 4th, 2016
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Hong Kong (HKSAR) – Hong Kong Customs detected a suspected case of illicit cigarettes smuggling in Man Kam To Control Point today (March 4). About 460 000 sticks of suspected illicit cigarettes were seized from an incoming container truck.

Customs officers intercepted an incoming container truck declared to contain assorted cargoes in Man Kam To Control Point today. After thorough inspection, Customs officers found about 460 000 sticks of suspected illicit cigarettes in 29 carton boxes.

The market value of the cigarettes was about $1.3 million with a duty potential of about $0.9 million. The suspected illicit cigarettes were mix-loaded with other goods and concealed in the foremost part of the container. The 59-year-old male driver was arrested and the container truck used for conveying the suspected illicit cigarettes was detained.

Hong Kong Customs will continue to carry out stringent enforcement actions against the smuggling of illicit cigarettes at boundary control points.

Under the Import and Export Ordinance, smuggling is a serious offence.

The maximum penalty is a fine of $2 million and imprisonment for seven years.

Members of the public are urged to report any suspected illicit cigarette activities by calling the Customs’ 24-hour hotline 2545 6182.

 

The Brain Science Behind Raising the Tobacco Buying Age to 21

Mar 4th, 2016
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http://www.livescience.com/53947-brain-science-smoking-age-21.html

San Francisco’s new tobacco ordinance — which raises the legal age to buy tobacco products from 18 to 21 — could help improve the health of a new generation of people by preventing addiction, health officials said.

Nationally, 18-year-olds can buy tobacco products, including cigarettes and cigars. However, in the past decade or so, some American communities, cities and one state (Hawaii) have passed ordinances and laws increasing the minimum age to 21.

These new policies could lead to better brain development among young adults who might have otherwise chosen to smoke at a younger age, said Brian King, the deputy director for research translation at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office on Smoking and Health.

Research suggests that tobacco use, particularly nicotine exposure, can harm the developing human brain, King said. Moreover, the brain doesn’t stop developing during the teenage years, but continues until about age 25, he said.

“There’s an emerging body of evidence that has demonstrated that nicotine exposure can particularly harm the prefrontal cortex [of the brain] and lead to adverse health effects in the developing adolescent brain,” King told Live Science. “And that can also continue into young adulthood.”

The prefrontal cortex is involved with aspects of decision-making, cognition and memory, he added.

The new San Francisco ordinance, which is set to take effect June 1 and will also affect e-cigarettes, is also aimed at deterring people from smoking at an early age. About 90 percent of tobacco users begin before age 18, and the vast majority of the rest start before age 26, King said.

“If you can prevent use before the age of 18, you’re preventing about 9 in 10 tobacco users,” he said. “Then we don’t have to help them quit, if we can prevent them from starting in the first place.”

According to the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, the Food and Drug Administration cannot raise the national age of purchasing tobacco products above age 18, King said. Congress could pass a bill increasing the age, but if it does not, any decision to set the age higher will have to come from individual states, cities and communities, he said.

However, it’s not immediately clear how the San Francisco ordinance will affect smoking rates. New York City; Berkeley, California; Boston; and dozens of other cities and communities have increased the minimum buying age to 21, according to the Preventing Tobacco Addiction Foundation, but not enough time has passed in order to study the outcomes of these measures sufficiently.

The preliminary data looks promising, King said. The city of Needham, Massachusetts, raised the buying age to 21 more than a decade ago, in 2005, and a recent survey of the region’s youth showed that teenagers in Needham smoked less tobacco in the past 30 days than their peers in neighboring communities did.

That 2015 study, published in the journal Tobacco Control, showed that reported smoking rates dropped from 13 percent to 7 percent among teens in Needham from 2006 to 2010. This drop was larger than the 15 percent to 12 percent decrease seen in neighboring communities that did not raise the buying age, the researchers who conducted the study said.

Furthermore, the decline was consistent for both genders and for Caucasian and non-Caucasian youth, the researchers reported.

In a March 2015 report, the Institute of Medicine estimated that if all states were to raise the minimum tobacco-buying age to 21, there would be a 12 percent drop in cigarette smoking prevalence across the nation by the year 2100, said King, who was not involved with the research.

“That would translate into nearly 250,000 fewer premature deaths from smoking,” he said.

King added that raising the buying age is only one piece of the puzzle in the movement to stem tobacco use in youth and young adults. Policies to keep buildings or other areas smoke-free, media campaigns and better patient services are also helping to prevent or stop tobacco use, he said.

“Youth and young adults are particularly vulnerable to addiction for a variety of reasons,” he said. “And so, preventing youth and young adults from starting in the first place could potentially prevent them from a lifelong addiction to tobacco products.”

Anti-tobacco lobby urges MEPs to reject Philip Morris deal

Mar 3rd, 2016
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https://euobserver.com/economic/132539

Politicians and activists fiercely opposed to the tobacco industry are trying to persuade MEPs to speak out against renewing an EU anti-smuggling agreement with multinational Philip Morris International (PMI).

The centre-left socialists, the second-largest parliamentary group, agreed on Wednesday (2 March) to reject any renewal of the deal. The European Parliament is currently preparing a text on the EU-PMI deal to be voted on in Strasbourg next week.

Formally, MEPs have no say on whether or not the European Commission decides to begin new negotiations with PMI to continue the 12-year-old deal, which is set to expire in July.

But although next week’s resolution is non-binding, a strongly worded text with a broad support would be politically difficult for the commission to ignore.

“My message to the European Parliament: please be united,” EU health commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis told a conference in parliament on Wednesday titled Combating Tobacco Industry Tactics.

Andriukaitis is against renewing the deal.

“I see no reasons for this extension,” he said, adding that he did not agree with those who argue there could be a regulatory gap if no deal is agreed.

‘A very stupid industry’

The EU-PMI agreement, which cemented a partnership between the tobacco firm and the EU’s anti-fraud agency Olaf, obliged PMI to keep track of its products to prevent smuggling. PMI also paid roughly €1 billion into the EU and member state budgets.

But many of the provisions have since been adopted as EU legislation, due to come into force in 2019. Some are now arguing that a bridge deal is required.

The health commissioner argued the tobacco industry had to prepare for that legislation anyway, saying: “I don’t see a regulatory gap.”

He would not say which of his fellow commissioners are arguing in favour of renewing the deal, but a letter from his colleague commissioner Pierre Moscovici, seen by this website, said that the college of commissioners “wants more time to think about it – proof that it is not so settled among my colleagues”.

Andriukaitis reaffirmed that the college would not make a decision before the parliament vote, adding that he expected a decision at the college meeting on 16 March.

The Lithuanian politician has strong views about the tobacco industry, which he called “a very stupid industry”.

“They produce a product which kills their consumers every year,” he said.

“Strange business. It’s a very strange business. Last year they killed 700,000 Europeans. It’s unacceptable.”

He called on tobacco firms to reform their business: “Please, start to change your industry and to produce shoes, for example.”

His audience applauded and cheered his emotional speech. Tobacco lobbyists were not allowed to be present, in line with a World Health Organisation treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

EU credibility at risk

Katharina Kummer Peiry was present on behalf of the secretariat of the convention.

She also argued against negotiating for a renewal.

“There are numerous legal and technical reasons to ditch this agreement, but there is one absolutely critical issue that has an impact worldwide,” Kummer Peiry said.

“Tobacco companies are desperate for respectability. They really can’t allow us to see them for what they are: Multimillion euro businesses enthusiastically peddling a product that kills its consumers.”

She said that tobacco companies are executing a “global rebranding” campaign.

“In this imaginary incarnation, tobacco companies are responsible global citizens working as partners with governments, law enforcement agencies, and others. A renewed EU agreement would assist this campaign,” she said.

Andriukaitis’ predecessor, former Maltese commissioner Tonio Borg, was also on the panel. He warned against the loss of credibility the EU would suffer if it renewed the deal, bringing to memory that PMI had legally challenged the tobacco products directive.

He said: “How can we sign an agreement when we are in court with the other side?

“Why risk the image of the Commission, and of the European Union in general?

“I don’t have proof, but sometimes I have this feeling that this money is not being used explicitly to fight tobacco smuggling, to the extent that the member states want to retain this free money coming in from the tobacco industry.”

Linda McAvan, British MEP of the centre-left socialists, said tobacco companies like PMI want such agreements “to have access to politicians”.

“I think there is a move across parliament now, so I’m hopeful we will get a strong message next week in our resolution, to reject any new agreement,” she said.

A European Parliament source said the left-wing Greens, the far-left GUE/NGL group and the eurosceptic EFDD group were expected to vote against renewal, but this would not yet constitute a majority.

Anti-tobacco group Smoke Free Partnership is distributing a document with counter-arguments among “key MEPs”.

Borg, who was commissioner on behalf of the centre-right EPP, the largest group in the parliament, said he had a “hunch” the group would “follow soon” in taking a common stance on rejecting an extension.

EPP spokesman Pete Pakarinen told EUobserver on Thursday that there is no position yet. The EPP will discuss the issue on 8 March to find out if it can reach a position, and if so what that should be.

He noted that the tobacco agreements were not as important anymore because of new legislation, “but there may still be some value” in them. Pakarinen said that the vote, initially scheduled for 8 March, was postponed by a day.

A spokesman for the ECR, the third largest parliamentary group, said the bloc wanted to “open negotiations but to reserve judgement on any final text”.

E-Cigarettes May Be Safer Than Tobacco Cigarettes When It Comes To Formaldehyde; Should We Be Skeptical?

Mar 3rd, 2016
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http://www.medicaldaily.com/formaldehyde-e-cigarettes-tobacco-company-376229

New preliminary research presented today at the annual conference of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco in Chicago, IL, is sure to further stoke an ongoing debate on the actual harms of electronic cigarettes.

The study claims to have found that even the heavy use of e-cigarettes, roughly equivalent to 350 puffs a day, leaves little formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, behind. To further bolster their point, the authors compared their measured levels of daily formaldehyde exposure from three vaping products to several safety benchmarks, including one designed by the World Health Organization (WHO), finding they fell dramatically short. And when compared to a conventional tobacco cigarette, a readily available source of formaldehyde, they found the level of e-cigarette exposure was over ten times less, again indicating their relative safety.

“The results from this study show that even heavy use of these products still only results in daily formaldehyde exposure that is less than one sixth of the exposure from breathing indoor air that complies with WHO air quality standards,” said lead author Dr. Sandra Costigan in a statement.

Tobacco-Funded

Despite these impressive results, the list of caveats that come attached with the study should be enough to make anyone cautiously skeptical.

For one, the study was funded and conducted by British American Tobacco (BAT), a company that in 2013 trumpeted its status as the “first international tobacco company to launch an e-cigarette, Vype, in the UK.” In 2014, it developed two additional e-cigarette products, the Vype eStick and Vype ePen, and 2015 saw the arrival of the Vype eTank (the study appears to have tested the Vype, Vype ePen, and Vype eTank). Costigan, in addition to being the lead author, is also BAT’s Principal Toxicologist for electronic cigarettes.

Without casting aspersions on BAT personally, it’s worth emphasizing the long history of tobacco industry-funded studies that concluded their “reduced risk” products, such as low-tar cigarettes, did just that, only to be eventually debunked by independent scientists afterwards. For one of many examples, while medium tar, filtered cigarettes, the type most smokers use today, are safer than the high-tar cigarettes of the past, there doesn’t appear to be any difference in mortality when switching to low-tar cigarettes, namely because low-tar users simply take longer puffs or smoke more cigarettes to get the same nicotine high.

Secondly, as mentioned at the very beginning, the study has yet to be published in a peer reviewed journal. Meanwhile, a study that was peer reviewed and published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) last year also sought to measure levels of formaldehyde from the heavy use of e-cigarettes and came to very different conclusions. Testing a device similar to the Vype eTank at a high voltage level, they estimated that the levels of formaldehyde they measured could, over the long term, amount to an “incremental lifetime cancer risk” five to fifteen times higher than conventional cigarettes.

The ‘Dry Puff’ Problem

Of course, the plot only thickens from here. As Costigan explains, how formaldehyde is produced differs between the two products. “In cigarette smoke, most formaldehyde is produced as the result of burning sugars naturally present in tobacco as well as added sugars and glycerol, whereas in vaping products, it is generally produced as a thermal breakdown product of glycerol and propylene glycol (PG).”

In the simplest terms, that means tobacco cigarettes produce a gaseous form of formaldehyde, whose effect on cancer risk we’ve studied extensively. However, vaping products produce formaldehyde-releasing agents, and as the NEJM authors admit, we don’t really know how these agents affect our body when inhaled.

That ambiguity aside, other researchers have criticized the NEJM study and those similar to it for cherry-picking their findings by choosing to focus on a high-voltage setting that few consumers would typically use, since it would purportedly create an unpleasant-tasting “dry puff.” Indeed, at lower voltages, the NEJM researchers found negligible amounts of formaldehyde production.

In a response, the authors acknowledged these criticisms, but also claimed there was “a lack of objective data with which to judge whether these devices are being used as safely as possible.” They further remarked that while some cigar smokers actively avoid inhaling cigar smoke, there are plenty who do, and that the same could be true for some e-cigarette users who enjoy the dry puff, especially if the vast variety of flavored vaping products successfully masks the taste.

In short, the fight over formaldehyde comes down to what we should consider typical heavy use, one that likely won’t be settled by any one study (the current study relied on “vaping robots” to produce their vapor)

“We believe e-cigarettes hold great potential for reducing tobacco-related disease. For this reason, we continue to strive to better define and further reduce any residual risks that there may be, to as low a level as possible,” said Costigan.

Much of that touted potential is believed to come from the notion that tobacco users can and will switch over to less harmful e-cigarettes and eventually wean themselves off nicotine completely.

Unfortunately, as with formaldehyde, the evidence for that actually happening in the real world is decidedly mixed.

“It is true that cigarettes are known to contain many toxicants at relatively higher concentrations than electronic nicotine-delivery systems (ENDS),” the NEJM authors wrote at the end of their response. “What is unknown are the overall toxicologic effects of ENDS. It will probably take at least a decade for the public health consequences of long-term vaping to be even partially understood.”

In other words, buckle your seatbelts, folks. It’s gonna be a long ride.

Source: Costigan S, Sommarstrom J. Formaldehyde from different format electronic cigarettes compared to the WHO air guideline. Annual Conference of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. 2016.

E-Cig Use Banned On US Airline Flights

Mar 2nd, 2016
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http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2016/03/02/e-cig-use-banned-on-us-airline-flights/

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Transportation says it has issued final regulations prohibiting the use of electronic cigarettes on any domestic or foreign airline flying to, from or within the United States.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx says the rule will protect passengers from unwanted exposure to aerosol fumes in the confines of an aircraft cabin.

The department has long prohibited the smoking of cigarettes and other tobacco products on planes, and has interpreted that ban to include e-cigarettes. The regulations issued Wednesday are designed to eliminate any confusion over whether the previously existing ban actually included e-cigarettes.

Passengers are allowed to carry e-cigarettes with them onto planes. They are prohibited from packing them in their checked luggage under a regulation adopted last year after instances in which suitcases caught fire.

Cannabis to be as big as tobacco by 2029: Ackrell

Mar 2nd, 2016
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Investment bank predicts marijuana to be a $100 billion market in a little over a decade

http://vator.tv/news/2016-03-02-cannabis-to-be-as-big-as-tobacco-by-2029-ackrell

[UPDATED Wed Mar 9 at 9:07 AM PT to reflect nuance of marijuana law in Virginia.]

Whether you’re a marijuana smoker or not, there’s one thing that isn’t hazy: we’re on the cusp of a “green gold rush.”

Ackrell Capital, a San Francisco-based investment bank focused on middle-market and emerging growth companies, forecasts that the total U.S. cannabis consumer market (including pharmaceuticals) could top $100 billion by 2029, according to its newly released U.S. Cannabis Investment Report 2016.

For comparison, the RAND Corporation estimated the illegal U.S. market for cannabis to be about $40 billion in 2010, thanks to about 20 million paying customers. The tobacco industry rakes in $100 billion annually from approximately 45 million people. Meanwhile, Ackrell pins the emerging market for legalized recreational and medicinal marijuana at just $4.4 billion in 2015.

Even though cannabis is still illegal under federal law, 23 states have legalized the substance for medicinal use and, of those, four states (Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington) have legalized it for recreational use. Furthermore, Ackrell identifies 16 states that have approved some cannabis-based products in limited circumstances in addition to three states (Nebraska, Ohio, and Virginia*) that have decriminalized it, meaning law enforcement ignores small violations. Only eight states today still ban cannabis in every circumstance.

In turn, Ackrell believes “it is a question of when—not if—the federal prohibition on cannabis will end.” The firm sees the widening field of cannabis approval among the states as a trend that will ultimately lead toward the federal government overturning its restriction on the drug. In fact, Ackrell even puts a projected date on their prediction: 2020.

As a result of the state policies outlined above and (likely) the widely held consensus that federal law will eventually follow, an entire industry has flourished to serve the emerging industry. From cultivators and dispensaries to lab and production equipment suppliers, e-commerce services, and digital media properties, Ackrell calls this booming industry the “Green Field.”

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Here’s a good summary of Ackrell’s investment outlook for cannabis, from the report:

“We believe that we are at the very early stages of a powerful secular growth cycle for cannabis-based solutions and companies. Within 5 to 10 years, we believe that cannabis use will become mainstream, and a host of mature companies will be dominating the market.

[…]

“As the cannabis industry continues to evolve, market opportunities for well-managed, well-resourced and well-positioned companies should be significant. The greatest value will be created by those companies able to drive affordably the awareness and adoption of their solutions, take advantage of economies of scale and leverage technology to optimize their operations.”

The one area that could see the biggest boost from cannabis legalization is undoubtedly the pharmaceuticals industry. Ackrell says medicinal marijuana has been shown to treat over 40 medical conditions, including arthritis, cancer, chronic pain, epilepsy, glaucoma, and HIV/AIDS. Though the federal ban has restricted how much research could be performed on the drug’s benefits and side effects, the overall outlook looks good.

In addition to the overarching study, Ackrell also shared two supplemental reports. One lists the top 100 private cannabis companies in 2016, representing mainly U.S. companies with a “strong reputation or position” in the cannabis market with an “attractive” line of business. The other is the broader industry landscape representing the “Green Field” (above).

All three reports are publicly available through Ackrell’s website.

[UPDATE from Wed Mar 9 at 9:07 AM PT]

*After publishing this article, we received a note from Jenn Michelle Pedini (Deputy Director, VirginiaNORML) clarifying state law governing marijuana in Virginia:

“Despite our repeated efforts, cannabis remains absolutely criminalized in Virginia, with some of the stiffest penalties in the nation. The only protection currently offered is to patients and caregivers of intractable epilepsy, who may now present a certificate 10 days prior to trial as an affirmative defense for the possession of CBD (>15%) THCA (<5%) oil. The law still allows for arrest and in no way legalizes, decriminalizes or depenalizes possession of any sort.”

When I went back to Ackrell to see if they can explain the discrepancy between their report listing Virginia as decriminalized and VirginiaNORML’s information above, I received the following response from Mike Ackrell, the firm’s founder and managing partner:

“I checked with my team and we don’t disagree with the NORML spokesperson. It really is just a matter of how we define things.

“My team actually thought about listing Virginia as a ‘Limited Use’ state, but opted to classify them as ‘Decriminalized’ instead, because of the very limited use exception. When we were classifying states, we were using the Decriminalized designation as more restrictive than the Limited Use designation.

“A number of other websites that track these issues also classify Virginia as Decriminalized – again, I think it really is just a matter of definition.”

In other words, take heed: law enforcement in Virginia will not ignore small marijuana violations.

Reynolds’ Vuse Fob product goes national

Mar 2nd, 2016
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http://www.journalnow.com/business/business_news/local/the-briefcase/article_d5b39fc5-21d3-5800-9c4a-c26ca87dd03d.html

R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. said Wednesday it has started national distribution of its latest Vuse electronic cigarette innovation, known as Fob. Vuse is the top-selling e-cig in the U.S. marketplace.

Carlos Lindo, president of the Reynolds American Inc. subsidiary, described Fob, which debuts in early 2016, as “the most ergonomic friendly (e-cig) device on the market” that features the ability to double the battery life and an optional child-lock device.

Fob uses Bluetooth technology with its power unit, which fits in the palm of the hand. A display provides real-time information about battery and cartridge levels, and gives adult tobacco consumers the ability to dim the display.

Fob works with the same Vuse cartridges as the Solo and Connect products now available at retail stores nationally. The cartridges fit into the device and are retractable, minimizing the exposure of the mouthpiece to dirty surfaces.

Richard Craver

SF Raises Tobacco Age From 18 to 21

Mar 2nd, 2016
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http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/03/02/sf-raises-tobacco-age-from-18-to-21.htm

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to raise the legal age for tobacco purchases from 18 to 21.

The ordinance, sponsored by Supervisor Scott Wiener, comes on the heels of similar laws in Berkeley and Healdsburg, Calif. and will apply to all tobacco products, including smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes.

It will have the same enforcement structure as the previous law, prohibiting tobacco purchase before age 18.

Wiener said at the Tuesday board meeting that the ordinance “will save lives.”

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable deaths nationwide and costs the nation $170 billion a year in health care, Wiener said.

One third of U.S. high school students use tobacco, and one in four high school students in San Francisco use it, Wiener said.

He cited studies that show 95 percent of tobacco smokers start smoking before age 21, and that high school students who use tobacco are more likely to drop out of school and become pregnant in their teens.

“Tobacco use is more harmful to young people than it is to older people,” Wiener said.

He projected that the city ordinance should reduce tobacco use by San Francisco youth by 15 percent, and reduce it by 12 percent overall.

Wiener said San Francisco has already received “multiple letters” from the tobacco industry threatening to sue on the claim that the ordinance is preempted by California law.

Wiener denied it, saying the ordinance is “complementary” to state law.

“Our city has a history of taking on major industries in the name of public health, in the name of consumers, and winning,” he said.

Supervisors Eric Mar, Malia Cohen and Mark Farrell co-sponsored the ordinance.

The Board of Supervisors’ domain is the City and County of San Francisco.

Minimum Ages of Legal Access for Tobacco in the United States From 1863 to 2015

Mar 1st, 2016
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http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2016.303172?journalCode=ajph&

ABSTRACT

In the United States, state laws establish a minimum age of legal access (MLA) for most tobacco products at 18 years. We reviewed the history of these laws with internal tobacco industry documents and newspaper archives from 1860 to 2014.

The laws appeared in the 1880s; by 1920, half of states had set MLAs of at least 21 years. After 1920, tobacco industry lobbying eroded them to between 16 and 18 years. By the 1980s, the tobacco industry viewed restoration of higher MLAs as a critical business threat. The industry’s political advocacy reflects its assessment that recruiting youth smokers is critical to its survival.

The increasing evidence on tobacco addiction suggests that restoring MLAs to 21 years would reduce smoking initiation and prevalence, particularly among those younger than 18 years.

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