Pot smokers don't puff away lung health: study

Researchers found that multiple measures of lung function actually improved slightly as young people reported using more marijuana -- at least up to a couple thousand lifetime joints.

"There's no doubt, if you've watched a Harold & Kumar movie, marijuana triggers a cough," said Dr. Stefan Kertesz, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who worked on the new study. But questions have remained about the drug's longer-term effect on lung functioning.

"Previous studies have had mixed results," Kertesz explained. "Some have hinted at an increase in lung air flow rates and lung volume (with marijuana smoking), and others have not found that. Others have found hints of harm."

While marijuana smoke has a lot of the same toxins as cigarette smoke, he added, people who use pot tend to smoke fewer joints each day than tobacco users smoke cigarettes. That and the method of inhaling may offer some relative lung protection, researchers have proposed.

Still, the findings don't let marijuana off the hook for long-term health consequences.

"I think a lot more work will need to be done to make any blanket statements about safety," said Dr. Jeanette Tetrault, a substance abuse researcher at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, who wasn't tied to the new research.

"These are only two measures of pulmonary function and don't really paint the entire picture" of the potential effects of marijuana on the lungs, she told Reuters Health.

The new data come from a long-term study of more than 5,000 young adults in Oakland, Chicago, Minneapolis and Birmingham. From 1985 until 2006, researchers regularly asked participants about their past and current use of cigarettes and marijuana. They also tested how much air their lungs could hold and the maximum rate of air flow out of their lungs.

Not surprisingly, the researchers found that the more cigarettes their participants smoked or had smoked in the past, the worse their lungs performed on both tests, Kertesz's team reported Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

But at least at moderate levels of pot smoking, that didn't seem to be the case -- in fact, the trend was reversed.

Lung volume and air flow rates both increased with each "joint-year" -- the equivalent of 365 joints or pipe bowls -- participants said they'd ever smoked, up until about seven joint-years, or some 2,555 joints.

It was a small overall improvement, though. Lung airflow -- measured by how much air people could blow out in one second -- was no more than 50 milliliters higher in pot smokers compared with non-smokers. The average value for a healthy male is four liters, according to Kertesz.

"It's a very real increase... but it's so small that I don't think that a person would feel a benefit in terms of their breathing," Kertesz said.

"Is this a real increase in lung health? That's the other question. We don't know exactly what's happening inside all of the airways of the individuals who are measured."

One explanation, he said, could be that deep breaths taken by pot smokers when they're inhaling could train them to do well on a test of lung function that involves breathing in and blowing out air as quickly as possible.

NTA gives P5.4 M to Abra tobacco farmers

The National Tobacco Administration (NTA) has given a total of P5.4 million to tobacco farmers of Abra this cropping season.

The loan package is part of the production assistance given to farmers under the Tobacco Contract Growing System of the NTA to sustain the tobacco industry.

NTA administrator Edgardo D. Zaragoza, in a recent visit to Bangued, Abra, said he is happy to see local officials, led by Governor Eustaquio P. Bersamin, utilizing their share from the tobacco excise tax under Republic Act 7171 for the benefit of the tobacco-growers.

NTA-Abra branch manager Esmeralda G. Valera, in a report, said a total of 261 tobacco farmers had already availed of the production loan assistance.

A total of 160 hectares of tobacco farmlands are being cultivated this cropping season in the 19 tobacco-growing municipalities in the province.

Aside from the production loan assistance, flue curing barns in the different municipalities had also been installed to facilitate the curing of tobacco leaves to obtain better quality of leaves that would command a better price in the market.

Zaragoza reiterated his advice to the tobacco farmers not to hasten the curing process. He advised the farmers to take time and wait for the leaves to mature before harvesting to ensure better quality.

This way, farmers would get more returns on their investment because better quality leaves command higher selling price in the market, Zaragoza said.

Valera also reported that the provincial government is still distributing fertilizers to the beneficiaries, while the initial tranche of fertilizer subsidies provided under RA 7171 to the Provincial Government has all been distributed.

Zaragoza was accompanied by Deputy Administrator Everin Molina, and NTA Board of Directors Rogelio Elvena and Geoffrey Gacula.

Carlisle borough council bans tobacco products in borough parks

Thursday night, Carlisle borough council took a step toward making the borough a healthier community.
By a unanimous vote of 6-0 (council president Perry Heath, who is also acting mayor, didn't vote on anything Thursday night), council banned the displaying, distributing, using, chewing, expectorating, discarding, lighting or smoking of tobacco products in borough parks.
New council member Robin Guido read the proposed ordinance and made the motion to approve it, noting as she did that, "As a nurse, I love getting to use the word ‘expectorate' publicly."
Solicitor Ed Schorpp, who drafted the ordinance, laughed and said that "expectorate" was the only appropriate word for the situation.
The ordinance came about through a grass-roots movement, according to council member Tim Scott, with people - mostly parents of small children - asking the borough to ban tobacco products in the parks because it was a bad example for children.

Cigarette rules not properly implemented

The national government should endeavor to enforce existing rules and regulations before considering new tax measure, like the indexation of excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol, a lawmaker from La Union said.

While the Department of Finance (DoF) wanted the proposed hike in levies on alcohol and tobacco be approved by the middle of next year, La Union Representative Victor Ortega pointed that the government has yet properly implemented the rules and regulations on cigarettes.

“What’s the use of passing new laws if we cannot strictly enforce existing rules and regulations like the ban on selling cigarettes to minors,” Ortega said.

But the finance department explained that there is a need to raise tobacco and alcohol taxes so that the industry is not controlled by just one company and to improve the government’s tax efficiency.

Currently, the company that controls 90 percent of the Philippine market is PMFTC, the merged entity of Philip Morris and Lucio Tan-owned Fortune Tobacco Corporation.

The finance department is also aiming to collect roughly P60 billion in additional revenues through the restructured excise taxes on alcohol and tobacco. Revenue from the measure would be earmarked for the government’s proposed public health care system.

Ortega, however, warned that an increase in taxes and the proposed attachment of graphic health warnings on cigarette packs may trigger tobacco farmers in the Ilocos Region to thinking about going back to marijuana planting.

“It took us a long, long time in the Ilocos Region to fight this marijuana planting. And we’ve gone a long way into minimizing it, except maybe in a few portions of the mountainous areas,” Ortega said.

According to government estimates, the sin tax measure could raise as much as P19 billion to P20 billion in the first year of implementation, P30 billion to P40 billion in the second year, P40 billion to P50 billion in the third year and P60 billion to P70 billion in the fourth year.

The sin tax hike measure is still being deliberated by the House ways and means committee.

Budget and Management Secretary Florencio B. Abad earlier said that delays in committee hearings and in the consolidation of the various “sin” tax bills had prompted the removal of committee chairman Batangas Rep. Hermilando I. Mandanas.

Newly instated ways and means committee chairman Davao City Rep. Isidro T. Ungab has said that he would prioritize and fast-track the passage of proposed excise tax reforms.

Shopkeeper hits out at cigarette plain packaging plan

Plans to put cigarettes and tobacco in plain packaging have been criticised by a Whitstable shopkeeper.

Last month the government announced that the public consultation on tobacco packaging due to take place by the end of last year had been put back to the spring.

This means that it will come at the same time as supermarkets in England must comply with a law banning tobacco displays which comes into force on April 6.

Debbie Corris, who runs Jim Ingram’s in Tankerton Road, said that since it will be illegal to have cigarette packets on show it made no sense to insist they were also put into plain packaging.

"I just do not see why they are consulting on more legislation at the same time as this latest law comes into effect," she said.

"Why not wait to see how the ban on displaying cigarettes and tobacco goes and its effect before consulting on yet more laws."

Although supermarkets must cover up all cigarette displays by April 6 smaller shops such as Mrs Corris’s business do not have to comply until 2015.

Customers in England will still be able to buy cigarettes in the normal way but the ban – which was announced in 2008 – will mean all tobacco products will have to be kept under the counter or hidden behind a cover such as a fold back shutter.

If plans for plain packaging are passed it will mean that all cigarette packets are likely to be a pale beige colour, with the brand name in identical small lettering and in larger type the present health warning.

Mrs Corris said: "Restocking will be a nightmare as will selling. Some packets cost more than others but the names will all look the same so it will be easy to make mistakes.

"It will also be much harder to see which ones are fake.

"The whole thing is ridiculous. It applies to tobacco as well and almost all my pipe smokers are over 50.

"The government is trying to denormalise something which is perfectly legal and age restricted.

"If you are over 18 and decide to smoke you should be entitled to go into a shop and buy cigarettes just like anything else.

"Where will all this end? Why can’t people be allowed to make up their minds? It is just a step too far."

Fake cigarettes being sold in Worcestershire

WORCESTERSHIRE Regulatory Services are aware that fake cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco are being sold within the county.

Fake tobacco products often contain much higher levels of nicotine and tar than genuine products and contain toxic chemicals including formaldehyde and arsenic. They are also often padded out with leaves and debris. Sellers of these fake products claim they are imported into the UK and are therefore available at a much reduced price as no duty has been paid.

It is illegal to sell fake tobacco products in the UK and it is illegal to sell tobacco products without paying the UK duty due on them.

These products not only harm the health of those people smoking them but also harm local legitimate businesses who sell genuine products.

The Central England Trading Standards Authorities (CEnTSA) has launched a fakes hotline, which retailers and the public can call to report the sale of fake cigarettes.

Police respond to alarm, make marijuana bust

Police responding to an alarm at a Mount Pleasant-area home ended up finding more than nine pounds of marijuana and about 150 pot plants.

The Morning Sun of Mount Pleasant and The Grand Rapids Press report state police responded Tuesday to the home in Isabella County's Union Township. During a check of the property they found signs of a marijuana growing operation and obtained a search warrant.

Troopers also found weapons on the property. One person was arrested on an earlier warrant. The marijuana case was under investigation.