Tuesday 7 a.m.: This begins my e-cigarette diary. The starter kit came in the mail last week, but I lacked the fortitude to switch from real cigarettes until today. I’ve been smoking on and off since fifth grade, when a group of us would meet in scruffy patches of New Britain woods and puff Pall Malls stolen from someone’s mother. I’m 48 now and I must find an alternative to tobacco. I can’t bear to think of my blackening ... Jump to full article >>

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Teaming up with officials from the Virginia State Police, Iredell deputies may have uncovered a cigarette smuggling operation. Iredell Sheriff Phil Redmond said members of the Interstate Criminal Enforcement (ICE) team spotted a 1998 Lincoln Navigator on Interstate 77 near the 61 mile marker around 9:15 a.m. Monday for a traffic violation. While speaking with the driver and occupant, the deputies noticed a large number of boxes in black trash bag ... Jump to full article >>

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Teenage cannabis smokers who carry on using the drug in adulthood are more likely to suffer from hallucinations or paranoid delusions, research suggests. Teenagers who started smoking the drug when aged just 15 were twice as likely to suffer ‘non-affective psychosis’ and four times more likely to suffer delusions after six years than those who abstained. Scientists at the University of Queensland in Australia examined 3,081 adults bo ... Jump to full article >>

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Elisabeth Mahoney enjoys an account of the unlikely relationship between Frederic Chopin and George Sand. Composer of the Week is Chopin, with the focus on his musical output during the seven summers he spent with George Sand at her country retreat, Nohant. There, we heard from Donald Macleod, Chopin wrote mazurkas (”it was a little piece of Poland he kept with him, a musical security blanket”) and Sand came up with many an affection ... Jump to full article >>

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Last June delegates of many governments met in Swiss City of Geneva to consider the first universal convention on illegal tobacco trade. Next month the same governments will gather again to endorse the first draft of that convention that is supposed to become a powerful tool in the struggle against the black market of tobacco products. If the convention is ratified, it would virtually crack down the illegal trade throughout the world. Tobacco pro ... Jump to full article >>

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Peter Corroon sat at his dining room table holding a pack of Marlboro Light cigarettes, surrounded by his wife, Amy, and their three young children, but he wasn’t even thinking about lighting up. The Salt Lake County mayor, who has his sights set on the Governor’s Mansion just around the corner from his home in the Avenues, talked Sunday with his kids about the health risks of smoking while repeating his support for increasing the sta ... Jump to full article >>

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