The law firm Searcy Denney put a dramatic end to Tobacco’s eight-case winning streak today by reeling in an $80 million verdict in Webb v. R.J. Reynolds, in Bronson, Florida. Although Tobacco has won eight of the last nine cases, on average during that period they now have lost approximately $8M per trial. I was there trying the case with my partner, David Sales. Here are some of my thoughts from “inside” the trial of a tobacco case. T ... Jump to full article >>

NEW YORK — In the opening moments of ABC’s “20/20″ on Friday, a 21-year-old blonde named Ashley says in her suburban Minneapolis bedroom, “I don’t look like a heroin addict.” It’s a pointed introduction to an hourlong special about the phenomenon of suburban youngsters being targeted by drug dealers as consumers of a potent form of heroin that doesn’t need to be injected. “I’ve never ... Jump to full article >>

An Indonesian mother brought her 2-year-old boy to the nation’s capital seeking help for his addiction — to cigarettes, officials said. A video of the toddler inhaling deeply on a cigarette and blowing smoke rings showed up on the Internet last week, turning him into a local celebrity, CNN reported Sunday. His mother Diana, who like many Indonesians goes by just one name, met at the Jakarta airport with Seto Mulyadi, chairman of Indo ... Jump to full article >>

CBS 11 reporters took a hidden camera and visited several kiosks that sell electronic smoking devices across Arizona and found that the majority of them are selling their products to teenagers without even asking their age. Ok, everybody knows that electronic cigs are legal, and there are no written age-restrictions for their sales, at least currently. But, scientists doubt their safety for usage by human and particularly kids. Samir Sabry, prop ... Jump to full article >>

WAY TO GO: Jeff Hammond, Wanganui Hospital’s director of nursing, explains the nicotine replacement therapy to registered nurse Katy Mackay. Improving health systems is one thing but changing the public mindset about some health issues is another matter. And the chief executive of Wanganui’s district health board says it’s changing that mindset that will win the war over smoking addiction, diabetes and cardiovascular disease ... Jump to full article >>

Imperial Tobacco Canada destroyed up to 60 early studies that linked cigarettes to addiction and carcinogens, according to a review published Wednesday in the online Canadian Medical Association Journal. The internal studies, done from 1967 to 1984, were destroyed in 1992 on orders from head office at British American Tobacco in the United Kingdom to avoid “exposing the company to liability or embarrassment,” the authors of the revi ... Jump to full article >>

Ottawa’s Bob Reid is trying to understand what’s at the root of the health crisis OTTAWA-When Ottawa’s Bob Reid convened a meeting several years ago to discuss Nunavut’s smoking epidemic, the territory’s health officials, Inuit elders and leaders all shared an overriding concern. Nunavut’s expectant mothers smoked too much, they told him, and required urgent help. “One of the things that was appalling to community members was the d ... Jump to full article >>

Living in a college town, it is not a strange sight to see huddles of people standing outside of bars or just walking down the street lighting up and smoking cigarettes. It is a habit that can start because “everyone else is doing it,” and it escalates from a social habit to addiction. It is not a secret that cigarettes are bad for you. You cannot turn on the television without seeing one of those “Truth” commercials singing musical arr ... Jump to full article >>

Tobacco use is prohibited in hospitals in many European countries, although levels of compliance with this regulation differ. A study carried out by researchers from the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) has shown for the first time that exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in European hospitals is “low”, and “without any notable differences” between them. Europe wants to see smoking in all closed public places banne ... Jump to full article >>