Tobacco industry critics say a new R.J. Reynolds ad campaign for smoke-free New Year’s resolutions is really an attempt to keep people from quitting nicotine. The North Carolina-based company for the first time is advertising its smokeless tobacco pouches called snus (SNOOZ) as alternatives to smoking. The carefully worded magazine ads say the company supports quitting tobacco use but goes on to suggest the pouches as “smoke-freeR ... Jump to full article >>

New anti-smoking warnings on cigarette packs, to be announced by the federal government Thursday, will feature images of an iconic Canadian cancer victim and cover a full three-quarters of the packages’ surface. The significant increase in the size of the often-stark ads comes after opposition MPs on the House of Commons health committee recently threw their weight behind a long-standing movement to bump up the mandatory ads from the current l ... Jump to full article >>

As people were encouraged to quit smoking during the 2010 Great American Smoke out on November 18, attention was also paid to tobacco ads targeting kids. A survey, which was released by Queens Smoke-Free Partnership, Asian Americans for Equality and the American Cancer Society (ACS) Asian Initiative, was conducted at 34 retailers located within 1,000 feet of schools that were licensed to sell tobacco in Queens. Retailers were selected at random ... Jump to full article >>

For a typical college student, if it didn’t happen on Facebook, it didn’t happen. That gives the social networking behemoth an out-sized influence on the confines of political debate, if that debate falls outside what Facebook deems acceptable discourse. Proponents of marijuana legalization, which is on the California ballot in 2010, have hit a Facebook wall in their effort to grow an online campaign to rethink the nation’s pot ... Jump to full article >>