News

Three tobacco giants face the prospect of paying close to $25 billion to Canadian provinces and territories and more than $4 billion to tens of thousands of Quebec smokers and their loved ones as part of a corporate restructuring process triggered by a long-running legal battle.

As more states have legalized the sale of cannabis, a fractured and inconsistent legal framework has emerged across the country that has prioritized sales income and tax revenue over public health, a new report finds.

The number of U.S. teenagers who reported using e-cigarettes in 2024 has tumbled from a worrisome peak reached five years ago, raising hopes among public health officials for a sustained reversal in vaping trends among adolescents in the U.S.

Starting next week, the federal government will impose new restrictions on nicotine pouches to make it illegal to sell them anywhere but from behind a pharmacy counter.

An international study of youth found that vaping was associated with higher reporting of past-week respiratory symptoms compared to non-vapers, similar to levels reported by youth smokers. Among those who vaped, fruit flavours and nicotine salts were associated with greater respiratory symptoms.

A new study with youth in Canada, England, and the United States indicate that measures of vaping dependence  have increased substantially since 2017 to levels that are comparable to cigarette dependence among youth who smoke.

Prohibiting individuals born after a certain date from ever being able to legally purchase cigarettes, once seen as a radical way to reduce smoking rates, could soon become the norm on Prince Edward Island.

Individually labelled cigarettes are already appearing in Canadian stores as companies rush to comply with new law for king-size smokes by Tuesday

US Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday recommended loosening restrictions on marijuana, a historic shift in federal drug policy that could broaden access to the drug for medicinal use and boost cannabis industries in states where it is legal.

The proposal had been years in the making, in an effort to curb death rates of Black smokers targeted by Big Tobacco. In an election year, the president’s worries about support among Black voters may have influenced the postponement.

The federal government says it will launch a national school food program, hoping to deliver meals to an additional 400,000 children per year.

Federal cannabis review calls for look at tax structure among 54 recommendations.

A federal appeals court on Thursday said a U.S. government requirement that cigarette packs and advertisements contain graphic warnings about the dangers of smoking is constitutional.

In the days when smoking was advertised everywhere, the sell was often genuinely bizarre: from dancing polar bears to Ronald Reagan to recommendations from friendly doctors.

The German parliament has backed a new law to allow the recreational use of cannabis. Under the law, over-18s in Germany will be allowed to possess substantial amounts of cannabis, but strict rules will make it difficult to buy the drug.

As sales of edibles are trending up, cannabis brands are emphasizing the idea that the products might offer a healthier alternative to bongs or blunts. “Edibles allow you to enjoy cannabis without the negative side effects of smoking,” reads the website of Kiva, which makes cannabis chocolate bars and fruit-flavored gummies. Consumers are increasingly asking whether that’s the case, but the answer is complicated.

Ministers are to ban disposable vapes as part of a UK-wide drive to curb youth vaping. The government is also seeking to make vaping less appealing to children by restricting sweet and fruity flavours, introducing plain packaging and making displays less visible in shops, under newly announced powers.

Adverse events from cannabis are commonly reported by consumers across a range of products, with relatively few changes from before to after ‘recreational’ cannabis legalization in Canada.

Kids follow social-media influencers who boost addictive drugs to audiences who are too young to legally buy them. Zyn, social media, and young people in the United States.

US federal scientist conclude that marijuana is neither as risky nor as prone to abuse as other tightly controlled substances and has potential medical benefits, and therefore should be removed from the nation’s most restrictive category of drugs.

Single-use vapes will be banned from being imported into Australia from the beginning of next year as part of the federal government’s vaping crackdown. The government has confirmed the first stage of its crackdown will begin on January 1, when a ban on the importation of disposable single-use vapes will commence.

A new paper on cannabis-related arrests and disparities by race, socioeconomic factors, and neighbourhood deprivation scores was published in the Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse. The study uses data from the International Cannabis Policy Study in the two years following legalization of ‘recreational’ cannabis in Canada.

Health experts are urging the federal government to impose a lifetime ban on cigarette sales to anyone born after 2008, a proposal inspired by a New Zealand policy being shelved by that country’s new Prime Minister.