Touching Your Phone While Driving Is Now Illegal in Idaho, Illinois, and Indiana
Plus: More (bad, weird, and occasionally good) new state laws that start taking effect today.
Cigarettes
Can Nicotine Treat COVID-19? French Researchers Think So.
Plus: abortion bans defeated again, Peter Thiel company gets contact tracing contract, and more...
How Truth Became a Casualty of the War on Smoking
Different types of nicotine consumption pose different amounts of risk.
A Special Festivus Airing of Grievances from the Reason Roundtable Podcast
We've got a lot of problems with you people.
Gov. Cuomo's Plan To Attack Cigarette Retailers Will Fuel New York's Black Market
More than half of cigarettes consumed in the state are smuggled from elsewhere, thanks to high taxes.
Since Adolescent Drug Use Trends Are Otherwise Unalarming, Let's Freak Out About Vaping
The government and the press focus on newfangled contraptions instead of drug-related harm.
Public Health Scholars Warn: 'Prohibitionist' E-Cigarette Policies Undermine a 'Tremendous' Harm Reduction Opportunity
The Science article is a wake-up call for people who claim to be concerned about smoking-related disease and death.
Although Teenagers Are 80% Less Likely to Smoke Than They Were in 1999, the CDC Insists No Progress Has Been Made
The agency’s indifference between smoking and vaping is scientifically indefensible.
As the FDA Prepares to Ban E-Cigarette Flavors, the Government's Own Data Contradict Wild Claims About Adolescent Nicotine Addiction
The ban's supporters falsely claim that "a whole generation of young people" is "addicted to these products."
New Study Casts Further Doubt on Warnings That Vaping Is a Gateway to Smoking
An analysis of survey data finds that pre-existing differences entirely explain the association between e-cigarette use and current smoking among teenagers.
The NYPD Officer Fired for Choking Eric Garner Is Suing To Get His Job Back
Pantaleo's lawyer says it’s “arbitrary and capricious” to fire a cop for choking a guy over black market cigarettes.
The Belated Approval of a Harm-Reduction Claim for Smokeless Tobacco Highlights the Potentially Deadly Impact of FDA Censorship
The FDA finally has agreed to allow a mild statement about the relative hazards of snus and cigarettes.
Vaping Panic Ignores How E-Cigarettes Save Lives
H.L. Mencken defined Puritanism as "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." The rub against vaping, and other smokeless tobacco products, is that people enjoy it.
Witness Says Vaping Helped Her Quit Smoking. Rashida Tlaib Asks 'Are You a Conspiracy Theorist?'
"Vaping is a health miracle to me," said ex-smoker Vicki Porter. "Not safe, but less harmful."
It Wasn't Just a Chokehold That Killed Eric Garner
His death resulted from a violent confrontation that never should have happened.
FDA Unveils Graphic New Warning Labels for Cigarettes
The same federal agency that has led a crackdown on vaping is now trying to make smoking even less appealing.
The Debate Hecklers Were Right; the Officer Who Killed Eric Garner Should Be Punished
Chanters demand NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo's firing.
Anti-Vaping Researchers Claim E-Cigarettes Cause Heart Attacks Before Smokers Try Them
A study suggesting that e-cigarettes double the risk of a heart attack ignored crucial information on timing.
No Federal Charges in Eric Garner's Death at Hands of New York Police
Wednesday marks five years since an officer’s deadly chokehold was captured on video.
Senate Bill Would Ban Smoking and Vaping for Americans Under Age 21
Plus: Six-week abortion bans are proliferating, extremism as excuse for censorhip, Soylent made a snack bar
Incoming FDA Commissioner Sharpless Shouldn't Stop Snus, the Safer Swedish Smoking Alternative
Even as the FDA continues to crack-down on vaping, it appears ready to allow snus to be sold as what it is: a safer alternative to smoking.
Republican Senator Pitches Weird Conspiracy Theory About Weed Legalization, Menthol Cigarettes, and the FDA
Sen. Richard Burr raises an interesting point about onerous regulation, but his argument is baffling.
New York City Greets the New Year With a Host of New Nanny-State Rules
Styrofoam bans, cigarette restrictions, and Uber taxes are just some of the regulations New Yorkers will have to contend with in 2019.
Minneapolis' Healthy Foods Mandate Screws Over Ethnic Grocers
The city's Staple Food Ordinance mandates that stores carry products customers don't want.
Buttinskies Demand Ban On Cigarette Filters
Don't blame smokers for cigarette butts on the street. Blame the policies that pushed them to smoke there.
Cigarette Smuggling Keeps Illinois Residents in Affordable Smokes
High tobacco taxes neither raise revenue nor discourage smoking.
FDA's Low-Nicotine Cigarette Scheme Is an Invitation to Black Market Vendors
People will find sources for what they want no matter what presumptuous regulators say.
Are Health Advocates Finally Wising Up About the Nature of Risk?
Everything we do entails risk. The question is our tolerance for it.
E-Cigarettes Can Be Lifesavers
An FDA-sponsored report confirms the harm-reducing potential of vaping yet worries, implausibly, that it will boost adolescent smoking.
Stossel: NY Strangles Small Business
Keeping up with New York regulations is enough to shut down some businesses.
Adolescent Smoking Rates Reach Historic Lows, Despite Vaping's Popularity
Past-month cigarette use by high school seniors has fallen by 73 percent since 1997.
Fixating on Adolescent Vaping Could Be Deadly for Adult Smokers
A new critique of the surgeon general's report on e-cigarettes puts underage use in perspective.
FDA Lies About Vaping While the CDC Inches Toward the Truth
Federal officials deny big reductions in adolescent tobacco use and obscure the harm-reducing potential of e-cigarettes.
A Cap on Nicotine in Cigarettes Would Be Hazardous to Health
If "light" cigarettes were a scam, how can "nonaddictive" cigarettes be a boon?
The FDA Warms to Vaping
Embracing harm reduction, the agency's new head tries to make e-cigarette regulations less onerous.
Embracing Harm Reduction, FDA Gives E-Cigarette Industry a Regulatory Reprieve
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb extends a crucial application deadline by four years and promises "a greater awareness" of vaping's health advantages.
New Study Provides Strong Evidence That E-Cigarettes Boost Smoking Cessation
Quit rates rose with e-cigarette sales, and vapers are more likely to stop smoking.
As Vaping Exploded Among Teenagers, Smoking Fell by Half
Defying its own data, the CDC continues to obscure the enormous harm-reducing potential of e-cigarettes.
NYC Mayor Encourages Cigarette Smuggling with Plan to Massively Jack Up Prices
City with highest cost per pack also has highest bootlegging rate. Imagine that.