I have never been to Hawaii.  But as I understand it, “aloha” is used to say hello and goodbye.  And starting soon, aloha will mean goodbye to cigarettes if you are under the age of 21, as last week Hawaii became the first state in the nation to ban smoking […]

Last Friday, Hawaii’s state legislature passed a bill to prohibit the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to individuals under the age of 21.  Should Governor Ige sign the measure, it would become law on January 1, 2016, making Hawaii the strictest state concerning such sales.  New Jersey, Alabama, […]

Combustible tobacco kills, as evidenced by the close to half a million people each year in this country who die from tobacco smoking related diseases.   In response to dwindling interest from the public to their combustible products, and to increase the market share of nicotine addiction, the tobacco industry and […]

Today people across the United States and in parts of the world will wear blue clothes and wrist bands to recognize the health crisis of autism in the world. The Washington Post carried an article today that suggests the very real world of autism from a mom of three autistic […]

Safeguarding, streamlining, strengthening the clinical trial process is one of three of the Food and Drug Administration’s primary goals for 2015. So states an 11-page document titled 2014 – 2015 Strategic Priorities. The other two goals focus on 1) striking a better balance between data collection requirements and the time […]

In June 2014, at the Advanced Judicial Studies conference, SDSBS attorney Jim Gustafson was sworn in as treasurer of FJA by Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court, Jorge Labarga. During the conference, Mr. Gustafson spoke to circuit court judges about trying tobacco cases. Also, The Florida Bar Association announced […]

For those who fight the tobacco industry, the recent $23.6 billion punitive damages jury verdict in a case tried in Pensacola against R.J. Reynolds was not astonishing. It reflects moral outrage after details about the tobacco industry’s dark past, and present, were disclosed. Public knowledge of the health risks of […]

Palm Beach County Initiative Provides Public Boxes for Disposing of Old Medications Did you know prescription painkillers are the most commonly abused drugs by teenagers? Did you know 2,000 youths per day try prescription pills for the first time? Did you know two-thirds of boys and girls who become addicted […]

Opioids are frequently prescribed to ease the pain for those suffering from cancer but the city of Chicago believes the drug use has gone above and beyond cancer pain and it’s suing Big Pharma for aggressively pushing the powerful and addictive drugs on the general public. The city claims to […]

This news is not surprising to anyone who pays attention to medical device recalls. There has been a substantial jump in medical device recalls – up 97 percent over the last decade! This news comes from the division within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that regulates medical devices. […]