In this Critical Opportunities presentation Michelle Mello, JD, PhD, makes the case that raising the tobacco purchasing age to 21 would aid in reducing minors' tobacco use by 50 percent, which would prevent 10 million people from becoming daily smokers and avoid 3 million premature deaths.
Medical marijuana laws have been suggested as a possible cause of increases in marijuana use among adolescents in the United States. The study results suggest that, in the states assessed (Montana, Rhode Island, Michigan, and Delaware), medical marijuana laws have not measurably affected adolescent marijuana use in the first few years after their enactment. Longer-term results, after medical marijuana laws are more fully implemented, might be different.
University of Washington, Office of Sponsored Programs
In this article for the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (now JAMA Pediatrics), the author discusses two articles, by McCabe, et al. and Meier et al., but also raises two questions about the issues of opioid abuse and adolescents. He asks, "What is the role of parents and what is the role of the prescriber, and others, in educating parents about the potential hazards of opioids, the relative need for them, how to safeguard them at home, and the need to dispose of unused medications immediately?"
University of Washington, Office of Sponsored Programs
Patricia Kuszler, MD, JD •
University of Washington, Office of Sponsored Programs
Opioid overdoses are an important public health concern. Concerns about police involvement at overdose events may decrease calls to 911 for emergency medical care thereby increasing the chances than an overdose becomesfatal. To address this concern, Washington State passed a law that provides immunity from drug possession charges and facilitates the availability of take-home-naloxone (the opioid overdose antidote) to bystanders in 2010.
Prescription drug overdose is now the leading cause of accidental death. In his Critical Opportunities presentation, Corey Davis, JD, staff attorney at the Network for Public Health Law, suggests that easier access to opioid overdose reversal drugs like naloxone could help prevent overdose deaths.
Alexander Wagenaar, PhD, professor at University of Florida, suggests in his Critical Opportunities presentation that doubling the rate of alcohol taxes and building in automatic annual adjustments for inflation could help solve some of these alcohol-related public health issues.
The Problem: Tobacco use is a source of chronic and fatal illnesses for users and persons with secondary exposure. Smoking is responsible for approximately one in five deaths in the United States, causing 480,000 deaths annually. Smoking increases risk for stroke by as much as four times, coronary heart disease by as much as four times, lung cancer by about 25 times, and diminishes overall health. Quitting smoking vastly reduces risk; within 2-5 years following cessation, risk of stroke drops to that of a non-smoker.
The Problem: The operation of motor vehicles while intoxicated is a major public health problem. In 2016, roughly 10,500 people died in motor vehicle crashes involving an alcohol-impaired driver, accounting for nearly one-third of all traffic related deaths. CDC: Impaired Driving Factsheet. Approximately 6,500 (62%) of these individuals had a blood alcohol content (BAC) level of 0.08 g/dL or higher. The remaining fatalities consisted of passengers (29%) and non-passengers (9%).
