Mental illness, tobacco turn out to be deadly combo

By: John Lundy, Duluth News Tribune It’s hard to quit smoking. For individuals struggling with a mental illness, it’s even harder. “They have higher levels of biological or physical addiction to nicotine, in many cases,” said Dr. Jill Williams, an addiction psychiatrist. “In illnesses like depression, studies show that they’re more addicted than other smokers.” Yet […]

New, desirable norm with tobacco

By: Ryan Bakken, Grand Forks Herald Usually, cultural change in North Dakota starts in the bigger cities and seeps down to less populated towns. That isn’t necessarily the case when it comes to tobacco, however. Earlier this year, Cooperstown, N.D., a town of about 1,000 people in Griggs County, passed a tobacco ban in its city […]

Letter: Use all anti-tobacco strategies

By: Rep. Blair Thoreson, Fargo, N.D., INFORUM Several weeks ago, a letter from Dr. Eric Johnson appeared in The Forum in which Johnson made inaccurate accusations regarding a resolution I introduced in the 2013 North Dakota Legislature aimed at reducing the risk of death and disease among smokers. By attempting to distort my motives and tie […]

Tobacco taxes, smoking bans set to save millions of lives: study

RECORDER REPORT Anti-smoking measures including higher taxes on tobacco products, bans on adverts and controls on lighting up in public places could prevent tens of millions of premature deaths across the world, researchers said on Monday. Similar steps taken by Turkey, Romania and 39 other countries between 2007 and 2010 were already saving lives, the […]

Red River Valley Fair limits smoking to three designated areas

WEST FARGO – This year’s Red River Valley Fair here will be smoke-free. Management for the fair, which runs at the Red River Valley Fairground here July 9-14, announced Monday that smoking will largely be banned at this year’s event, except for three designated areas. The fair had to come into compliance with the new […]