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Oregon to Significantly Raise Vapor Product Prices

By Derek Hosford, American Consumer Institute   Last election day, Oregon voters overwhelmingly approved a new tax measure on nicotine products in an attempt to reduce the rate of smoking and save its citizens money on healthcare costs. This proposal, also called the Tobacco and E-Cigarette Tax Increase for Health Programs Measure, took effect this year and increased […]

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Washington Beyond the Headlines: Real Ideas for Police Reform

By Andy Blom, TES Washington Editor   We all know the bad news – you can take your pick!  So here’s the good news: free market policy people keep right on working through the storm, offering perspective and policy options to lead us to better times. This week’s news …   “Fixing” the Police. Some […]

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WEEKLY UPDATE: Can economic freedom survive populism?

  The future prosperity of the world hangs in the balance   The wave of populism that has swept the world in recent years had its origins in a number of converging trends, including large-scale migration, globalization, and the financial crisis of 2008, all of which fueled a sense that legacy elites are self-interested and […]

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Legalize It: CDC vaping findings support ending pot prohibition

  “CDC Study on Vaping‐​Related Lung Injuries Strengthens the Case for Cannabis Legalization” By Jeffrey A. Singer, courtesy of the Cato Institute   In what it hailed as a “breakthrough,” on November 8, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published the results of its analysis of lung fluid samples from 29 different patients hospitalized for vaping […]

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Pot earnings disappoint, but growers and execs remain, like, unfazed

    Anyone who predicted that broad legalization of cannabis for medical and recreational uses, still gathering momentum around the world, would translate into an easy payday for growers and investors, were disabused of this pleasant vision over the last year. Earnings of major growers and retailers have disappointed, sending pot stocks spiraling downward. Nonetheless […]

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Don’t freak out over vaping, say UK docs

                    While U.S. regulators and public health officials have declared war on vaping, seemingly unmoved by its potential utility for harm reduction as an alternative to smoking, their British counterparts are considerably more sanguine, judging by their response to panicked reports of a handful of deaths […]

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We Need A Rational Harm Reduction Strategy for Veterans’ Health

        By Rory E. Riley-Topping, veterans’ advocate and TES Contributor     The sentiment “horror vaccui,” which translates to “nature abhors a vacuum,” is usually attributed to Aristotle.  The phrase loosely means that if you take something away, something else will naturally end up filling that space.  In terms of military and foreign policy, […]

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“We are clearly moving away from an evidence-based approach to regulation.”

  By Erik Sass TES Editor   One of the more confounding mysteries of U.S. public health regulation in recent years has been the crackdown on new forms of nicotine delivery, including e-cigarettes and vaping. On the face of it these new technologies, though still bad for human health, are vastly preferable to regular cigarettes, […]