There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains a major public health problem. It is the fourth leading cause of chronic morbidity and mortality in the United States, and is projected to rank fifth in 2020 in burden of disease worldwide, according to a study published by the World Bank/World Health Organization. Yet, COPD remains relatively unknown or ignored by the public as well as public health and government officials. In 1998, in an effort to bring more attention to COPD, its management, and its prevention, a committed group of scientists encouraged the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the World Health Organization to form the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD). Among the important objectives of GOLD are to increase awareness of COPD and to help the millions of people who suffer from this disease and die prematurely of it or its complications. The first step in the GOLD program was to prepare a consensus report, Global Strategy for the Diagnosis, Management, and Prevention of COPD, published in 2001. The present, newly revised document follows the same format as the original consensus report, but has been updated to reflect the many publications on COPD that have appeared. GOLD national leaders, a network of international experts, have initiated investigations of the causes and prevalence of COPD in their countries, and developed innovative approaches for the dissemination and implementation of COPD management guidelines. We appreciate the enormous amount of work the GOLD national leaders have done on behalf of their patients with COPD. Despite the achievements in the 5 years since the GOLD report was originally published, considerable additional work is ahead of us if we are to control this major public health problem. The GOLD initiative will continue to bring COPD to the attention of governments, public health officials, health care workers, and the general public, but a concerted effort by all involved in health care will be necessary.

https://www.who.int/respiratory/copd/GOLD_WR_06.pdf

Global strategy for the diagnosis, management, and prevention of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: GOLD executive summary.

Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(12)61728-0.pdf

Global and regional mortality from 235 causes of death for 20 age groups in 1990 and 2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(12)61766-8.pdf

A comparative risk assessment of burden of disease and injury attributable to 67 risk factors and risk factor clusters in 21 regions, 1990-2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010

Aim
To examine briefly the (i) rationales for two policy proposals in the United States to make it mandatory for cigarettes to contain very low levels of nicotine and to legalize cannabis for recreational use by adults; and (ii) possible lessons that participants in each policy debate may learn from each other

Method
We briefly describe the diverging policies towards cannabis and tobacco in the United States, explain and critically analyse their rationales and discuss possible policy lessons

Results
Advocates of cannabis legalization have argued that prohibition has been an ineffective and expensive policy that penalizes ethnic minority users unjustly of a drug that is far less harmful than alcohol The prohibition of traditional tobacco cigarettes has been advocated as a way to eliminate cigarette smoking These proposals embody very different attitudes towards the harms of recreational adult drug use Advocates of nicotine prohibition demand that alternative methods of nicotine delivery must be shown to be completely safe before adults are allowed to use them Advocates of tobacco prohibition ignore evidence that smokers may not use these products and the likelihood of expanding the illicit tobacco market Advocates of legalizing and regulating recreational cannabis ignore the need to tax and regulate sales in order to minimize the harms of heavy use

Conclusions
It is not clear that the prohibition of adult use has a useful role to play in the regulation of either cannabis or tobacco If both products remain legal, the goals of regulating tobacco and cannabis products should be to restrict youth access, promote the use of the least harmful products, provide users with evidence-based information on both absolute and differential product risks of use and use differential taxes and marketing controls to promote ways of using these products that cause the least harm to their users

The diverging trajectories of cannabis and tobacco policies in the United States: reasons and possible implications

There are a number of ethical, social, and personal implications generated by the potential development and use of technologies that may extend human longevity by intervening in aging. Despite speculations about likely public attitudes toward life extension, to date there have been few attempts to empirically examine the public's perspective of these issues. Using open-ended survey questions via telephone interviews, this study explored the attitudes of 605 members of the Australian public toward the implications of life extension. Participants were asked to briefly describe in their own words what they believed would be the beneficial, as well as negative, implications arising from life extension (if there were any), both for themselves personally and for society as a whole. Participants were also asked to describe any ethical concerns they had about life extension, if they had any at all. All open-ended responses were collated and then underwent a thematic analysis to uncover commonly cited issues regarding personal benefits/negatives, societal benefits/negatives, and ethical concerns. A considerable number of participants envisioned at least some beneficial as well as negative implications for themselves and for society, and many claimed to have at least some ethical concerns. Some novel issues were raised as well as a number of those discussed within the bioethical literature. The results should encourage researchers, bioethicists, and policy makers to engage with members of the public about the goals of research surrounding life extension, the expected outcomes of such research, and the likely implications for individuals and society.

Ethical, social, and personal implications of extended human lifespan identified by members of the public.

tag=1 data=The health and psychological effects of cannabis use. by Wayne Hall

tag=2 data=Hall, Wayne

tag=3 data=Current Issues in Criminal Justice,

tag=4 data=6

tag=5 data=2

tag=6 data=November 1994

tag=7 data=208-220.

tag=8 data=DRUGS

tag=10 data=Appraisals of the health hazards of recreational drug use are unavoidable affected by the societal approval or disapproval of the drug in question.

tag=11 data=1996/2/1

tag=12 data=96/0021

tag=13 data=CAB

The health and psychological effects of cannabis use. by Wayne Hall

Purpose of reviewTo describe the rationale of vaccines against cocaine and nicotine, to review progress in developing and trialing vaccines to treat dependence on these drugs and to discuss some of the ethical issues that may arise from their use in legally coerced addiction treatment or for prevent

/pdf/ethical-and-policy-issues-in-using-vaccines-to-treat-and-4subebgot5.pdf

Ethical and policy issues in using vaccines to treat and prevent cocaine and nicotine dependence

https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:152940/HallSSM2261986.pdf

Wayne Hall

Papers

The diverging trajectories of cannabis and tobacco policies in the United States: reasons and possible implications

Ethical, social, and personal implications of extended human lifespan identified by members of the public.

The health and psychological effects of cannabis use. by Wayne Hall

Ethical and policy issues in using vaccines to treat and prevent cocaine and nicotine dependence

Social class and survival on the S.S. Titanic