E-cigs in the news

As the FDA prepares to limit where electronic cigarettes can be sold, agency head Scott Gottlieb was getting criticism from conservatives for trying to limit sales. Gottlieb (who used to work for the very conservative American Enterprise Institute*) shot back:

“My former friends in the libertarian community who think this is emblematic of nanny-state government intervention and denying adults access to legal pleasures — I hope that when they sit and think about the data we’re seeing they’re willing to accept modest speed bumps in terms of the access adults will have to these products to hopefully close off the access of these products to kids.”

Meanwhile, e-cig maker Juul is shutting its Facebook and Instagram accounts in an effort not to market to kids. (It’s a bit late to close that barn door, say critics.) It’s also getting rid of its sweeter flavors that appeal to kids.

And elsewhere, other e-cig companies are touting — I kid you not — vaping to get vitamins, with names like “VitaminVape” and “Vitamin Air.”

Congrats to PharmD on Demand

It was just named one of the UGA Alumni Association’s 10th annual Bulldog 100!

Rural Georgia, wired

With some help from Mercer, telehealth services are coming to Jimmy Carter’s hometown — and potentially the rest of rural Georgia.

Ups and downs in Carrollton

Carrollton police say they’ve seized a record amount of oxycodone — 900 pills, plus nearly 100 alprazolam and 81 Vyvanse. They speculate it was likely stolen from area residents.

Tip your hat to the new institution

Having laws and regs keep up with medical advances is tough stuff. One molecular change, for example, and something goes from C-I to unregulated. So UGA’s College of Pharmacy is launching a new institute to teach and explore the issues: the Institute for International Biomedical Regulatory Sciences.

American exceptionalism

The U.S. leads the world in overdose deaths — we have more than twice the rate other modern countries*. Worse, we have the second-highest increase in that death rate (only Estonia’s is increasing faster).

Quitting: No time like the present

It can take 16 years after quitting for heavy smokers not to be at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease.

Antibiotics as nutrition

One way to fight resistant antibiotics is to remove them from the environment. How do we do that? By creating bacteria that eat them, of course.

[Researcher Gautam] Dantas had exposed one group of soil microbes to a dose of antibiotic, which he figured the bacteria wouldn’t eat. A week later, a group grown on a diet of plant matter — and exposed to no antibiotics — had grown only a little. In the dishes filled with antibiotic, however, most of the microbes were having a picnic. Instead of proving deadly, the antibiotics were providing sustenance.