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Doin’ it with Diddy at the Super Bowl: Beverly Hills Cigar Club Scorches South Beach with Golconda Churchill Introduction 

Super Bowl Weekend - Beverly Hills Cigar Club (BHCC) did it with Diddy, launching its new Golconda Churchill at the Sean "Diddy" Combs' celebrity-filled "I am King" Super Bowl event at the Sean John pop-up boutique on Collins Avenue in South Beach.

"Goldwin Tobacco's Louixs, named for Louix XIV, the luxury-loving ruler of France, along with Golconda, perfectly match Diddy's `I Am King' theme. With these cigars, South Beach was a little hotter tonight."

BHCC sponsored Diddy's and several other Miami events as part of the company's Super Bowl Cigar campaign.

Celebrating at Diddy's event were NFL players Hanley Ramirez (Florida Marlins), Ryan Grant (RB Green Bay Packer), Aaron Maybin (Buffalo Bills), Andre Johnson (Houston Texans), Lamar Woodley (Pittsburgh Steelers), Amobi Okoye (Houston Texans), Arron Mavin (Ravens), Dan Connelly (New England Patriots), Lamarr Woodley (Pittsburgh Steelers), Eric Dickerson (Retired Rams) and Hanley Rame-Riez (Florida Marlins).

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PEELE: Stuck in the Mud of De Nial, or Harm Reducer in Chief? 

Let's see, which of my views on addiction is least popular? That most heroin, cocaine, and crack users don't become addicted, and only a small minority of addicts remain addicted? That most alcoholics reduce their drinking over their life spans? That most smokers, alcoholics, and drug addicts recover without treatment? I know - that reducing smoking is possible and healthy (that is, healthier than not reducing it).

Recent presidents have been a boon for my crazy views - George W. quit drinking and smoking on his own (okay, with a religious epiphany). Barack Obama quit his early drug use when he got serious about life. Now, Barack is tackling the biggest taboo of all - cutting out his cigarette addiction but not quitting smoking altogether! . . .

On the other hand, casual smoking is customary around the world - but you know how ignorant those Europeans are about addiction! In America, we know that casual smoking is impossible - we watch Oprah, for chrissake!

Let's talk about the overall smoking picture first, beginning with the young. The data I reviewed in Addiction-Proof Your Child is that smoking has declined among high schoolers, from about three quarters in the nineties who had ever smoked to about a half now, from a third who smoked regularly to a quarter. . . .

But what about Obama - he's well educated, has a pretty good career(!), and has a lovely family. Is it possible that some of those with good overall control of their lives due to education, social support, and career success are able to control their smoking?

The data show that cutting back smoking or smoking occasionally is possible, and it does improve your health.

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Immortal Tobacco Farmer Helped Cure Polio, Flew With Astronauts  

Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer in a “colored” hospital ward in Baltimore in 1951. She would have gone forever unnoticed by the outside world if not for the dime-sized slice of her tumor sent to a lab for research eight months earlier.

Lacks’s cancerous tissue was divided by technicians at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore into dozens of one- millimeter squares, cultured in test tubes in a witch’s brew of chicken blood and cow fetus and labeled “HeLa,” short for Henrietta Lacks.

Taken without Lacks’s knowledge or consent, the HeLa cells changed medical history: They were the first human cells found to be “immortal,” able to reproduce indefinitely outside of the human body, writes Rebecca Skloot in her riveting book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.”

“Henrietta’s cells weren’t merely surviving, they were growing with mythological intensity,” Skloot writes. “They kept growing like nothing anyone had ever seen, doubling their numbers every twenty-four hours.” . . .

Lacks was born in Roanoke, Virginia, on Aug. 1, 1920. Motherless by age 4, she grew up picking tobacco at her grandfather’s farm in Clover, Virginia, and later moved with her husband and family to Turner Station in Baltimore County, Skloot tells us. Lacks was 31 when she died, leaving behind five children

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Get off my cloud, puffs Stone Keith 

Keith Richards has drawn the line when it comes to giving up smoking.

The 66-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist has reportedly given up the bottle after decades of heavy drinking.

The hard-living star sustained serious head injuries when he fell out of a palm tree in Fiji four years ago and he's said to have been warned by doctors that his hedonistic lifestyle is finally taking its toll. He was said to be alarmed by the sight of pal and bandmate Ronnie Wood falling off the wagon recently.

Despite being alcohol-free, pals insist Keith has no intention of giving up cigarettes. . . .

"They'll get over it. It's like prohibition, they tried to stop booze once. Ha! Look what happened. It ruined America."

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Keith Richards gives up the grog 

The legendarily hedonistic Rolling Stones guitarist reportedly stopped drinking a few months ago over health concerns, but is refusing to listen to medical risks and quit his favourite cigarettes.

A friend said: "Keith simply can't start the day without a cigarette. Smoking is now Keith's one and only vice and he isn't stopping." . . .

Keith's refusal to stop smoking, even at indoor venues; flouting smoking bans in many countries, has often incurred the wrath of local authorities, and landed the band in trouble. Keith claims it is an integral part of his onstage persona and he should therefore be allowed to defy strict legislation.

Venting his anger at smoking bans he has said: "It's a bit of a drag because you've got to freeze your b***s off to light a cigarette. You've got to go outside. It's draconian, social, politically correct bulls**t.

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Lawrence Garfinkel dies at 88; statistician helped link smoking to lung cancer 

Lawrence Garfinkel, the statistician who overcame his lack of a doctoral degree and training in oncology to become one of the driving forces in demonstrating that smoking causes lung cancer, died Jan. 21 in Seattle. He was 88.

The cause of death was cardiovascular disease, according to his son Martin.

Garfinkel oversaw the training of thousands of volunteers for the American Cancer Society and helped conduct two of the largest epidemiological studies ever, enrolling more than 2.2 million men and women. Those studies, along with the British Doctors' Study, played key roles in formulating the landmark 1964 surgeon general's report on smoking and health.

"Larry Garfinkel joined the American Cancer Society as a young scientist in 1947, and for more than four decades played an instrumental role in expanding knowledge of and reducing death from smoking," said John R. Seffrin, chief executive of the society. "His remarkable achievement is an important reminder what a tremendous impact an individual can make, and inspires all of us to continue the fight against cancer." . . .

Before 1930, lung cancer was a rare disease never encountered by most physicians. But World War I had turned many American males into smokers, and the aftermath began to become apparent in the 1940s. By 1950, four separate retrospective studies had linked smoking to the disease.

In 1951, British researchers enrolled 40,000 physicians in a study that lasted more than 40 years. At the same time, the cancer society's Dr. E. Cuyler Hammond and Dr. Daniel Horn enrolled 187,783 white males in nine states in a similar study.

Garfinkel, who had joined the society as a sta

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Jersey Shore Cast Quitting Smoking 

The Cast of the Popular show is under fire for wanting to negotiate a new deal for the second season of the show.

They have decided to at least quit using tobacco cigarettes by switching to SmokeStik products.

In the attached picture you can see the cast using the Smokestik Electronic cigarette instead of the usual tobacco cigarette often referred to as "analog" smoking.

More info on this product can be found at www.smokestik.com

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Taylor Momsen, 16, Slammed for Smoking  

Taylor Momsen, 16, was spotted huffing away on a cigarette on the New York City set of Gossip Girl Wednesday -- much to the chagrin of an anti-smoking activist.

Scandalous! See which other stars like to break the rules

"She really has an extra responsibility to bear as an actress idolized by little girls out there," Patrick Reynolds, the director of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free America, tells UsMagazine.com. "For her to be smoking sends the wrong message to kids. Evidence shows that stars do influence kids to smoke."

Not that Momsen cares too much about what her young fans may think of her.

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Retail - Debenhams picks tobacco veteran as chairman 

Debenhams moved to fill its soon-to-be vacant chairman’s post by announcing that it had appointed Nigel Northridge, a tobacco industry veteran, as John Lovering’s successor.

Mr Northridge, 53, is a former chief executive of Gallaher, the cigarette maker that was bought by Japan Tobacco in 2006.

He is chairman of Paddy Power, the bookmaker, and also a non-executive director at Aggreko, Thomas Cook and Inchcape.

Debenhams, which operates 144 department stores in the UK and Ireland, had already appointed Mr Northridge to its board as a non-executive director, a post he formally took up at the start of the year.

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11 Lawyers You Definitely Don't Want To See Across The Aisle: Ted Wells 

Awards: Named Lawyer of the Year in 2006 by The National Law Journal and repeatedly as one of the top 100 most influential lawyers and one of the top white-collar criminal defense lawyers in America.

Greatest Hits: Gave empassioned defense of CIA leaker Scooter Libby, who was eventually (and controversially) pardoned. Defended Citigroup against $30 billion fraud charges. Also represented financier Mike Milken, congressman Mike Espy, and Exxon Mobile.

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11 Lawyers You Definitely Don't Want To See Across The Aisle: Dan Webb  

Awards: Ranked as the number one litigator in the U.S. by Euromoney's Guide to the World's Leading Litigation Lawyers; as the top litigation expert in the U.S. by Guide to the World's Leading Lawyers; and the top white-collar criminal defense attorney by Corporate Crime Reporter.

Greatest Hits: Busted corruption at all levels, up to an interrogation of Ronald Reagan during the Iran-Contra Poindexter trials. He also worked the other side, representing major corporations like Microsoft, Philip Morris, and General Electric.

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Electronic Cigarette Hollywood Stars User Spotted 

Electroniccigarette123.com Ashley Greene and Nikki Reed of the Twilight cast have committed to quit smoking to provide better role models for their young fans. Good! According to a source, the girls "know they are role models for little kids… If there are a ton of paparazzi photos of them smoking, that's not a positive image."

The girls are using electronic cigarettes to quit, which "look like those fake cigarettes actors use in plays," but contain no smoke or tobacco. Which begs the question: How much does that actually help? . . .

The Popularity of electronic cigarettes is rising at an exponential rate and the Hollywood celebrity is continuing with more and more public figures beginning to use them

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Tina O'Brien Smoking Again 

The former 'Coronation Street' actress has started smoking again despite fronting a campaign less than a year ago to help mothers stop smoking.

Sarah, 26, originally quit when she was pregnant with daughter Scarlett, now 15 months old.

She is said to have started again to deal with the stress of the breakdown of her relationship with Scarlett's father and former co-star Ryan Thomas, who she split with in November last year. . . .

Sarah - now appearing in drama 'Waterloo Road' - previously told how she was behind the National Health Service's Smokefree campaign after she had quit for Scarlett's sake.

She said: "This is a campaign I truly believe in - encouraging other mothers to get help. When I found out I was pregnant I realised it wasn't just about me anymore.

"It's actually the single most important thing you can do for the health of your baby. As soon as I found out I was pregnant I quit, I just literally stopped and went cold turkey."

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ARCHIVE: Sir George Godber: Government's Chief Medical Officer who helped to establish the fledgling National Health Service 

It is rising 59 years since George Godber first occupied a pivotal position in the running of the National Health Service. He was hand-picked by Sir Wilson Jameson, then Chief Medical Officer, to behis eventual successor but one and, in 1950, at the age of 41, was appointed his deputy.

As the NHS historian Charles Webster put it in his Problems of Health Care: the National Health Service before 1957 . . .

On his appointment as Deputy Chief Medical Officer and during his time as CMO, Godber put the deficiencies of health care right, ensuring that specialists were evenly distributed, that general practitioners worked in teams in purpose-built health centres, and that all doctors kept up to date with new educational departures. His other important initiatives included putting the contraceptive pill on prescription and launching public health campaigns, particularly against tobacco smoking.

If Godber had his problems with some of the medical heavyweights, such as Lord Moran, whom he called "Corkscrew Charlie", he got on well with Aneurin Bevan and thought that the Conservative Iain Macleod was a good Health Minister. The only trouble was that Macleod was addicted to smoking. Godber recollected that he had said in 1962 to Keith Joseph, another of his Conservative ministers, that "we really have to do something about abolishing smoking" (having won the approval of the Health Minister Enoch Powell). Joseph looked quite shocked and said: "You really can't expect to abolish smoking." Godber replied: "No, but I want to see it reduced to an activity of consenting adults in private."

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Sanchez a smoker?  

While in Birmingham, Ala., to see orthopedist Dr. James Andrews, Mark Sanchez took a little time out Tuesday night to see some music at a club in town called "The Nick." . . .

He signed some autographs, and eyewitnesses said they saw Sanchez smoking a cigarette at the place.

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