Description
More than two million people in Britain are thought to have used electronic cigarettes. Whitehall civil servants think that e-cigarettes are one of the most significant public health success stories of our generation.
Just last week Public Health England published an update on the best evidence available. It found that e-cigarettes have become the number one quitting aid used by smokers. The report said the health risks of using e-cigarettes are minimal when compared to the harm associated with smoking cigarettes. Yet nearly half of all adults perceive e-cigarettes to be at least as harmful as traditional tobacco.
Why?
In Wales, the principality's government plans to ban their use in public places and hopes that a new law will be passed within the next 12 months. Wesley Stephenson asks why the two governments have such different approaches, and who's right?
Presenter: Wesley Stephenson
Producer: Smita Patel
A version of this programme was first broadcast on 3rd July, 2014.
Jamie Bartlett asks if new research into psychedelic drugs will lead to them being accepted as mainstream medical treatment - or whether their controversial history will prove insuperable.
After lying dormant for decades, scientific research into psychedelics is experiencing a renaissance....
Published 04/07/16
Extra armed police have been put on the streets of Dublin after two murders within just four days of each other. It's being blamed on a flare up of gang wars more akin to Sicily. The first involved gunmen carrying Ak47s disguised as police who burst into a respectable hotel packed with people....
Published 03/04/16