For years, the President has struggled with a much publicized nicotine addiction, and this executive decision is bound to raise the hackles of nutrition experts, not to mention closer to home, where the First Lady, Michelle Obama, has advocated healthy eating habits and exercise. When asked if that may create tension within the White House, the President replied I hope not.

Other items disallowed on the food stamp list include vitamins, medicine, hot food or food eaten in a store, live animals, and cosmetics.

Major tobacco manufacturers and alcohol distributors have been slow to overly praise the decision, seen as controversial from both sides of the political aisle. Members of the GOP have also remained strangely silent in their usual criticism of the President s every action, owing to the fact that many members of Congress are on vacation and receive large subsidies from the alcohol and tobacco industries.

The next national economic report won t be issued until after the 2014 holidays, when the success or failure of the President s latest executive order to jump start the economy will be adequately measured.

Campus debit cards let students buy cigarettes with parents’ money — sciencedaily

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“Parents put money on these debit cards and kids spend the money. What parents don’t realize is that tobacco may be purchased with some of these college debit cards,” says Robert P. Dellavalle, MD, PhD, MSPH, investigator at the CU Cancer Center, associate professor of dermatology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and the study’s senior author.

Many colleges offer prepaid debit cards linked to students’ campus ID cards, that can be used either at on campus vending areas like bookstores and cafeterias, and/or at off campus vendors that act like preferred providers. Providers generally pay a premium to be included in these campus linked networks. The current study examined online lists of on and off campus vendors (with phone and email follow up as needed) to discover universities whose policies allow the sale of tobacco and e cigarettes within the campus debit card network.

In all, 94 of the 100 surveyed universities included an ID linked debit card program, with a total enrollment of 1,452,048 students. Previous research shows that of university students who smoke, 42 percent had used campus debit cards to purchase cigarettes.

“Cracking down on this ‘campus cash’ is a major opportunity for these colleges to take a step toward preventing tobacco use on their campuses,” says Lindsay Boyers, Georgetown University medical student working in the Dellavalle Laboratory, and the paper’s first author.

In addition to the direct health effects of tobacco and e cigarette products, the researchers point out that what is sold on campuses and within the networks of campus approved vendors can reflect what is deemed socially acceptable behavior.

“Universities shouldn’t be taking debit card fees from in network vendors selling tobacco products to their students,” Dellavalle says.

The paper suggests that, “As an organization dedicated to university health, the American College Health Association can take a stand on this issue by banning universities from selling tobacco products on campus and prohibiting debit card purchase of off campus tobacco products.”