| TX $50 Scratch-Off Popular In Middle-Income Areas
The Texas Lottery sells the most tickets for its $50 scratch-off game in middle-income neighborhoods and not in the affluent areas originally touted as the game's target, according to a newspaper analysis. The study by the San Antonio Express-News and the Houston Chronicle found the $50 game, called the $130 Million Spectacular, to be most popular in areas with incomes of just more than $30,000 and in those with earnings in the $50,000 and $60,000 range. The lottery sold fewer $50 tickets in the state's richest and poorest areas, although per-capita sales were stronger in neighborhoods with median incomes of $20,000 or less than in neighborhoods with incomes of $90,000 or more. When the $50 game debuted last May as the nation's most expensive lottery ticket, lottery officials said they wanted to attract customers who didn't typically play scratch-off games.
Age Affects Motivation for Quitting Smoking
CHICAGO, Oct. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- A new study shows that obstacles to smoking cessation and motives for quitting smoking vary with age. The study presented at CHEST 2007, the 73rd annual international scientific assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), found that smokers over age 65 reported quitting smoking due to physician pressure and stress due to a major health problem, while smokers under age 65 reported cigarette cost and tobacco odor as reasons for quitting. "The current common perception among the medical community is that if smokers age 65 and older haven't quit by now, they can't or won't quit -- a perception which may lead physicians to focus less on their older patients' smoking habit," said lead study author Virginia Reichert, NP, Center for Tobacco Control, North Shore-LIJ Health System, Great Neck, New York.
Fergie's crystal meth dreams of bliss
Bill: You see the headlines Fergie made last week, talking about her methamphetamine addiction? The lead singer of the Black-Eyed Peas, with everything to live for, saying she'd been living in a state of "chemically induced paranoid schizophrenia." Dr. Dave: She went into the 12 Step Program of Narcotics Anonymous to get clean and sober- but could have ridden her addiction to a hospital or jail. Bill: She wouldn't be the first who died of it, either. Dr. Dave: She made a vow to herself in the middle of a meth hallucination: "I was convinced the FBI and SWAT team were outside my house and told myself: 'OK, if you walk through that door and nobody is there, it's the drugs'". Fortunately for her, it WAS the drugs and she ended up in rehab. Bill: Not everyone is that smart, or lucky.
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