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Smoking will be prohibited in public housing residences nationwide under a federal rule announced on Wednesday. Officials with the Department of Housing and Urban Development said that the rule would take effect early next year, but that public housing agencies would have a year and a half to put smoke-free policies in place. The rule will affect more than 1.2 million households, the officials said, although some 200,000 homes already come under smoking bans adopted voluntarily by hundreds of public housing agencies around the country. (Navarro, 11/30)

Smoking will be banned from public-housing units nationwide, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro announced Wednesday. Castro said public housing will be required to provide a smoke-free environment for residents. Castro said HUD's new rule will provide resources and support to more than 3,100 Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) to implement required smoke-free policies over the next 18 months, according to a press release from HUD. (Ewinger, 11/30)

Philip Morris International Inc.’s chief executive on Wednesday said the tobacco giant could walk away from selling traditional cigarettes altogether someday, as the company launches its heat-not-burn product in the U.K. “There will come a moment in time where I would say we have sufficient adoption of these alternative products…and sufficient awareness to start envisaging together with government a phaseout period for cigarettes, and I hope this time will come soon,” Andre Calantzopoulos said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp.’s Radio 4. (Chaudhuri, 11/30)

In an “exit interview” with Rolling Stone magazine, President Obama said that marijuana use should be treated as a public-health issue similar to tobacco or alcohol and called the current patchwork of state and federal laws regarding the drug “untenable.” “Look, I’ve been very clear about my belief that we should try to discourage substance abuse,” Obama said. “And I am not somebody who believes that legalization is a panacea. But I do believe that treating this as a public-health issue, the same way we do with cigarettes or alcohol, is the much smarter way to deal with it.” (Ingraham, 11/30)