House Votes to Regulate Tobacco as a Drug
I don’t smoke. This potential new bill isn’t really going to have any effect on me, so perhaps it’s not my place to judge it. I’m going to anyway.
I don’t like it.
Sure, it sounds nice. The FDA will regulate tobacco products. They can decrease nicotine levels in cigarettes to a non-addictive amount. They can prohibit tobacco companies from using the words "light" and "ultra light" (inferring these cigarettes are somehow better for you) on their products’ packaging. The FDA will limit advertising and place graphic images of lung cancer on product packaging.
While they won’t be able to entirely ban tobacco products, the FDA will make it so cigarette companies cannot produce flavored cigarettes, which attract younger people to the habit. Menthol cigarettes can still be manufactured (though now they’re looking into researching reasons to ban those as well).
It sounds nice, but here’s why I don’t like it.
The FDA is already overworked and understaffed. I believe the word the Boston Globe used to describe its condition was "critical." Do you know anyone with a pacemaker? You know, the handy machine that regulates heart beats. The FDA, according to its own rules, is supposed to monitor the production of those every 2 years. Because of limited staff and resources, the manufacturers are checked every 3 years instead. Did you know 80% of the medications we use come from overseas? Every year, the FDA inspects about 7% of those. In 2007, out of 190,000 foreign food plants that ship to the US, the FDA inspected 100.
Why add another burden to the FDA's already too-heavy load? This bill really does sound nice but, honestly, I'd rather the FDA spent the time for that making sure my carrots aren't contaminated with some weird flesh-eating bacteria.
This new FDA responsibility is nothing more than a waste of resources. Cigarettes are dangerous, sure, but everyone already knows that. The FDA regulates (or tries to) health products. They make them safe, and keep them beneficial to the public. No matter how well the FDA may be able to regulate tobacco products, they will never be able to make them safe. They are not, and never will be, a benefit to the public. This bill isn’t even going to eliminate second-hand smoke. All it’s going to do is put a nice Government seal of approval onto each box of cigarettes, which brings about my last concern (for now).
Explain to me how that isn’t going to backfire into their faces. Everyone! The government is now endorsing tobacco! It must be ok to use now!
When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognized. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before.
-John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Industrialist, Prohibition Supporter
Well, at least the Government isn’t trying to ban tobacco products entirely, but this bill is coming pretty close to the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. It’s a nice first step. I really hope history doesn’t repeat itself...
Oh it will
Gangsters got thier bigs start from Prohibition
I wonder what will come out of it this time?
did you watch the Onion Movie LOL
where the government outlawed smoking in every state except one room in Minnesota
Saint O Nothin' Says
Always go FORWARD, going straight will get you no where!
-Greenday
I have not seen the onion movie and I really, really want to. Maybe I'll go rent it.
Another good one is Thank You for Smoking. I own that one. I love it; It's my kind of humor. ;-)
"What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact."
Don Williams, Jr.
Read my Blog!
The Sex Change Blog
IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING
i thought it was going to be a documentary but was Pleasently Surprised
(i voted for Harvey Dent)
how he tricked the cowboy smoker was one of my favorite parts (though i thought he was being serious through half of it)
Saint O Nothin' Says
Always go FORWARD, going straight will get you no where!
-Greenday
Yeah, regulating cigarettes sounds good, but I don't think it'll work, either. The FDA is in charge of so many other things, and frankly, I don't think the FDA could tell us anything we don't already know.
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Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress. --Mahatma Gandhi
My Blog: http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/kablock
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I don't think they can tell us anything we don't already know either.
I really tried convincing myself this was a good idea. At first I was thinking that it would at least be good to put graphic pictures on cigarette boxes, but then I remembered sophomore year of college. I don't recall any of my smoking classmates quitting when we were dissecting human cadavers, one of which had died from lung cancer. The lungs are, in reality, mostly black. They're like huge, thick, sticky patches of mottled grey, dark grey, and black with some little white specks thrown in, all covered with some kind of glossy sheen. It's pretty gross. If real people right in front of your face isn't persuasion, I highly doubt some photoshopped images are going to do the trick.
I was also pretty ok with the huge limitation the FDA would be putting on advertising. Only black and white ads to limit visual appeal, no ads in anything kids can see, no billboards, etc. But, the tobacco industry's biggest advertisement is one that the bill can't get rid of. Actually seeing people smoking. They are everywhere. Parents, teachers, friends, relatives, friends' parents/older siblings, every possible role model available smokes... it's all positive reinforcement telling kids it's ok to smoke because other people do it too.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I've pretty much convinced myself that this bill is next to worthless.
"What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact."
Don Williams, Jr.
Read my Blog!
The Sex Change Blog
The only way I can think of to stop legal consumption of tobacco would be taxing the hell out of it, which is basically whats being done in Cook County in Illinois. The only thing this changes, however, is where people get their fix from. A lot of preople simply drive to the neighboring county to by lower taxed cigs, and if the taxes go national, people might go to some cheap drug dealers if they don't quit or go broke.
There is no truly effective way to end tobacco consumption except for allowing the general public to get off their crutch by themselves (which never works anyways). The government should just stay with their existing laws and let freedom be freedom.
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
- George Bernard Shaw
I think raising taxes actually gets a lot of younger people (like high schoolers) to quit, or keeps them from starting. Who knows, maybe they'll just get phased out on their own one day.
"What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact."
Don Williams, Jr.
Read my Blog!
The Sex Change Blog
Alright I am coming out of the closet.....I smoke cigs. It sucks to admit but yes I am a "Nasty smelly smoker" as we are known.
I think the FDA needs to worry more about the drug Chantix (was a drug to stop smoking) because it caused people to kill other people and themselves. They should be worrying about this rather than that.
Kids will smoke even if cigs are at a high price.
I also believe they should be worrying more about anti-depressants that they keep telling me will "cure" my anxiety because they do not. Anti-depressants do not cure anxiety. I would love to slap my old psych in the face with that message.
Since they are focusing on obesity which is the second leading cause of death I guess they feel they should focus on smoking. Although a part of me thinks it is some what of a good idea another part of me points towards freedom.
Freedom. People say cigs kill (which they do) so does drinking. I hear alot of heavy drinkers tell me put down the cig and I say put down your drink then they get pissy. It is the same.
Soon they will find an "ion" in alcohol that leads to second hand alcoholism and ban certain things with that. lol.
http://www.progressiveu.org/032913-lupus-uncureable-wait-what
Love comments? I do too!
It's ok. I won't judge you for smoking. I'm not gonna lie, every couple weeks or so I like to light up a wood tip cigar. I don't know why. And if I'm outside at a concert waiting for the next set, if someone offers me a camel no.9, I don't turn it down. It's just kind of enjoyable! But, in general, I don't smoke.
I think people just want the FDA to regulate cigarettes because they'll be able to feel like they've won some kind of battle or something, be able to say "Hah! We showed you! We got the GOVERNMENT involved!"
No one seems to realize that regulating cigarettes isn't what the FDA is for. The FDA's job is more to like, what you said about Chantix--make sure beneficial drugs aren't going to cause harm, and warn people when they do. And they're already too bogged down to do what they're good at already.
I... really don't think they should be focusing on obesity either. As you might have figured out from my other blog already. :-P
"What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact."
Don Williams, Jr.
Read my Blog!
The Sex Change Blog
I just think it's funny how many things the government feels it needs to control. It's even worse that they are letting other areas of public safety slide just so they can add another tally mark to the long list of things the government has power over.
Half the time, I don't even think it's the Government wanting control. It's people wanting to not take responsibility for things, so they dump it all on an overworked government and then they have someone to blame when everything goes wrong.
"What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact."
Don Williams, Jr.
Read my Blog!
The Sex Change Blog
It's sad but probably true. I think the anti-smoking movement has mainly become a way for organizations to look like they're doing something. It seems to me that the FDA is just trying to make up for not being able to handle its actual job. I think most everyone is aware of the dangers of smoking and although making sure we educate future generations is important, but I'm starting to think the government should focus its attention on more serious issues (like uninspected meds) than an already known danger.
Besides, let's be realistic tobacco will simply take its place next to pot plants in basement greenhouses. Our government will spend more money to hunt down even more drug dealers and no one will get anywhere.
Thanks for commenting! :-)
I think it's important to educate future generations about the dangers of drug use as well. That's what the Department of Education has the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools for. Maybe they should get some more funding to promote community prevention programs, as well as mentoring programs for kids. I don't really think programs like D.A.R.E. work overly well, but I'm sure there are much more efficient ways to get kids to not take up smoking.
"What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact."
Don Williams, Jr.
Read my Blog!
The Sex Change Blog
I find it slightly amusing that one of the most important crops in American history has now become the focus of more government fiddling. I guess that fiddling with tobacco has been a pastime of the American (well, kind of) government ever since the first semi-successful colony sprouted up in Jamestown.
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
- George Bernard Shaw
Nice points. I don't smoke and I don't plan to, but I can see how this type of regulation could hurt our resources because of how thinly stretched the FDA is already.
I've never seen Thank You For Smoking or the Onion Movie, but now I'm interesting in renting them!
~ *~
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Mind Control is Easier Than You Think
Thank You for Smoking is incredibly awesome. I still haven't seen the Onion movie. I have it in my possession, but I'm waiting for a friend of mine to get some free time so he can watch it with me. I have no doubt that it's good though. It's The Onion. ;-)
"What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact."
Don Williams, Jr.
Read my Blog!
The Sex Change Blog