Bill Would Give FDA Broad Powers to Regulate Tobacco

[Old Coot]

Source: Washington Post

The Senate approved landmark legislation today that would give the government sweeping new power to oversee tobacco, a centuries-old product used by 20 percent of Americans yet largely unregulated in this country.

The bipartisan measure, approved by a margin of 79 to 17, largely mirrors a measure passed by the House last month. The House will now review the Senate's version before a bill is sent to President Obama, a smoker who has struggled to quit and who has said he is eager to sign the bill into law. It comes 50 years after the surgeon general first warned of the health effects of tobacco.

Congress has been trying for more than a decade to regulate tobacco, coming close several times but faltering in the face of opposition from the tobacco lobby, the White House or procedural hang-ups. But in the years that the debate has raged, changing social attitudes toward tobacco helped transform the idea of regulation from controversial to common sense.

"There's not a smoker in the country that's an adult who wishes their children would begin smoking," said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), himself a former smoker. "And there are many adult smokers today who wish they never started. . . . This has been a very long battle. . . . For the first time we're going to make a difference. The FDA is going to regulate the production, sale and marketing of these products. That is history."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/11/AR2009061102793.html

[shadowknows69]

1. Take the fucking things away and I can't smoke them

So far that seems to be the only "Stop smoking" remedy that is going to work for me.

[lamp_shade]

6. Same here. I hope they ban the damned things.

[Dark]

22. Be careful what you wish for. Prohibition, so far, hasn't worked for anything else.

So chances it'd work for this are slim.

[konnichi wa]

27. Let's just pass a bill that bans disease, discomfort and death.

Fix all our problems in one neat little package.
:eyes:

[onehandle]

2. Excellent! Regulate the Hell out of it. It's an addictive, lethal drug. Period. nt

[Demit]

3. oooo, bigger warning labels. mandatory listing of ingredients. that oughta do it.

[SpartanDem]

4. I'd say being able to regulate ingredients is pretty big

[Wizard777]

7. Pictures of ill effects. McDonald's should have to put an ass the size of a bus on all their food.

[Mari333]

10. LOL

[crimsonblue]

5. why would they let the FDA regulate tobacco?

If it followed its charter and precedent, the FDA would have no choice but to classify tobacco as a Schedule I drug, as it has no medically accepted benefit to society. I fear this could lead to an easy-to-achieve banning of tobacco. It's my body; if I want to smoke tobacco, I will. This is no different than the pro-choice movement: keep the government out of the decisions on what I do with my body.

[hughee99]

8. The FDA's congressional charter didn't give them the authority

to regulate tobacco products, at least according to the SC in 2000... of course, this was the same court that installed * in the White House.

http://archive.salon.com/health/log/2000/03/22/tobacco/index.html

[crimsonblue]

9. onces tobacco is put in their purview..

then their charter becomes active. I think it is univerally agreed upon that tobacco is bad for you. However, if a consenting adult chooses to use it, then it is his choice.

[Wizard777]

11. Actually it does. Nicotine is a vascular constrictor. Let's not make the marijuana mistake AGAIN.

There is a huge difference between something that has no medical uses and something with medical uses that you don't want to have medical uses because of socially accepted Prejudices.

[crimsonblue]

12. there is no medical use for tobacco..

you will not find a single doctor, aside from Dr. House, ever prescribe tobacco.

[Wizard777]

13. Mine. I'm 6' 11" people my size have to worry about enlarged hearts and veins.

I smoke a pack a day and have had no problems in this area. The nicotine counteracts my heart and veins natural inclination to enlarge. My doctor has told me that if I quit smoking he will prescribe nicotine patches to keep my level at about a pack a day.

[Robb]

30. That' really, really interesting.

Although to be fair it practically defines the term "outlier."

[Wizard777]

34. He's combined some philosophies in that. You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

If it isn't broke you don't fix it. He could do this with other drugs. By why retrain my body to do something it's already doing quite well? He's recently had to eat some crow in some long running arguments about my health. I've smoked cigarettes and pot for over half a century. He couldn't understand why I didn't have cancer or heart disease. Recent studies are showing that marijuana can prevent or suppress growth of some cancers. Lung cancer is one of them. As a child I had a very good doctor. He taught me to always listen to my body. It will rarely if ever lie to you. So when my doctor got on me to quit smoking cigarettes and pot. I would tell him the second my body tells me this isn't good for me. I will. But not until then. He now sees the wisdom in that. In review he's had to admit if I had followed conventional wisdom. I probably wouldn't have made it anywhere near 77. So now he's more interested in what my body is telling me. He's less skidish about yielding his conventional wisdom to my body talk.

[Winterblues]

14. You feel the same about Heroin, it isn't nearly as dangerous?

I agree with you. If you want to smoke in the privacy of your own home, go for it. It should be entirely your right to do so, but as soon as you bring it into the public realm then it is no longer just your body that is involved.. Smoking anywhere in Public should be outlawed...Period..But smoking or tobacco should not be illegal and neither should heroin or cocaine.

[FailureToCommunicate]

23. Sure, kill yourself slowly with tobacco, but don't come crying for health care benefits

that all of us non-smokers have to pay for your "right " to harm your own body. It's the same false claim of supposed private rights like not wanting to have to wear motorcycle helmets or use seat belts. Everyone's heath care costs bear the burden of that kind of "freedom."
IF we premium rate payers could pick and choose NOT to cover your desire to freely smoke, then I'd say "light 'em up"
Some freedoms come with costs. And my paying for your preventable sickness or suicide shouldn't have to be one of them.

[JerseygirlCT]

24. Because it's a drug? nt

[bananas]

15. Bill Gives FDA Broad Powers to Regulate Tobacco

Source: Washington Post

The Senate approved landmark legislation today that would give the government sweeping new power to oversee tobacco, a centuries-old product used by 20 percent of Americans yet largely unregulated in this country.

The bipartisan measure, approved by a margin of 79 to 17, largely mirrors a measure passed by the House last month. The House has indicated it will accept the Senate version and will vote on it early next week before a bill is sent to President Obama. Obama, a smoker who has struggled to quit, has said he is eager to sign the bill into law. It comes 50 years after the surgeon general first warned of the health effects of tobacco.

Congress has been trying for more than a decade to regulate tobacco, coming close several times but faltering in the face of opposition from the tobacco lobby, the White House or procedural hang-ups. But in the years that the debate has raged, changing social attitudes toward tobacco helped transform the idea of regulation from controversial to common sense.

"There's not a smoker in the country that's an adult who wishes their children would begin smoking," said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), himself a former smoker. "And there are many adult smokers today who wish they never started. . . . This has been a very long battle. . . . For the first time we're going to make a difference. The FDA is going to regulate the production, sale and marketing of these products. That is history."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/11/AR2009061100323.html

[konnichi wa]

16. I quit 2 years ago cold turkey and I wish everyone would but I sure as hell don't like

the government micromanaging every fucking citizen's personal life and habits.

[OutNow]

18. What?

The FDA is the Food and Drug Administration. The fact that tobacco was excluded from oversight by the efforts of powerful corporations, even though it contains drugs that are very addictive and drugs that have been known to cause cancer for over 50 years, should give you pause. This bill is not micromanagement, this bill is common sense.

Imagine if a baking company sold bread for 50 years and it was known to cause cancer and the government did nothing to stop it. No, I can't imagine it either.

Both my parents smoked and died from it. I thought it was a filthy habit and never smoked, but my older sister became addicted as a teen. She's two years older and looks twenty years older.

[konnichi wa]

25. Congratulations, you missed my point by about 42 light years.

...

[FailureToCommunicate]

20. If the FDA (Dr Francis Kelsey) hadn't 'micro managed' delaying Thalidomide into U.S.

in the early 1960's there would have been hundreds of thousands of children born with substantial birth defects - missing arms, or missing legs-
We met with the struggling families all over Europe and Canada. Cases would have been FAR greater numbers in the U.S. market if the drug maker had had their way.
Sometimes government regulation IS a good thing...

[konnichi wa]

26. "Prevention of disease" was used by the government for years as a reason to deny rights to gay peopl

...
Thalidomide is to tobacco as watermelon is to radiator.

[FailureToCommunicate]

28. Say what? Is there deeper meaning there or...?

[konnichi wa]

29. sorry it was just an absurd analogy to counter an absurd point...

:shrug:

[FailureToCommunicate]

32. I see. Hey, if all you want to do is make snarky replies, I'll bet there is a DU forum

[DURHAM D]

17. Didn't Jesse Helms say this would happen over his dead body? Well....... n/t

[ooglymoogly]

19. I hope this is a gift to the FDA in exchange for taking away

Their goldmine and power source of the harmless substance of maryjane. Tobacco should be regulated because it is a deadly substance and Maryjane should be decriminalized because it is harmless. Lets see how the tobacco addicts like it when their drug of choice is whimsically criminalized and they and their family members get shuffled off into the corporate prison gulags at the whim of some cracker judge or DA.

[skoalyman]

21. great now they can take out the poisonous nicotine

during manufacturing.See where this is headed don't ya.You'll be smokin a whole pack before ya get a buzz.

[BreweryYardRat]

31. Eh, how about we just exercise more oversight on the pre-packaged stuff

Tobacco isn't terribly healthy for you, true, but the additives and crap that cigarettes and low-end cigars are cut with is probably a major contributor to the overall health problems.

I switched from low-end cigars to pipe tobacco, and my respiration has improved dramatically. I may even upgrade to organic pipe tobacco, if I can find it at an affordable price somewhere.

If the FDA wants to purge the additives from tobacco manufacturing, all well and good. If they want to ban tobacco, that's not so good.

[excess_3]

33. attn: middle class and poor people ...

stand by to get screwed.

[denem]

35. By taking ammonia out of packed cigarettes for example?

I mean smokers are not already getting screwed by Big Tobacco are they? But sure, the FDA will raise taxes. Oh wait, they cant.

[excess_3]

36. coming soon, Obama's Cigarette Czar

and you heard about it first,
right here on DU.

not a tax, I suppose, be he won't
be working for free

[pinniped]

37. This .gov will never ban cigs. They rake in millions on the taxes....

and do not want to lose that source of revenue.


Congress has been trying for more than a decade to regulate tobacco, coming close several times but faltering in the face of opposition from the tobacco lobby,

In other words, we got the best congrassholes money can buy.