King Tobacco tamed

It says something about the power of politics and influence to trump common sense when it has taken this long to get any meaningful legislation passed that regulates tobacco like the drug that it is.
There's an analogy here to the health care issue, in that we are the only industrialized country left with no guaranteed health care for its entire population, because powerful special interests stood in the way of the people's interest.
It does seem a bit weird that the Food and Drug Administration, an outfit designed to ensure the safety and purity of things we put into our bodies, is about to be placed in charge of a substance that kills and, at best, sickens people, with no redeeming medical value. I guess it's the only agency with the structure in place to do so.
We could have built a whole new department out of thin air--a la Department of Homeland Security--called the Slow Suicide Administration or something, but we know how Republicans feel about expanding bureaucracy. Best to keep it all under one roof.
This way, the Surgeon General can condemn the product on the one hand, while the FDA can safeguard us from, ahem, any harmful chemicals that might make it into our coffin nails on the other. As a taxpayer, I appreciate these rare examples of government efficiency.




CHAN LOWE has been the Sun Sentinel’s first and only editorial cartoonist for the past twenty-six years. Before that, he worked as cartoonist and writer for the Oklahoma City Times and the Shawnee (OK) News-Star.
Comments
How about the Year That ALCOHOL TAX increases By 500% ?
Posted by: DSS | June 11, 2009 6:54 PM
Yet somehow, the same foes of regulation who have been blocking tobacco regulations are staunch defenders of the regulations that forbid interstate commerce of uglyripe tomatoes because they aren't round enough :-)
Posted by: Tom | June 11, 2009 10:12 PM
This bill was primarily written by Altria--in other words, Philip
Morris. It lets the FDA ban electronic cigarettes--the most effective cigarette replacement. It prevents other companies than Altria from introducing new products. It bans clove-flavored cigarettes [had one of those recently?] but refuses to ban menthol--which has a taste kids like a lot and which is known to make tobacco harder to shake, especially for African-Americans. This bill will very likely lead to more tobacco-caused deaths, not less. It is essentially an aid package to Altria, its primary author. If you have lost a relative or close friend to cigarettes, you may want to invest some effort in fighting back against this fraudulent legislation. I would be glad to learn of groups now doing this. Believe me, they are not just the other tobacco companies.
Posted by: Stephen Voss | June 13, 2009 7:42 AM