Last week the U.S. Senate sent to the White House and President Barack Obama signed a bill that will allow the federal Food & Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products for the first time. <\/p>\n
Those who fight to stop Americans from using tobacco cheered. The change means flavored cigarettes will be banned, they asserted; advertising aimed at children will also be barred; dastardly cigarette manufacturers will no longer be able to claim that some cigarettes are safer because they have \u201clow\u201d levels of tar and nicotine. <\/p>\n
In fact, although some pipe and chewing tobacco products and even specialty brands of small cigars are fruit-flavored, heading down to the local convenience store and attempting to buy a pack of chocolate- or strawberry-flavored cigarettes isn\u2019t likely to get you very far. The most common flavoring agent in tobacco is menthol, and — in part to gain tacit approval for this regulatory scheme from tobacco and lobbying giant Philip Morris, which controls most of the major menthol brands — menthol will be exempt from any early ban on flavoring agents. <\/p>\n
As for those \u201cads targeted at children,\u201d you may search America\u2019s magazines and billboards in vain for any advertisement offering \u201cBuy one pack and get one free if you\u2019re under 16.\u201d <\/p>\n
There are no such ads. Instead, the anti-tobacco zealots insist that advertisements featuring bright colors or \u201ccartoonish\u201d characters are secretly targeted at children. Their goal is to see so many restrictions placed on the advertising of these legal products that manufacturers will simply no longer bother. <\/p>\n
After all, who\u2019s going to spend millions of dollars for black-and white ads that declare \u201cOUR PRODUCT WILL KILL YOU … and we can\u2019t even tell you it tastes good\u201d? <\/p>\n
Tobacco use carries health risks. Many smokers would be well advised to quit; young people should be discouraged from starting. <\/p>\n
But under this scheme, existing brands will be locked into their market share. New competitors who may want to offer less harmful products will be shut out — unable to make known the relative advantages of their products through free commercial speech. <\/p>\n
The move puts the FDA — a protection racket for the big pharmaceutical houses that alone can afford all the tests required for \u201cFDA approval\u201d of a new nostrum, and already running years behind in that process — in a strange position. <\/p>\n
Traditionally, the FDA\u2019s role has been to determine that food additives are safe, and that pharmaceuticals, used as directed, do considerably more good than harm. <\/p>\n
More than 50 million Americans concur that tobacco does more good than harm, or they wouldn\u2019t keep using the stuff. But while diseases whose onset and development may be accelerated by tobacco use kill nearly half a million Americans per year, the \u201cgood\u201d that users find in tobacco occurs in the realm of mood alteration, making it far harder to quantify. <\/p>\n
Doctors rarely ask, \u201cIf I get you to stop smoking, are you likely to overeat or start using even more harmful drugs, instead?\u201d So the FDA thus faces the weird task of \u201cregulating\u201d a substance that most medical doctors would prefer to see banned outright. <\/p>\n
\u201cUnder the bill, the nicotine in cigarettes could be cut to almost zero — but not wiped out entirely, which some health advocates warn reduces the bill\u2019s impact,\u201d McClatchy newspapers report.
\nWhy did manufacturers ever start advertising \u201clower tar and nicotine,\u201d in the first place? The government required them to measure and report tar and nicotine content, clearly implying that higher concentrations were more harmful. Manufacturers advertised \u201clow tar and nicotine\u201d to turn this government-mandated lemon into lemonade. <\/p>\n
In fact, since smokers smoke primarily for the effect of the active drug nicotine, and since the tar and other chemicals in cigarettes can lodge in the lungs, contributing to cancers and respiratory ailments, one way to reduce the harm of cigarettes might be to provide ways for tobacco users to get more nicotine into their system while smoking fewer cigarettes. But anyone waiting for the FDA to approve tobacco products that advertise \u201cMuch higher nicotine so you need only consume one a day to get your usual dose\u201d may have a very long wait — regardless of the fact that such a product might decrease many current smokers\u2019 health risks. <\/p>\n
If the nicotine content of cigarettes is cut \u201cto almost zero,\u201d prohibitionists may indeed get the whopping reduction in the use of licensed and taxed cigarettes that they seek. But Americans\u2019 behavior during alcohol Prohibition indicates many consumers may simply switch to black-market tobacco products, which will add to greater potency the benefit of being less expensive since they\u2019re untaxed. <\/p>\n
Meantime, in a masterpiece of understatement by a tobacco giant whose grip on the market will only be solidified by the bill in question, the Altria Group, owner of Philip Morris, issued a statement praising the Senate bill but saying it\u2019s imperfect, especially when it comes to advertising restrictions. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have expressed First Amendment reservations about certain provisions, including those that could restrict a manufacturer\u2019s ability to communicate truthful information to adult consumers about tobacco products,\u201d Altria wrote. <\/p>\n
Government regulators have become infamous for saying, \u201cSure, what you want to say may be true, but it also might lead consumers to shift their behaviors in ways we don\u2019t like, so forget it.\u201d
\nThis is the standard that will now apply to tobacco processors trying to get true information out to the public. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s an interesting precedent. Do you suppose it could turn out to be a dangerous one?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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