Last week, another bill was passed and signed into law that takes more of our freedoms and violates the Constitution of the United States. It was, of course, done for the sake of the children, and in the name of the health of the citizenry. It’s always the case that when your liberty is seized, it is seized for your own good. Such is the condescension of Washington.
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act will give sweeping new powers over tobacco to the FDA. It will require everyone engaged in manufacturing, preparing, compounding, or processing tobacco to register with the FDA and be subjected to FDA inspections, which is yet another violation of the Fourth Amendment. It violates the First Amendment by allowing the FDA to restrict tobacco advertising in multiple ways, as well as an outright ban on advertising any cigarettes as light, mild or low-tar. The FDA will have the power of pre-market reviews of all new tobacco products, and will impose new user fees, meaning taxes, on manufacturers and importers of tobacco products. It will even regulate the amount of nicotine in cigarettes.
My objections to the bill are not an endorsement of tobacco. As a physician I understand the adverse health effects of this bad habit. And that is exactly how smoking should be treated — as a bad habit and a personal choice. The way to combat poor choices is through education and information. Other than ensuring that tobacco companies do not engage in force or fraud to market their products, the federal government needs to stay out of the health habits of free people. Regulations for children should be at the state level. Unfortunately, government is using its already overly intrusive financial and regulatory roles in healthcare to establish a justifiable interest in intervening in your personal lifestyle choices as well. We all need to anticipate the level of health freedom that will remain once government manages all health care in this country.
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Actions in Congress such as this tobacco bill are especially disconcerting after we thought we were beginning to see some progress in drawing down the wrong-headed and failed war on drugs. A majority of Americans now think marijuana should be legal, taxed and regulated, according to a recent Zogby poll and over 70 percent are in favor of allowing medicinal use of marijuana. Bills like this take us down exactly the wrong path. Instead of gaining more freedom with marijuana, we are moving closer to prohibiting tobacco. Our prisons are already bursting with non-violent drug offenders. How long will it be before a black market in tobacco fills the prisons with non-violent cigarette smokers?
Hemp and tobacco were staple crops for our founding fathers when our country was new. It is baffling to see how far removed from real freedom this country has become since then. Hemp, even for industrial uses, of which there are many, is illegal to grow at all. Now tobacco will have more layers of bureaucracy and interference piled on top of it. In this economy it is extremely upsetting to see this additional squeeze put on an entire industry. One has to wonder how many smaller farmers will be forced out of business because of this bill.
June 16th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Go ahead & outlaw cigarettes. If they think the natives are restless now…
Jerusalem Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
LOL.
Airborne Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
They always have smoke and screen , government , these guys are full of s--- , there eyes are brown , smoking is bad for you health , I know , am an ex smoker , but these morons got to keep it simple , the stuff is a drug , so just sell it at drug store , less people , will start smoking and it will go out of fashion , kids are going to want 2-5 miles to a drug store to buy a pack and it will be more inconvenient for regular smokers , they will most likely try very hard to quit !!!!!!!
June 16th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Here is the problem….
Cannabis is LAWFUL in every state. The minute we want the government to make it ‘legal’ that just means we are ‘allowed’ to use it IF WE PAY A TAX on it.
How are we free again?
June 16th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Human beings follow LAWS.
Corporate Fictions follow statutes and codes.
Which one are you?
June 16th, 2009 at 11:41 am
What a bunch of bulls---!!
June 16th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
smoker or not its a violation of human rights and against our free will..f--- that
June 16th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
What will be next? Liquor? After all, there are plenty of drunk drivers out there! And it rots your liver and brain!! They can have my gun; but they will pry my Vodka bottle out of my cold dead hands after I wack them with it.
pitofdoom Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Empty first!!, Why do you think the Russian people gave up?
They couldn’t drink nor produce enough Vodka to get thru another s---ty day!!
meanjean Reply:
June 17th, 2009 at 10:41 am
You are right, pitofdoom. How do you take your cocktails? Join me in raising a drink or two at those who would destroy us and to us who never give up.
Jerusalem Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
NO NO NO! Not liquor, because the government has to have their social drinking!
June 16th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
It’s BIG business, the tobacco industry…It will go only so far. And yes, I’m sure alcohol is next.
June 16th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
The Feds will never outlaw tobacco for two reasons:
1) It’s their favorite product to levy EXCESSIVE taxes upon, and 2) They enjoy DEMONIZING tobacco for the sake of the ‘c h i l d r e n.’
On the other hand, however, if they do get around to making it ILLEGAL think of the fun they can have with it. They can kick in the doors of people who sell black market smokes. They can kick in the doors of smokers. They can skan the skies looking for illegal tobacco plants. They can fill the prisons with millions of tobacco smokers, dealers and growers. An entire new cadre of criminals can be created to justify more govt control and growth.
June 16th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Go to the http://news.google.com/news?ned=tus website.
Type in or copy “Modified tobacco plant may block HIV.”
Click on “Search the Web.” (”Search News” yields nothing.)
There’s close to 9,000 “hits.”
June 16th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Grow your own !!!!!
June 16th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
It’s gonna feel strange buying tobacco from a guy on a side street,named Bob,in a white van.
I think the whole idea is to get people riled up and pissed off enough that we start killing each other. Think of the money they’ll save. In the mean time, non of us are doing anything.
June 16th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Tobacco is a sacred plant. Our prayers go up with the smoke. It is used to honor the dead. Freedom of religion is GONE!!!!!
June 16th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Ban everything, isn’t that easier now…
Oh forgot to mention, smile while your liking it!
June 16th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Why don’t they just outlaw it?
Mainly, because they make billions in taxes, and it’s probably our biggest export to China and the Mid East. Hundreds of thousands of tons per year.
I swear they put stuff in our cigarettes to make them taste and smell like crap these days. It’s hard to buy decent tobacco…hmmm George Orwell 1984.
Just remember to bring extra rope.
June 16th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Smoking Bans and the Third Reich
Hitler was a fervent anti smoker and a crusader for the anti-smoking cause. He personally funded research into the dangers of smoking and little wonder those results given the nature of his regime tended to support his assertions that smoking was an evil the Aryan race must be rid of. Many of the studies carried out during the Third Reich are the basis for the arguments put forward today by those seeking the imposition of repressive smoking bans.
Hitler once stated that tobacco was “the wrath of the Red Man against the White Man” Under the Nazi’s the Bureau Against the Dangers of Alcohol and Tobacco was established in 1939 followed in 1942 by the Institute for the Struggle against the dangers of Tobacco. Nazi’s were the first to coin the term “passive smoking”
Under the Nazi regime the German people had imposed on them the most comprehensive set of tobacco regulations and restrictions seen in any modern nation to that date. Hitler himself took particular interest in this area often personally overseeing the drafting and implementation of anti smoking policy.
http://www.sadireland.com/smoking1.htm
June 16th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Aaww.. another reason why they are trying to put a lock down on the e-cigarette. Did you know the e-cigs has about a 60% quit rate for tobacco now.
June 16th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Why don’t they just go ahead and make EVERYTHING illegal? As a smoker, I’m well aware that I may die of lung cancer, but it’s worth it to light up smoke after reading about government insanity like this all the time. I’m also a painter, and cadmium oil paints are well known to be toxic to the touch, but I do it anyway because I love it. I clean my brushes with acetone, also highly toxic. If it touches you, the skin absorbs it instantly and it causes damage to your liver… and I’ve spilled it on my hands a thousand times and don’t really care. I have a cell phone, too… it causes brain tumors. I brush my teeth with poison, but it’s worth it so they don’t rot out of my skull and I can continue eating… Better take all my dangerous toys away so it doesn’t cost you too much when I die. Hmmm… no, no, that’s no good. I could live a perfect, hypochondriac lifestyle and I might still wind up costing you money before I die. Better shoot me dead now, just to be sure.
meanjean Reply:
June 17th, 2009 at 10:46 am
You sound wonderful, Matt. Do you have a website so we can see your work?
June 17th, 2009 at 2:49 am
The goal is a PILL for everything: Make you happy, work harder, calm you down, ceases your depressions, controls your libido, stops your brain from thinking after 5p.m.till next morning 8a.m. etc. Let’s buy Pfizer stocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
June 17th, 2009 at 6:19 am
Hitler lived on amphetamines asnd the storm troopers ate em like candy.
In the US it was the wonder drug for decades.
Just don’t smoke Marijuana, that’ll make you crazy or worse.
June 17th, 2009 at 6:28 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM_vLk1I6G4
June 17th, 2009 at 7:59 am
Obama smokes. He’ll be a criminal.
June 17th, 2009 at 8:08 am
I do not like any tobacco products, but I am ready to fight for any smoker’s right to indulge. I do not want to live in a world that forces everyone to be like me. Uniformity of consciousness is just another trip to the mortician, come to think of it that’s what our f---ing government is evolving into.
June 26th, 2009 at 9:20 am
To all smokers out there I’d just like to say: Try ecigarettes and get rid of your dirty habit, I did it and I was able to stop smoking.