Obama to sign tobacco regulation bill in Rose Garden
Published: June 22, 2009
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is set to sign into law an anti-smoking bill that will give the Food and Drug Administration unprecedented authority to regulate tobacco.
Obama is scheduled to sign the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act during at 2 p.m. in the Rose Garden. The law allows the FDA to reduce nicotine in tobacco products, ban candy flavorings and block labels such “low tar” and “light.“ Tobacco companies also will be required to cover their cartons with large graphic warnings.
The law won’t let the FDA ban nicotine or tobacco outright, but the agency will be able to regulate what goes into tobacco products, make public the ingredients and prohibit marketing campaigns, especially those geared toward children.
Anti-smoking advocates looked forward to the bill after years of attempts to control an industry so fundamental to the U.S. that carved tobacco leaves adorn some parts of the Capitol.
Opponents from tobacco-growing states like top-producing North Carolina argued that the FDA has proved through a series of food safety failures that it’s not up to the job. They also said that instead of unrealistically trying to get smokers to quit or to prevent others from starting, lawmakers should ensure that people have other options, like smokeless tobacco.
As president, George W. Bush opposed the legislation and threatened a veto after it passed the House last year. The Obama administration, by contrast, issued a statement declaring strong support for the measure.
Obama has spoken publicly of his own struggles to quit cigarettes.
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Reader Reactions
anon, so you’d like to see the Mexican drug lords have another avenue of profit, tobacco??
Dave…the silence of your counterpoint is deafening, oh you don’t have one…typical!
Nice how you can always count on Fred to be on here, bitter as ever, looking for an opportunity to call the president a new clever derogatory name. Kinda makes me stop listening to him before I even finish reading. Maybe take an effective communication, class, Fred, if they offer one out in the woods.
Smoking is bad for you, we get it. Either the state government needs to outlaw it or leave it alone. The federal government has no business whatsoever in dealing with tobacco products. The time is long past due that the three branches of federal government read the first three articles of the Constitution and abide by them. The fact that they don’t isn’t something that just popped up when Obama was elected. It has long been a problem and it’s time “We The People” started holding are elected officials responsible for following the guidelines that were given to them. Nothing more, nothing less.
I don’t want the government interfering with a legal product in any way, including sin taxes.
I don’t want the state government telling business owners whether or not they can allow smoking at their businesses, but if anybody has jurisdiction over the regulation of tobacco, it would fall to the states, not the feds.
Call me crazy, but I’m of the belief we should let business owners decide whether or not they will allow smoking at their establishments. Nobody is forced to work or frequent their place of business.
If states feel it is important enough to force sin taxes on products, then the products should be made illegal.
Let me tell you all a secret. I keep all my Cocoa Krispies and donuts in a bunker under my house, well hidden from the government agents who would like to regulate every move I make. I sleep well knowing I still have a first amendment right to free speech, and a second amendment right to bear arms.
When will everyone in this nation wake up and realize WE ARE THE GOVERNMENT! It’s by the people and for the people. It’s not by someone else and for someone else, or it would actually say that.
Take responsibility! If we cut out all the ridiculous lawsuits, we’d have more than enough money to pay for good healthcare for all. Why don’t we take a look at that, and other means, as options for paying for it all. We’re barking up the wrong tree!
“You want someone else to take care of you all the time. Grow up and be responsible for yourself.“ Excellent summary Welshwoman! It pertains to smoking, eating, drinking, and raising children too.
You can always just choose not to smoke which will keep you safe. Government doesn’t have to do it for you and that is the problem with many of you now. You want someone else to take care of you all the time. Grow up and be responsible for yourself. Drug education worked really well, too, didn’t it and how much $$ do we waste on that every year.
Sure would be nice for Mr. Obama to tackle an issue of consequence - North Korea, Iran, the recession, record unemployment - versus tackling an issue designed to get a photo op. What’s next, regulating Oreo cookies, Cheetos or Cap’t Crunch?
I sleep better at night knowing that my government is protecting me from all things bad and nasty even though so many of them are personal choices.
It’s interesting that any tobacco company agrees with being regulated by FDA. Of course, a big one would, because the high cost of compliance would run all the little guys out of the market.
What the US should be worried about is the CURRENT BLACK MARKET for cigarettes. This is huge, with a well-oiled pipeline from China, where most are manufactured, to Kosovo, and other points from which they are launched to the US. Considering that most of the money garnered from this activity goes to support terrorism around the globe, it would make perfect sense that all terrorists would have to do is provide another little bribe to those running the pipeline to get them to “add one or more ingredients”, possibly toxic or otherwise lethal, to these cigarettes who are bought routinely by unsuspecting smokers.
We’re always afraid of nuclear bombs and - oh, yeah, that BIG threat of global warming - yet we don’t seem interested in a pipeline that exists today, and is accessible to people who would gladly wipe us off the map.
The saddest part is that the US government is so bogged down with this current legislation, they can’t see the forest for the trees.
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