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.
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.
I feel like cannabis is a bad habit and a personal choice whereas tobacco is an addictive substance. I’d much rather see legalized hemp over legal tobacco any day. Too bad intelligent decisions like that don’t get made so we have to fight for all the rights we can muster, since losing one is just an excuse to take another.
Laws like this, regardless of the intention, are wrong. This government has no right to tell me how to life my life. I am not an indentured servant. While smoking may be bad for you, it’s your choice. As long as abortion, meat eating, dairy eating, animal slaughter, hunting, fishing, and other stupid things that are bad for you and are wrong are legal then I should be allowed to smoke my cigarettes in peace.
How is hunting, fishing, meat eating and animal slaughter bad for you? Also Tobacco being an addictive substance has nothing to do with anything, it should be no more illegal or legal then non- addictive substances
I think those who don’t mind the idea of prohibition because they think smoking is bad should re-read this sentence:
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?”
and realize that, while smoking is indeed very bad for ones health, a ban does not magically make it go away. The end result is that some people will end up in prison
for tobacco use. Now imagine being in prison. Now imagine a smoker you care about being there. Can you really justify prison as a punishment for tobacco use? If not, then you shouldn’t support a ban.
Seems to me this isn’t prohibition at all. True, it is more regulation and oversight, which could be misused by government. But some kind of regulation and accountability has to be put into place for these sorts of companies. The country can legalize hemp, but this sort of oversight should be in place for the hemp industry as well, to make sure companies are truthful in their dealings. This is no different than the FDA protecting citizens from some drug company trying to make a quick buck by not fully testing their products.
And first amendment doesn’t protect false advertising; light cigarettes are just light cancer. If the tobacco industry didn’t have such a huge lobby to bride officials to look the other way, this would have happened long ago.
All politics aside, smokers stink. They smell bad. It doesn’t matter what you are smoking. Bad BO can be helped with a bath and a bar of soap. But smokers don’t seem to get it that they choose to stink. Its gross.
Smoking is bad not just for the individual partaking in the activity itself, but also for those around them. Passive smoking over the long term can be just as harmful as if you had smoked the cigarettes yourself. This is an established medical fact. Smoking is a public health issue.
I agree, it should not be illegal, and it should be your choice to partake or not. However, smoking places a burden on the health care system that is preventable, and if you are enjoying your right to smoke in a public place, you may well be stomping all over someone else’s right to enjoy a breath of clean air.
Surely Dr. Paul, as a physician you should understand that smoking is more than just a bad habit, it is a physical and psychological addiction. To characterise smoking simply as a bad habit is not only incorrect, but misleading. The thing with addictions is that for the most part they have negative effects on the individual and those closest to them. As far as I am concerned the more that can be done to eradicate smoking, and all the problems that come along with it, within the law, the better.
The problem is that the cost of smoking is terrible in terms of suffering and health cost. I believe, though, that a free man or woman should be able to choose how he or she will live… and die. So, smokers should be free to smoke, but if they came down with a Cancer that can be proven to be related to the habit, there should be no obligation from the state to intervene in the care or treatment of the patient, or the care taking of his/her family when he/she passes away.
About hemp, it used to be my drug of choice, and I did inhale, and I know of no case of Cancer which is hemp related. So, if someone would want to smoke, why not something that the Tobacco companies cannot get involved on? By this I mean, let people grow and smoke their own and make only the commerce of Cannabis illegal.
You’re incorrect … this does not give the FDA new powers – This is the first time the FDA has any power over tobacco. Tobacco was the only drug not regulated by the FDA and why shouldn’t it be?
One only has to read Upton Sinclair’s, The Jungle to see what happens when food and drugs are not regulated.
Marijuana is a drug. I have MS and would love to take marijuana for pain and nausea. To me drugs are drugs. I can get the most powerful painkillers, which are extremely addicting and have bad side affects, but I can’t use pot.
I think pot should simply be moved from schedule I to schedule II. Then I can get a prescription from my doctor.
The FDA does not protect the people, they are blatantly passing off poison as medicine and/or food- all the while fighting against organics and Hemp. People you are highly misinformed. Dr. Paul is right- as usual. Our Constitution is the only thing standing in the way of tyranny and it looks from these comments that many of you are willing to shred it “For the Greater Good”. Why don’t you go live in a Communist country and tell me how the “Greater Good” works out for you. Giving the government more power is a huge mistake. Think about it and get yourself fully informed, please.
First they came for the smokers, and I did nothing because I was not a smoker. Then they came for the fast food eaters, and I did nothing because I was not a fast food eater. Then they came for the parents and I did nothing because I was not a parent. Then they came for me and there was no one to help me.
– A take off of the poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller (google it if you don’t know the poem), by Emily S.