Posted on 09/23/2009 5:50:57 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Federal health officials banned sale of flavored cigarettes on Tuesday in the first major crackdown since the Food and Drug Administration was given the authority to regulate tobacco.
The ban is intended to end sale of tobacco products with chocolate, vanilla, clove and other flavorings that lure children and teenagers into smoking. The agency will study regulating menthol products and hinted that it might soon take action against the far larger market of flavored small cigars and cigarillos.
“These flavored cigarettes are a gateway for many children and young adults to become regular smokers,” Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, commissioner of food and drugs, said in announcing the ban.
In 2004, 17-year-old smokers were more than three times as likely as those over the age of 25 to smoke flavored cigarettes, and they viewed flavored cigarettes as safer. Among the more famous flavored cigarette introductions was that of Camel Exotic Blends by R. J. Reynolds, which had flavors like Twista Lime, Kauai Kolada and Warm Winter Toffee.
“Banning the marketing and use of strawberry, chocolate and other flavored cigarettes will help slow the rate of addiction among young smokers, preventing disease and saving millions in health care costs down the line,” said Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa.
Every day, 3,600 children and teenagers start smoking and 1,100 become daily smokers, studies show.
The ban comes three months after President Obama signed legislation giving the F.D.A. the authority to regulate tobacco products, which had $96 billion in sales in 2008, with $87 billion in cigarette sales; $4 billion in cigar, small cigar and cigarillo sales; and $4.6 billion in chewing tobacco, snuff and loose tobacco sales. Recently, domestic manufacturers, anticipating a ban, largely halted production of flavored cigarettes, less than 1 percent of the market, but imports have been widely available.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The smoke nazi blitzkreig continues!
America is so over with!
It isn't America anymore. It is now Union of Socialist United States Republics (U.S.U.S.R)
I’ll guarantee that more underaged youths drink flavored liquors than ever touch flavored cigarettes. And you’re talking a minuscule part of the market, with underaged smokers being the smallest segment of it. I’ve never been asked by a kid in front of a store to buy him a pack of cloves or chocolate flavored cigarettes.
Though we all know what the real reason for this ban is: to exert authority and create the precedent of banning a type of tobacco on the basis that it is attractive to youth. They don’t have to put forth any facts to support it, nor demonstrate an immediate health threat that is at stake, simply because they ‘feel’ it might ‘attract children’ and thus can be banned.
The local smoke shop must not have got the memo, their display of flavored cigs remained unchanged as of about 5pm today.
And....lemme spell this out; the above is S-A-R-C-A-S-M
So how long did the flavored smoke thing last? From Clinton’s cigar until 2009. . .
parsy, the droll
Well I took care of the problem..I quit about 4 weeks ago.
They get no more of my money!! I’m sick of the games...and when they go after soda...I’ll quit drinking that and when they go after chips, I’ll quit eating those.
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