A BOGUS 'ANTI-CIGARETTE' BILL

NY Post ^ | April 6, 2009 | Elizabeth M. Whelan

[Scanian]

A LAW ordering the Food and Drug Ad ministration to regu late cigarettes is moving through Congress -- but is it truly good for public health? Hint: Cigarette maker Altria (formerly Philip Morris) is one of the bill's strongest supporters. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) has already gotten the measure passed in the House; Sen. Ted Kennedy is on track to get it through the Senate soon.

The bill would give the FDA regulatory authority over tobacco -- but in the process, it gives cigarettes a virtual government stamp of approval, while impeding consumers' access to less-harmful alternative forms of tobacco.

The FDA will claim to be monitoring, safety-testing or otherwise overseeing cigarette production. Yet it'll be doing nothing to decrease the vast harm cigarettes cause -- because quitting smoking, not some imagined minor tinkering with cigarettes' chemical composition, can reduce that harm.

What pleases the cigarette makers? The bill would impose high legal hurdles to marketing newer, competing, less-harmful forms of tobacco -- including snus.

[knarf]

Automobiles, tobacco, legislation, property (rights), the military ... there's more and more to come.

Tea parties should be forsaken and necktie parties adopted.

[muir_redwoods]

If the only cigarette that can be made and sold in America is an FDA designed and approved product, it'll be even harder to hold the tobacco companies responsible for ill-effects.

Screw the Feds, quit now and take away their tax revenue.

[Vaduz]

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) one hack that will never get busted he has to many goods on to many people this guy is super slick he makes Clinton look like a starter kit.

[KeyLargo]

Supreme Court Lets Stand Tobacco Firm’s $80 Million Punitive Damages

March 31, 2009

The Supreme Court dismissed Tuesday an appeal by Altria Group Inc.’s Philip Morris USA over $79.5 million in punitive damages awarded to the widow of a longtime Oregon smoker.

The top court did not decide the merits of the dispute, but in a one-sentence ruling said the appeal was dismissed as “improvidently granted.” Philip Morris in its appeal had argued that the Oregon Supreme Court in upholding the award had defied an earlier U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case.

(Reporting by James Vicini, Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
Find this article at:
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2009/03/31/99196.htm

[The Ghost of Rudy McRomney]

For your perusal.