New Law for Tobacco Industry




American government decided to help people quit smoking by controlling the amount of tobacco in cigarettes, limiting the work of the tobacco companies, letting FDA control everything and making some extra laws. Besides, in order for tobacco companies not to be slick and wiggle out of the legislation like they did for forty years, the administration has had a brilliant idea to give President Obama unprecedented power over the tobacco industry. Before this time the tobacco industry work was regulated by state administrations, court work and some U.S. Agencies like Federal Trade Commission.

Everything worked together really quickly: the Senate has securely approved the bill on June 11th, 2009 and the next day the U.S. House of Representatives has already passed it with 307/97 votes.

Thanks to the new law U.S. Food and Drug Administration has a right to put new limits on the manufacturing and marketing of tobacco products, but it cannot ban cigarettes or their addictive nicotine. All the tobacco companies will be inspected and checked which will cost them millions of dollars in fees. They will also have to present the list of all the products. Cigarette packets will have to contain larger warnings; vending machine sales will be restricted. Later, FDA plans to stop the production of the most flavored cigarettes and other tobacco products. The law gives it the final decision on the quality of the products to FDA too, letting them decide whether the new cigarettes are “light”, “low tar”, etc. Legal age for purchase of tobacco products was raised from 18 to 21 and the rules for selling tobacco in some stores are now stricter than they were bringing it to the level of the alcohol by the amount of restrictions.

President Obama was delighted to know that the bill was passed, saying, “This legislation will protect our kids and improve our public health. So I look forward to signing it.” He admits that he used to smoke himself and haf several tries to quit the habit.

Although smoking is not as bad and popular in the U.S. as in some other countries, still nearly 20 percent of Americans smoke. The bad habit kills about 440,000 people a year bringing them cancer, heart diseases, emphysema and other health problems. If the new law will really work out reducing the number of smokers, health advocates say that many diseases will be prevented and overall healthcare costs will significantly reduce.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman who was one of the main promoters of the law, says, “We are today at the last gasp of the tobacco industry’s efforts to protect their profits at the expense of the health and lives of the American people and to get children to take up this habit.”

The cigarette companies are very upset with the current situation. They are saying that the new rules will keep them from development and production of new safer products to the market. Altria Group Inc., controlled by Philip Morris is the only one that did not express the worries, because the law only helped them to become the leader and maybe the only survivor on the tobacco market.

The only problem the government might face, the experts think, is that their finances will go low. Cigarette tax is one of the major sources for federal pockets, but if people quit smoking and stop buying the tobacco products the cigarette tax will not be paid any more.

Larry Fox

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Posted on June 14, 2009 
Filed Under Facts on Smoking, Stop Smoking News, Tobacco History

Comments

5 Responses to “New Law for Tobacco Industry”

  1. marleneb on June 15th, 2009 9:16 am

    Those 440,000? That is a computer generated number. Do you know that a guy that gets killed on a motorcycle who smoked is included in that number? That number really sounds dastardly, doesn’t it? So all of this legislation due to that number, all in the name of public health, when in reality it’s all about control. Control for the pharmaceutical companies that want smokers to use their brand of nicotine like their minty fresh gum with a 98% failure rate that 80% of teens who tried were able to purchase. What if alcoholics’ products were replaced by pharmaceutical alcohol with the same failure rate, would anyone cry foul? Or how about condoms given away by Planned Parenthood if they had a 98% failure rate like the Nicotine Replacement Therapy products with a 98% failure rate. The loss of freedom and the loss of free enterprise is astounding with these laws which are the real killers, the killers of small businesses and people’s livlihoods!

  2. marleneb on June 15th, 2009 9:31 am

    Over 2 million non-smokers die every year from the same diseases they attribute to smoking related diseases for smokers, but somehow those same diseases are not labelled then, they are “normal”. Another thing, a 98 year old man’s death is added to premature death from smoking numbers if he smoked. Yes 98, not a typo. Shady!

  3. marleneb on June 15th, 2009 9:34 am

    A non-profit foundation funded most of the bans? The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation paid just through 2005 over $446 MILLION DOLLARS for tobacco control. $99 million to the ACS, ALA, AHA for bans. $84 million to create/fund Tobacco-Free Kids. RWJF was created by the founder of Johnson & Johnson. RWJF owns tens of millions of shares of J&J stock. J&J sells Nicotine Replacement Therapy products (CESSATION). Michael Fiore received grant money from RJWF; Fiore helped write federal mandate that doctors tell patients they MUST use drugs, not to quit cold turkey and yet, NRT products have a FAILURE RATE OF 98.4% for one year or longer quitting. And you wonder why these groups are opposed to anyone selling nicotine products besides the drug companies? Did you know a study was done showing 80% of the time, minors were able to buy NRT products with no ID? And how about Nicorette’s “minty fresh” gum with teeth whiteners or “cinnamon burst” gum? Hypocrisy. It’s ok for the drug companies to sell alternative nicotine products? What a scam this whole thing is.

  4. DMS on June 15th, 2009 10:27 am

    I just found out that a family member that recently passed away has the area marked ‘YES’ on his death certificate that tobacco was a contributing factor. THE PERSON NEVER SMOKED! … Who is paying doctors do do these lies and HOW MUCH are they getting paid?

  5. Reverendcrash on June 15th, 2009 8:10 pm

    Thank you Barry Soetoro, aka Barak Obama, you just opened the door for another Bunch of Bootlegging Kennedy’s to get rich throught the Black Market. Interestingly enought these reductions in Nicotine do not apply to existing Manufacturers only for new products with the exception of Labeling.

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