U.S. House Vote Says Cigarettes are Drugs

[Hissyspit]

Source: BBC News

US vote says cigarettes are drugs

About one in five adults in the US still smokes

The US House of Representatives has voted to treat tobacco as a drug and have it regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The bill would tighten restrictions on advertising, impose new penalties for selling to children and require all new products to be approved by the FDA.

But the White House threatened to veto the bill, saying it would put an enormous burden on the FDA.

- snip -

The bill cleared the House with a 326 to 102 vote, as 96 Republicans ignored the president's position and voted in favour of the bill. The programme would be funded by levying millions of dollars in fees from the tobacco industry. Senator Edward Kennedy hopes to get the legislation before the Senate by the end of the year.

- snip -

Representative Henry Waxman has been trying to get the House to pass tobacco regulation legislation for more than a decade. "This is truly a historic day in the fight against tobacco," he said.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7534705.stm

---

[frogcycle]

1. turn all the tobacco farmland to switchgrass

and build ethanol plants there, instead of the sweetheart deals in the midwest using corn, which is a breakeven (at best) source of energy

[Jester Messiah]

3. Or Marijuana fields, if Mr. Frank is successful.

I, for one, wish him godspeed. :-)

[dysfunctional press]

54. make it hemp, and get rid of the cotton fields too...

hemp makes a better cloth fabric, and cotton is one of the WORST crops, as far as use of petro-chemical fertilizers and pesticides is concerned. no such need with hemp.

[Wizard777]

2. Oh no! I actually agree with Bush. Well, a broken watch is right twice a day.

Interesting concept tobacco as a "drug." So if I can get my doctor to write me a prescription for my cigarettes. They become a tax deductible medical expense. Will my prescription plan help cover the rising expense of cigarettes?

[Auggie]

4. Nicotine is the drug

[Wizard777]

11. I'm well aware of that. I'm kinda being treated with Nicotine.

I'm 6' 11". One of the things people my size have to worry about is enlarged heart and veins. Nicotine is a vasoconstrictor. So it prevents my heart and veins from enlarging. Last year I cut down from two packs a day to one. I recently talked to my doctor about cutting down to half a pack. He told me that if I cut down or quit smoking. He will prescribe me nicotine patches that would keep my nicotine levels around a pack per day. He says the Nicotine is working well and sees no need to find other ways of preventing my heart and veins from growing. The nicotine patches I could write off as a medical expense. But not my cigarettes even though it accomplishes the same medical objective. So I'm wondering if this would change that and allow my doctor to write me a prescription for cigarettes and allow me to write off my cigarettes as a medical expense. We have medical marijuana. Why not medical tobacco?

[Auggie]

14. With cigarettes you get the lung pollutants.

I used to smoke. And I really enjoyed it. But I'm glad I quit.

[Wizard777]

44. My lungs are fine. But that could be because of my size. It always takes more with me.

I make anesthesiologists crazy. They have to give me what is usually a fatal dose to knock me out. Because of this they are always double, triple, and quadruple checking their calculations.

[WhiteTara]

74. ask not for whom the bell tolls

[go west young man]

5. It's hard to disagree with a dictionary.

Drug definition: A chemical substance, such as a narcotic or hallucinogen, that affects the central nervous system, causing changes in behavior and often addiction.

[MadHound]

25. That means that caffeine is a drug also

Should we have the FDA regulating coffee now?

[merwin]

34. Uh, caffiene is already labeled as a drug.

Caffeine is a bitter white crystalline xanthine alkaloid that acts as a psychoactive stimulant drug and a mild diuretic (speeds up urine production) in humans and other animals

From wikipedia.

[mitchum]

70. That covers refined sugar...which is the true gateway drug

[raebrek]

7. Hmmmm

Walmart will sell a 30 day prescription for 4 dollars. I have to wonder if the government taxes any other drugs as hard as they do cigarettes.

Raebrek!!!

[Bandit]

15. You seem to have a warped idea of what a drug is

Of course nicotine is a drug....The same as THC is a drug in Pot..

[Wizard777]

42. It might be you. I'm 76 and old school when it comes to medicines.

As a kid when I got Poison Ivy. Mom went to the neighborhood Apothecary to get some camphor oil to relieve the itching. No prescriptions. At most a note from the doctor telling the apothecary what to give you. Then came patent medicines and the druggist. The apothecary shops started carrying the Patent medicines. They were called that because you could obtain a patent for them and actually own them. You could even prevent others from copying and selling your drug. You couldn't do that with the apothecaries remedies. They were made of natural substances. You cannot patent them. You cannot own them. It was universally held that God was the Inventor of natural substances and therefore no man could own them. So anybody could make and sell camphor oil. It was up to the Apothecary to decide who had the best quality that he would sell. Then over time the druggist took over the Apothecary shops. Now they are all Pharmacies. But what it comes down to is that every synthetic drug has a natural model. Digitalis is modeled after Foxglove and Valium is modeled Valerian etc. I only consider man made synthetics to be drugs. Non patentable natural substances like Nicotine and THC Delta 9 are not drugs. They are just naturally occurring substances. Because every drug is modeled after a natural substance. Both natural substances and drugs can be used as medicines. I have seen the definition of drug greatly shift over my life time.

There is also a movement that want to shift the meaning of drug even further. If the neutraceutical movement has it's way. You won't be able to get a 1-a-Day vitamin without a prescription.

[JeanGrey]

17. Interesting concept? Cigs are legal but they are more definitely

"drugs".

[Wizard777]

45. That depends on how you define drug. It has an ever expanding and changing meaning.

I can honestly say it doesn't mean what it used to. In my younger days. Drug only applied to what was also called patent medicines. Now there is a group that wants to expand the word drug to include Vitamins and Minerals.

[raebrek]

6. So will the FDA now start approving beer too?

Alcohols is a drug.

Raebrek!!!

[sofa king]

8. I'm not sure I like this.

Here's what I don't like about calling tobacco a drug. At this point, it's already known to just about everyone as a drug, one of the few legal recreational drugs out there, along with alcohol and, if you ask Rush Limbaugh, oxycontin.

I've long argued that the best way to kill off the evil powder-and-rock drugs is to make marijuana legal, thus removing millions of users from the opportunity to try other, worse illegal substances.

This move seems to be going in the other, never-has-and-never-will-work path to prohibition. If you think illegal drugs are a problem now, just imagine what would happen if 20 percent of the population has to feed their monkeys by visiting shady assholes who also sell methamphetamines and heroin!

[JonLP24]

79. Thanks for this post

I'm personally against the Drug War and going after the tobacco smokers, dippers, and chewers is going backwards in that direction. There are too many users and you are just adding unneccessary roadblocks. While I agree not using any substance is much healthier then even taking caffeine once, they can make it hard and threaten strick penalties involve in the illegal drug trade, it doesn't stop and many users already know what parts of cities and what people to talk to get what is they want. I do too, if I wanted to get Methamphetamine, give me 3 days I'm sure I can find it(I'm not using anything other THC, Caffeine, Alcohol every once in awhile, and nicotine)
But...
The process is dangerous however, international mafias distributes into the US and then a user would endanger himself by buying dope from someone who is probaly paranoid, could be on drugs himself... looking to rip you to support his drug habit, etc

However I believe in my mind as far as health out of the 3 most commonly used substances(excluding caffeine)

Worst for you starting with 1
Nicotine(Cigarette-smokeless form)
Alcohol(much worse then marijuana imo both intoxicating effects and damage to your insides)
Marijuana No known cause of an overdose, though it is possible for someone to have allergic effects, bad trips, or just get too disoriented, etc.

[onehandle]

9. AMEN! Now classify it as a prescription only drug and save MILLIONS and MILLIONS of lives!

Go Waxman!

I'm sending him some CASH!

[LostinVA]

12. The (Republican) ex FDA head agrees it should be -- and so do I

He believes that people currently smoking should still be allowed to smoke, or helped if they want to quit. NO advertising, NO flashy packaging, and you have to get the cigs at a Pharmacy. He thinks we should help the tobacco farms that are left. I personally think they should be set up to grow hemp: it's sustainable, versatile, and an easy crop to grow and process. He wrote a very good book about this.

Disclosure: I smoked two packs+ a day for over a decade and now have been clean over a decade. Anyone who doesn't believe cigarettes are nothing but burnable syringes is fooling themselves. It is a horrible addiction for many of us causes a very, very nasty withdrawal -- remmeber that when your loved ones are quitting. I was able to quit cold turkey the first time (it sicked), but I can NEVER smoke a single cigarette agin -- I'd be back up to two pavks in less than a week. So many lives and medical dollars are lost every year to people who can't beat this drug. And, remember: like caffeine, nicotine can be taken out of it's substance, so the companies could made non addictive cigarettes. Of course they don't do that, they ADD nicotine. They are evil companies, worse t5han oil companies imo.

[JeanGrey]

18. If they took the nicotine out the cigarette, there would be

need to smoke it, would there?

[LostinVA]

57. Exactly -- yet they could make it like Decaff coffee if they wanted to

[JeanGrey]

64. Sure but they wouldn't sell enough to make a profit.

[Taverner]

31. Bad bad idea

Want to make something go up in value? Want to drive up demand? Make it illegal. Watch gangs to start selling smokes. Stupid, stupid idea.

What works is what we are doing now - education. Every year there are less smokers, partly because they die and partly because kids aren't picking it up like they used to.

Prohibition will reverse all that, and Nicotine will be the new party drug.

[onehandle]

36. Oh yeah. Nicotine a "party drug."

I often go to parties and indulge in a drug that in the short term ever so slightly relaxes you.

Alcohol, pot, and pills are party drugs. Cigarettes don't make you high.

You might as well make that analogy about aromatherapy, too.

Nice try.

[Taverner]

47. Point is you're pushing Prohibition - always a bad idea

Why don't we outlaw the word "fuck" while we're at it?

[onehandle]

49. Congress is "pushing" control of an addictive drug. Not prohibition.

So should we do away with the whole prescription system?

Want some Morphine? Run down the the Quickie Mart and get a pack of Morphine 100s.

[Taverner]

52. To be honest - yes. You should be able to buy Heroin without a prescription

The war on drugs is doing no good and lots of harm.

[JeanGrey]

65. We ALL know the only answer is to decriminalize drugs,

but that isn't going to happen. I've given up we'll ever have any sanity on the war on drugs. It does burn me that alcohol and nicotine, the two worst drugs of all are legal.

[snooper2]

19. I guess I'll be smuggling in smokes from Mexico

:)

[MadHound]

26. Gee, people simply haven't learned the lessons of Prohibition

All such a move would do is drive the market underground, with all the associated violence and such associated with any such black market good.

[Taverner]

30. Yup - someone never read a history book

[Taverner]

29. Whaaa? And the war on drugs has been SOOOOO effective

That's just DUMB

[Juneboarder]

33. Since when is government regulation good

when it affects your daily life. I am a non-smoker and really hate the smell of cigarettes, but when do you draw the line on government intervention? Cigs are a personal choice and there are laws to prevent 2nd hand smoke and an attempt to keep the air clear for those non-smokers, but we have planes, trains and automobiles. They cause just as much pollutants and damage as cigarettes. Why not ban everything, then we can just sit in our homes and hope to high hell we don't break any government imposed laws.

[onehandle]

35. Nicotine is an addictive drug,

Line. Drawn.

[Juneboarder]

38. What about...

Caffeine and alcohol... those are addictive. What about Chocolate? That is addictive... OH!! Spicy food too... I'm addicted to that shit!! Love the Habanero Hot Sauce!! :)

My point... lots of things are addictive so why pick out nicotine? The government should not be able to dictate what we do when it comes to personal choices.

Sorry, have to throw one more controversial topic out there... ABORTION. Let's make that illegal while we're making cigs illegal. I mean come on... we cannot let the government intervene like this.

[onehandle]

41. Nicotine is distributed via cigarettes to everyone around you.

Including your children. That's the difference.

Wanna slap a patch on your body and imbibe a drug? Fine. Go crazy.

But don't spray an addictive drug into the general public.

Reminds me of a Steve Martin joke.

"Mind if I smoke?" "No. Mind if I fart? It's a habit of mine."

[Taverner]

50. They banned smoking indoors. That's where second hand smoke kills

Not because some guy who lives in the same city you did lights one in a park.

[Juneboarder]

58. I guess we should agree to disagree.

Yes, I am against smoking cigarettes; but at the same time I am also against the government intervening in such a way.

[Juneboarder]

59. Can OIL be considered an illegal drug??? :) n/t

[Maeve]

10. So what about the BATF?

Will we have two agencies fighting for turf..again...when it comes to enforcing regulations?

[slackmaster]

23. You mean the BATFE

Don't forget Explosives.

[bean fidhleir]

13. That's one way to get every smoker to vote GOP!

There seems to be no depth of craven stupidity to which the Dems in office won't sink. They grovel and cringe spinelessly to usurpers like BushCo, while taking strong stands against us, EXACTLY the opposite of what they should be doing, if they want our votes.

How stupid do they think we are? And are they right about that? Do the GOP own them outright, or merely have a long-term lease?


(oh, and no I haven't smoked tobacco in almost 40 years)

[bbgrunt]

28. i agree. Progressives who complain about news

being controlled, protestors being put behind chicken wire, people being thrown out of various venues because of a t ahirt they might be wearing, etc. etc. are really looking for trouble with this little bit of stupidity.

Just like with controls on abortion and the slippery slope that follows, people who advocate naming tobacco as a drug are like the people in Kansas who vote against their own best interest. Designating tobacco as a drug is only the first step down a short path to further restrictions and starting to live your life as property of the state.

[Phred42]

16. Interesting that these kinds of stories always come from the UK

US Corporate Media can't seem to break these stories

[bitchkitty]

20. Bunnypants will veto -

but he won't be there forever....

[onehandle]

37. President Obama will pass this one. nt

[blues90]

62. he smokes

[onehandle]

68. So?

Are you saying that he'd veto this life saving directive because he's just another addict?

Is that what you're saying?

[blues90]

71. I can't say , you tell me since your so involved

Lets see , smoking is bad and causes all sorts of health issues.Ok make them a drug and define them as one. Then to make up for the mass taxes collected by state tax on cigs and replace it with what , higher gas taxes. There is always a catch. Or we could raise the sales tax.

This is not to say that I encourage anyone to smoke , I do but I have never encouraged anyone to pick up the bad habit.

You have a solution , lets hear it rather than how it affects you personally. There is no way to make everyone happy ever. so ask someone to give up a habit, then be prepared to also give up a habit that intrudes on someone elses rights.

The reality is any fire that create smoke hot air rises and in no way stays in the breathing range of others unless it's in a closed room or blown directly in someones face.

Heat rises. Even if I did not smoke I would feel it's insane to ban smoking outdoors.

Everyone complains yet they only have the simple side that is fed to them without thinking beyond that .

To make a drug does nothing. We have all sorts of drugs that are legal yet worse than street drugs that kill and they advertise them on the TV every day .

I suppose then ban the patches people use to quit because they contain nicotine as well. You can buy these over the counter. Ban the gun too and let the smokers go nuts trying to quit. I would say most smokers wishthey never started in the first place so lets make it more difficult to quit.

[Trajan]

21. They ARE drugs ..... 20 crack pipes in a pack ....

So: Classify them as drugs ... Then LEGALIZE drugs, TAX them, and provide treatment and education about how to NOT take drugs ....

Freedom is a wonderful thing .... so is consistency ....

[slackmaster]

22. I've been hoping for this one for a long, long time

Good on the House.

[jus_the_facts]

24. The FDA is a JOKE...they can't find their asses with both hands....

....this is just another WASTE of taxpayers time and money. :eyes:

[robcon]

27. This one looks like a loser like Prohibition.

Outlawing tobacco products will have the same impact: a lucrative opportunity for organized crime, and a growing lack of respect for the law among citizens.

[depakid]

39. Where in the OP is there anything mentioned about "outlawing"

Seems to me the most one can draw from this is support for increased regulation based on the rational acknowledgment that tobacco is an addictive drug.

Frankly, I think the US is long overdue for that- and ought to follow the lead of nations like Canada and Australia in their efforts to curb nicotine addiction.

[Taverner]

32. Nanny-stateism at its WORST

[depakid]

40. I'm assuming that sarcasm, right?

[Taverner]

46. Nope - believe it or not there is nanny state legislation

The war on drugs is a perfect example

[krabigirl]

43. Just let people smoke if they want..

[dysfunctional press]

55. and WHAT they want...

:hippie:

[Paladin]

48. There's No Prohibition Of Smoking Involved, Here

And libertarians, kindly spare me your usual Evil Nanny State Jack-Booted Thugs Kicking In The Door wishful thinking, OK? Keep your wet dreams to yourselves, go down and buy a pack of Camels, and simmer down.

Cigarettes are in fact drugs, and it's a move in the right direction to label them as such. Anybody who doesn't think cigarettes are drugs has never personally gone through the painful process of giving them up.....

[superconnected]

51. did philip morris die?

[michaz]

53. Are they going after the cigarette companies for selling drugs? n/t

[alfredo]

56. Put an enormous burden on the FDA? They haven't been doing shit for

eight years other than rubber stamping everything big pharma and big Ag wants.

[lumberjack_jeff]

60. U.S. House Vote Says Water is a Liquid

News at 11.

Glad they cleared that up.

[skoalyman]

66. careful it may be addictive too

:crazy:

[Runcible Spoon]

61. YAY EXPANDED DRUG WARZ WOOOOO!!! DU has lost it's mind a bit today...

:crazy:

[EFerrari]

73. No kidding. Yeah! Let's get Big Pharma involved! Let's ask more

of the completely dysfunctinal FDA! Woohoo! :crazy:

[depakid]

76. Have YOU lost your mind?

Since when does regulation equal a drug war?

That sounds like something the tobacco companies like to say- and get other suckers to believe.

What the legislation will do- among other things- is require disclosure of toxic additives to cigarretes (which are currently protected as "trade secrets," and allow the FDA to regulate additives and nicotine content- as well as oversee claims about "light" or "reduced risk" products.

In other words- what every other western nation already does.

[Runcible Spoon]

78. listen-the tobacco industry is fucking insane too, I agree.

but the last thing we should do it allow another substance to be controlled by the fucking FDA and big Pharma.

Tobacco doesn't need to be a controlled substance, it just needs to be GROWN NATURALLY and processed without chemical additives. If legislation enters the picture, that's where it should be. Problem solved.

[BreweryYardRat]

63. Oh, for fuck's sake!

What the hell are those of us who only smoke occasionally (when I really need an energy boost) supposed to do? Pay out the nose for this?

And I think whoever said this will make lots of smokers vote Repub was right.

[skoalyman]

67. what they really want to do is regulate how much nicotine the

company's can put in cig's and smokeless tobacco in other words water down but that will only make people smoke more.:smoke:

[5thGenDemocrat]

69. I'm 52, have had three heart attacks and still smoke

I don't go to bars or restaurants where I might affect some non-smoker's precious pink lung sacs. I'm aware that if I don't quit I'm dead in ten years (or less) and I don't give a shit. I resent Kennedy and Waxman playing Big Daddy with my personal choices.
If the goo-goos out there don't want me to smoke around them, fine. I've already conceded as much (or, more precisely, have already had what used to be a personal choice dictated to me). I pay upwards of $2.50 a pack in taxes here in Michigan -- which was supposed to go to pay for "Smoker Education," or whatever wippy-dip, do-gooder program they sold to us -- but which, in actuality, goes to the Lansing Liquor and Prostitute Fund. I like smoking, I don't smoke around non-smokers and, when it kills me, so fucking what?
Now Waxman and Kennedy want to paint me even farther into a corner. Democrats won't stand up against an illegal, immoral war -- too gutless to take on the most unpopular "President" in history, but want to jump on my dick over smoking.
Fine. If Dale Kildee (my Democratic congressman) votes for this or if Senator Levin does, I'll happily abstain from voting for Congress or Senate in November.
I don't care if it amounts to Sisyphus pushing pork up Parnassus. I'm damned tired of the self-righteous, holier-than-thou non-smokers minding my own business and I hope Bush does veto this. It'll be the first correct thing (IMHO) he's done since his worthless ass hit Pennsylvania Avenue.
John
That's my opinion and I vote. But I don't have to.

[frogcycle]

72. Well, I hope when it gets you

it is a massive heart attack and you don't feel a thing.

COPD/CHF or lung cancer can be long and drawn out, and really unpleasant, for you and those around you.

I respect your right to say 'fuck it,' just hope you don't regret it.

[rucky]

75. Would that mean my insurance would cover Chantix?

I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Mostly because my lungs aren't what they used to be.

[OKthatsIT]

77. OK...you choose. You want Socialized Medicine or not?

Smokers fund children's medical plans across the states. In Massachusetts, there wouldn't be any 'medical for all' without taxing smokers.

S...better think before you vote on this one.

[lynne]

80. I wonder if everyone will think it such a good idea -

- when they classify beer, wine and liquor as a drug? It's the next logical step and is only a matter of time.

[Fumesucker]

83. Alcohol is a drug..

One of the hardest drugs actually..

Going cold turkey on heroin will make you wish you would die.

Going cold turkey on alcohol can actually kill you.

http://www.alcohol-drug-rehab-directory.com/alcohol.html

Once DT's begin, there is no known medical treatment to stop them. Grand mal seizures, heart attacks and strokes can occur during the DT's, all of these serious alcohol withdrawal symptoms can be fatal to an alcoholic if not properly treated.

[bigmoon]

81. Bush needs to veto this one

n/t

[bigmoon]

82. What aboutt he Bureau of Alcohol, TOBACCO and Firearms?

Are they going to regulate tobacco any more?