Comments on: Report: FDA Needs To Regulate Tobacco

Institute Of Medicine Urges Government To Develop Plans For Reducing Nicotine In Cigarettes

[ajmarine1]

Make tobacco illegal like pot, make both of the legal, or shut up about it and keep raking in the taxes off of it.

[storrry]

I AM A SMOKER FOR 13 YEARS. I AM ALL FOR HIGH TAXES ON CIGARETTES, BUT ONLY ON ONE CONDITION. THE GOVERNMENTAL BODY THAT TAXES THE CIGS OUGHT TO SUBSIDIZE PROGRAMS TO HELP SMOKERS QUIT. IF THE REASON FOR THE TAX IS TO CURB CIG CONSUMPTION, THEN SOME OF THAT MONEY COLLECTED REALLY OUGHT TO BE USED TO DO SOMETHING "PROACTIVE" TO HELP US STOP.

TEXAS JUST IMPLEMENTED A DOLAR PER PACK TAX. THATS FINE, BUT WHERE IS THAT MONEY GOING, AND HOW IS THAT GOING TO HELP SMOKERS QUIT. UNFORTUNATELY IN TEXAS, ITS NOT ABOUT CURBING SMOKING, ITS ABOUT TAKING ADVANTAGE OF A MEDICAL CONDITION (ADDICTION) TO MAKE EXTRA MONEY. ITS SAD REALLY.

[jolsonbear]

It is true that the major tobacco producers "add" to their products. I used to smoke about 2 1/2 packs of cigarettes a day. But 8 years ago I switched to smoking a pipe. I don't buy prepackaged processed tobacco; I buy from a tobacco shop who sells tobacco dried and cured buy tobacco farmers. I smoke my pipe about 5 to ten times a day. I don't smoke in my house and don't take my pipe to work. When I smoked cigarretts the urge was so strong that my number one priority was to make sure I had them with me at all times.
Even so, cigarette smoking not the problem that it is being made out to be. Alcohol results in more deaths per year from auto accidents, liver disease, and domestic violence than any drug (legal or not) on the market. But since the majority of Americans are drinkers and only a minority smoke, which vice doyou think is going to be the whipping boy??

[jim476-2009]

Do you hear me complaining about the majority of the taxes i have to pay compared to someone who doesn't smoke?like the non smokers who complain about the health care costs,and whatever else they complain about.Whiners.Non smokers should be happy i smoke.It takes the tax burden off of them.

[drinuk]

Could not agree more with regard to the poison chemicals deliberately put into cigarettes, all the stuff that makes them burn faster, the junk they impregnate the paper with and the inferior *** tobacco which burns "Hot" Every other industry producing stuff we put in our mouths is carefully monitored for additives, NOT tobacco, lets have straight simple unadulterated tobacco cigarettes, we may then see a difference.

[robertstom1]

Nicotine should be the least of the FDA's worries. It's all the other chemicals/addictive substances the tobacco companies add to cigarettes that cause the problem. As the article states, in 1900 people reported smoking an average of 54 cigarettes per year as compared to the 2007 average of 4,345. Nicotine has always been present in tobacco products, yet those who smoke now are more severely addicted than ever. Obviously, smokers are craving all the other substances besides nicotine.
Raising taxes and lowering nicotine levels will only force people to smoke more and to pay more. They should require the tobacco companies to list the ingredients of each cigarette on the outside of the pack, just like a food product. Then maybe smokers would know what they're actually ingesting.

[peacethinker-2009]

It's about time. Should of happened years ago.

[jolsonbear]

Ok, so what about the alcohol problem?