FDA concerned dissolvable tobacco appeals to kids

[YoMike]

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration is saying in letters to two tobacco companies that flavored, dissolvable tobacco products -- that the agency compares with candy and says contain a lot of nicotine -- could be particularly appealing to kids and young adults.
The FDA's Center for Tobacco Products wrote to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., maker of Camel cigarettes, and the smaller Star Scientific Inc. on Monday voicing concern over smokeless products that are consumed like breath mints but made from finely milled tobacco.

READ the rest here,
FDA concerned dissolvable tobacco appeals to kids - Yahoo! Finance



.

[DWTaylor]

I love it. the fda is pushing again, this time to one of the products that lines all the gov pockets. You all so look at the sin taxes going up every year. I wonder how long till tobacco just says forget this and stops give money to the gov all together.

[CJsKee]

Gawd...damn...."think of the kids" is going to wind up being the death of smokers the world over!

[Wafflestomper]

Soon it will be "New tobacco product that beats you with a tire iron, wrecks your car and steals your girlfriend" appeals to kids.

[angelique510]

I am so fed up with the FDA and all the similar organizations of <insert adjective of choice here> Nanny Staters that are so concerned about "the children."

If they are so bloody concerned about the well being of my children, and anyone else who happens to be within a five mile radius of me, they had best not come between me and my nicotine. Bad things are liable to happen.

....(was that too bitchy?)....

And in Virginia of all places. This great state was built on tobacco four hundred years ago. I am ashamed.

~A

[The Mosh]

I'm not going to be popular for saying this. I don't mean to fuel the fire. But you're never going to stop kids from using tobacco products, no matter what that product is by freaking out and yelling that they can't use it. It's human nature. Kids are people too. Whenever you tell someone they can't do something, human nature kicks in and says, "why not?"

It should be the FDA's job to answer that with education, and concise unbiased scientific answers. After all, preserving public health is their mission. But neither seems to be their strong suit right now.

[JSullivan]

Soon we will no longer be able to think for ourselves. We will no longer be able to make our own decisions based on our own opinions. It really pisses me off, ALOT. I need to top off.

[crmartin]

If the FDA is so concerned about the children, why don't they start banning all the junk food and sodas that are detrimental to their health, or do they believe obesity is healthy?

[Vicks Vap-oh-Yeah]

It all makes perfect sense, once you factor in that the goal isn't to end cigarette usage, but to end publicly accepted recreational NICOTINE usage.

Now for obvious reasons, the FDA and other powers that be can't come right out and say that (as they need the deep pockets of the tobacco industry to continue to pour money into their coffers) but that's what it measures up to be once you follow the little bouncing ball. They're going to use the $$ given by BT to destroy them - ironic, in a twisted sense, but there's the layout.

It won't be a full-on prohibition, but almost worse, with BP controling the world's nicotine market.


I just gave myself chills.........brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

[TropicalBob]

You are exactly right, Vicks. Exactly. The master plan was spelled out (it's been posted on ECF) 8 years ago. Nicotine distribution and control will be the provence of Big Pharma. No others can play. Tobacco usage will be corralled into ever-smaller areas, until smokers give up in disgust.

This has been the most depressing week for an ex-smoker in my memory. I'm certain e-cigs will be regulated out of our reach. No question in my mind. Liquid will be banned. Carts will be highly controlled for nicotine strength and materials used in the carts. Prices will soar. Devices will be regulated, and tinkerers will play in garages to boost output.

All that assumes e-smoking will be allowed at all. That is not assured.

Other developments that profoundly upset me include the new pressure on dissolvables. I rely on Stonewalls every bit as much as my e-cigs. I cannot imagine staying off cigarettes without the dissolvables I've used since 2004.

Then there's the pipe tobacco tax. Yes, I puff a pipe about twice a day. That pleasure faces a 775% tax increase.

Snus importation faces questions if Congress passes the PACT act. We may no longer be able to order from Sweden online. I depend on snus, too.

Next before the firing squad will be little cigars. Mark my word. Every alternative to smoking cigarettes, aside from NRT products, will be taken away. Every single one of them, e-smoking included. We must save the children, of course. Here are my notes from today's news stories:

FDA concerned dissolvable tobacco appeals to kids - washingtonpost.com

The federal pipe tobacco tax stands at $2.8311 per pound, and was increased last year from $1.0969 per pound, as a result of the SCHIP expansion. The new bill would hike the per-pound tax on pipe tobacco to $24.78 per pound.

I think the state should let adults smoke if they want to smoke, and stop trying to manage them. Tax them, OK. Manage them, no. That puts me on the side of the pipeman. If a handful of teenagers get some pipe tobacco by mail-order, it is no big deal. The more we bind adults with rules for children, the more the adult citizen becomes like a child in relation to the state--and we are not children of the state.
-- Seattle Times columnist