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



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[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 .....y?)....

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

 

[beingbekah]

Big brother needs to get the axe. Anarchism would be preferable to what we're facing now. This country is ripe for revolution. If my generations wasn't so effing ignorant, lazy, and complacent, we might stand a chance. As it is... anybody else want to secede?

Meanwhile, our founding fathers, who are portrayed as fascist white elitest slaveholders in our grossly incompetant, publicly-funded educational systems, are doing cartwheels in their graves. How Jefferson and Washington would weep if they could see how far we have strayed from the ideals they risked everything for.

/end rant

 

[aubergine]

Dammit, Bob. You're SURE?

 

[JerryRM]

"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."

No we are not children of the state, most of us grew up during a time when we were able to think and do for ourselves. I worry about the younger generations though. Is the state preparing them for total control. "Listen to us, we know what's best for you, don't try to think for yourselves, let us do the thinking. Take this FDA approved pill, you will feel better".

I think we are caught in the middle of the transition, from freedom to George Orwell's 1984.

 

[dgriego]

Amazing

All the ones I have tasted were nothing like candy. I would have to stand over my children and pound them with a stick to get them to actually eat one.

And in my opinion things like smoking and drinking appeal to kids because they are forbidden. If tobacco tasted like poop and booze like urine you would still have kids trying to check it out.

 

[JerryRM]

Amazing

All the ones I have tasted were nothing like candy. I would have to stand over my children and pound them with a stick to get them to actually eat one.

And in my opinion things like smoking and drinking appeal to kids because they are forbidden. If tobacco tasted like poop and booze like urine you would still have kids trying to check it out.

A prime example is illegal drugs, it's mostly the kids who use them and the drugs are easy to get.

So much for making something illegal to "protect the children".

 

[beingbekah]

Jerry and dgriego, excellent points.

Case in point: Not all that long ago, I was a rebellious kid. I drank like a fish before I turned 21. Once it became legal for me to consume alcohol, I found that it was no longer as interesting. I now occasionally have one drink with a meal.

I started smoking cigarettes at 12. By the time it was legal for me to buy cigarettes, I was already hopelessly addicted. I haven't enjoyed smoking for the last ten years, but I'd still be doing it if I hadn't read a blurb about e-cigarettes six weeks ago. Since getting my first starter kit in the mail, I've smoked two analog cigarettes, both because my batteries were dead. I now have plenty of supplies (backups for my backups ). About three weeks ago, I did something I don't remember ever having done before; I threw away a full (minus 2) pack of cigerettes.

Big Brother's restrictions didn't save me. I saved myself (with some help from family and friends, of course). You cannot legislate vice out of existence. Usually such policies do more harm than good. For an example, I point to Prohibition during the 20's. The black market alcohol industry opened the door for organized crime in this country, and it has never left.

I would apologize for my generation, I know we are a big part of the problem, but I cannot, and I'm not sure I would if I could. I find it ironic that the previous generation talks about this generation as though they had nothing to do with it. I'm not thrilled with the caliber of individual that represents the average member of my generation, but the average members of yours laid the foundation. (Disclaimer: This is not meant as an insult to any particular person. Most of the people I've met here have been intelligent and reasonable.)

 

[MaryMarcelle]

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

Ha ha ha ha ha....lmbo!

Waffle between you and Voltaire I think I will get enough "laugh therapy" for an entire year tonight. You all are too funny with your quick wit. Thx for making my night.

 

[caged bear]

they should watch thier kids and what thier doing ... where are the parents ? I buy booze but my kids dont drink ..
because I WATCH thier azzez ..

I personally e mail the FDA EVERY morning ... To inform them I am still NOT KILLING MY KIDS ANYMORE .........

Tomorrow , I'll e mail them AGAIN ...
maybe we should bomb bared then with e mails on how many lives I SAVED TODAY ...
makes me feel better ...

 

[ChipCurtis]

I would apologize for my generation, I know we are a big part of the problem, but I cannot, and I'm not sure I would if I could. I find it ironic that the previous generation talks about this generation as though they had nothing to do with it. I'm not thrilled with the caliber of individual that represents the average member of my generation, but the average members of yours laid the foundation. (Disclaimer: This is not meant as an insult to any particular person. Most of the people I've met here have been intelligent and reasonable.)

That was very well thought-out, and made me think a lot. Let me continue those thoughts with further meditations on the same theme.

What the previous generation handed off to you was tragic but unintended. I entered my adult years during the Carter-to-Reagan transformation. I call it a transformation and not simply a transition, because the whole country changed its mood during those brief years 1979-81. The baby boomers (one-half a generation earlier than me) soured on their ideals and "got real". Everybody saw the writing on the wall. (Speaking of "the wall", more on that later....). The foundation that was laid for you was not a foundation at all, but a lack of one. It wasn't intentional, it was just the result of a decade-long battle between generational values that ended in a socio-political holocaust of sorts. Reagan and his ilk got into office and proceeded to tear down every shred of social contract and social protection that the previous generation saw as crucial to keep the middle class afloat and viable. We are simply still living in the wasteland of that choice.

It is almost impossible for many today to understand that this country really was a different place at one time. I have memories of friendly neighborhoods where people really seemed to care. I don't think it was just because I was young. I saw it growing up, then suddenly BOOM, everybody got selfish and "looking out for number one" and all that. The whole society pretty much changed and went overdrive into "realism mode". The only problem with this way of thinking is that, the only things that are "real" in a society is simply constituted by the people that make it up. Once you give up on the ideal that we can all be responsible and be in it together, you let the corporate interests complete run roughshod on you. That is essentially what happened, and we haven't been able to fix it since. The nation divided up into groups that were complete unrelated to any real issue that people were going through, other than joblessness and a persistent kind of civil uncaring. Wedge issues (abortion, war-on-drugs, "family values") were manufactured by the political class to keep the population at each other's throats while they ran to the bank laughing.

Looking back on it all, I remember Pink Floyd's "The Wall", the original album released right around this time. I listened to it but at the time I didn't connect with it, because I couldn't see the full picture of that artistic vision and how it related to our own world. Now, I think Roger Waters is a prophet. I watched the movie of The Wall just a few days ago, and I was thinking, WOW this looks pretty much like what we're going through now. "Daddy what did you leave me?" is a constant question being asked in that movie. A valiant man who fought the Nazis to save his home country, died for it, and ended up leaving his son a world full of unintended crap anyway.

 

[kevbow]

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?

I second this