Stubby wrote:
As of yet there are only a few people calling for prohibition on tobacco, and they are the most fanatical.
Not so.
More than a decade ago, the EU, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong banned the sale of snus (largely due to lobbying by tobacco prohibitionist Greg Connolly, who used to be director of the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program and is now at Harvard writing junk science and fearmongering articles about smokefree tobacco alternatives).
A decade ao, CTFK, ACS, AHA, ALA and others successfully petitioned the FDA to ban the sale of Nicotine Water claiming it was an unapproved food product, and to ban the sale of a nicotine lozenge product that was manufactured/marketed by a pharmacist to smokers as a less hazardous cigarette substitute.
At that same time, CTFK, ACS, AHA, ALA, GlaxoSmithKline and others unsuccessfully petitioned the FDA to ban the sale of Star's Ariva and Stonewall dissolvable tobacco products, claiming that they looked like "candy", were marketed to youth, were nearly identical to GSK's Nicorette lozenges, and were NOT proven to be Safe or Effective (for smoking cessation).
Several years ago, the FDA banned Nicogel skin cream, claiming it was being marketed as an "unapproved drug device".
In 2009, after being urged to do so by CTFK, ACS, AHA, ALA, ASH and Frank Lautenberg, the FDA attempted to ban e-cigarette sales by adding the products to the import ban list, by claiming they were unapproved drug devices, and by claiming they contained toxins and carcinogens. Legislation was also introduced in 7 states and several municipalities to ban the sale of e-cigarettes, which was advocated by CTFK, ACS, AHA, ALA, ASH and others.
Many other countries have also banned e-cigarette sales at the request of tobacco prohibitionistists.
Also in 2009, US Senators Sherid Brown and Jeff Merkley called for a ban on dissolvable tobacco products at the Senate HELP Committee markup session on the FSPTCA legislation when they got the bill amended to require the FDA to conduct a study and report on dissolvable tobacco products.
Since then, GSK, Legacy and other have urged the FDA to ban dissolvable tobacco products, as have CTFK, ALA, AHA and others at the state/local levels.
During the past year, CTFK, ACS, AHA, ALA, ASH, Legacy and others have urged the FDA to ban menthol cigarettes.
Unwarranted tobacco product usage bans (e.g. banning indoor use of e-cigarettes and/or smokeless tobacco products and banning outdoor smoking in locations where 2nd hand smoke poses very little if any risk to others) can also be considered tobacco prohibition.
Although calls for outright prohibition on all tobacco products, sales, usage and/or possession haven't occurred yet in the US, tobacco prohibitionists will do so if/when they believe that doing so is achievable.
Until then, tobacco prohibitionists will continue to be what I call "opportunistic prohibitionists", who strategically demand and lobby for prohibition of selective tobacco products (usually very low risk new tobacco products) because they have little market share and because their manufacturers/consumers are less likely to mount effective opposition campaigns) and before selective authorities in selective jurisdictions (where they are more likely to obtain the votes needed for enactment).
