Reply With Quote
it doesn't. but we're not talking about banning alcohol here, I would like it, but it will never happen.
- Mars
Those private prisons have to be occupied by somebody...
Marijuana laws aren't made to be followed; they are made to be broken.
it doesn't. but we're not talking about banning alcohol here, I would like it, but it will never happen.
- Mars
But why not?
It has been done before.
Taxes! That's why not. The politicians love that money
and the votes it can buy.
So why not tax marijuana?
Hey stupid, there is a tax on marijuana.
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6670
Great! How much revenue has that generated?
and it got repealed. so the likelihood of repealing a repeal of an amendment is slim to none.
- Mars
Why not?
beer companies have too much money, if it was tried they would lobby so hard it wouldn't pass
- Mars
So the only thing keeping alcohol legal is beer companies.
June 5, 2008
Former Health Officials Oppose Menthol
By STEPHANIE SAUL
Seven former federal health secretaries joined on Wednesday to protest menthol’s special treatment in a tobacco bill pending in Congress.
The seven, from Democratic and Republican administrations, faxed a letter to members of the Senate and House of Representatives demanding that menthol-flavored cigarettes be banned just like various other cigarette flavorings the legislation would outlaw.
One of the former secretaries, Joseph A. Califano Jr., said the legislation was “clearly putting black children in the back of the bus.” He was referring to menthol cigarettes as being the choice of three out of four black smokers and being frequently preferred by young smokers.
An estimated 80 percent of African-American teenage smokers pick menthol brands, the letter said.
The letter reflects a growing controversy over the bill’s current exemption of menthol from a list of banned flavorings — an exemption some lawmakers said was intended to garner support from Philip Morris. The maker of Marlboro Menthol, the second-leading menthol brand after Lorillard’s Newport, Philip Morris has endorsed the bill, although most other cigarette companies oppose it.
The bill would for the first time give the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco. While several groups have said the bill does not go far enough to regulate the tobacco industry and fails to promote safer tobacco products, most major public health advocacy groups have endorsed it.
Some antismoking advocates have said they see the menthol exemption as a necessary compromise toward getting the legislation passed, and they have said that the bill as currently drafted would give the F.D.A. the authority to limit or eliminate additives, including menthol, if they are proved to be harmful.
As now written the legislation would ban cigarettes flavored with strawberry, chocolate and a number of other fruit, candy and e flavorings. Those flavorings have occasionally been added to cigarettes in what critics say are a lure to children. But the bill specifically protects menthol from the ban, even though menthol is the most widely used flavoring. Menthol brands account for 28 percent of the $70 billion American cigarette market.
The bill has cleared key committees in both the Senate and the House but it is not yet scheduled for floor votes.
Responding to the letter from the former secretaries, the bill’s House sponsor, Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, said Wednesday that he believes an outright ban on menthol is not the best way to address it.
“I’m determined to see tobacco legislation pass Congress that protects all our children,” Mr. Waxman said. “Leading public health experts have told us that giving F.D.A. the authority to ban menthol is the best way to balance both public health considerations with the reality that many adults only smoke menthol cigarettes. I’ll continue our ongoing review to make sure we are dealing with this issue in the most effective way possible."
Menthol is derived from mint and is also available synthetically. Smoking menthol-flavored cigarettes gives the mouth a cool feeling, similar to sucking on a peppermint, and can help mask the harsh taste of tobacco.
The bill’s treatment of menthol “caves to the financial interests of tobacco companies and discriminates against African-Americans — the segment of our population at greatest risk for the killing and crippling smoking-related diseases,” the letter from the former secretaries said. “It sends a message that African American youngsters are valued less than white youngsters.”
Mr. Califano said that even though the bill gives the F.D.A. the authority to remove additives it would require a lengthy process that “could go on and on and on, and you’re talking about years before you get through the administrative process and the courts.”
Mr. Califano, who served as health secretary under President Jimmy Carter, said the idea to send the letter began when Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, the health secretary during the administration of President George H. W. Bush, called him to complain about the bill’s treatment of menthol.
“We both got our blood boiling,” Mr. Califano said in a telephone interview. They also decided to contact other past health secretaries. Five of them were reached and all agreed to sign onto the letter, according to Mr. Califano, who now runs the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.
They are Tommy G. Thompson, who was a health secretary under the current President Bush;
Donna E. Shalala, from the Clinton administration;
Richard S. Schweicker and Dr. Otis R. Bowen, from the Reagan administration;
and F. David Matthews from the Ford administration.
In a telephone interview, Dr. Sullivan, the president emeritus of Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, said, “My issue is that menthol should not be added because it’s added as an inducement, an enabler, to induce young people to smoke.”
In 1990, Dr. Sullivan was instrumental in pressuring R. J. Reynolds not to market its Uptown cigarette, a menthol brand intended to appeal to black smokers.
In addition to the former secretaries, two other people signed the letter. They were Dr. Julius B. Richmond, who served as surgeon general in the Carter administration, and William S. Robinson, the executive director of the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network, a nonprofit organization in Durham, N.C.
Mr. Robinson’s organization said last week that it was withdrawing its support from the bill because of the menthol exemption.
============
My bet is that the bill goes through with the menthol exception, or the bill is voted down.
Either way, blacks lose.
Does Obama smoke menthols?
Who knows. He did sign the bill as a cosponsor on 2/15/08.
I smoke menthol cigarettes, and this article is telling the truth, banning these would be akin to banning 1/4th of all cigarettes.
Look, I'm all for letting the public know about the health effects of smoking, but the government doesn't have a right to regulate my daily activities. This is just another example of moral paternalism, this time it's from the left, but to me legislation against smoking is similar to the war on drugs--stupid!
Tax it, inform the public, do whatever, but government does not belong in my personal life if it doesn't involve making me safe from outside harm
"moral paternalism"
If you and all smokers paid for ALL of your self-inflicted lung cancer costs out of your pocket, then smoke away, but that's never the case.
The problem is all the poor blacks, w/o any "free market" health insurance, who get hooked as youngsters on cigs and end up with lung cancer and all kinds of other diseases where smoking is "strongly associated".
The "paternalistic" govt will still pay for the menthol-puffers' 5 years of extremely expensive lung cancer care before death (5 year mortality rate is 90%+), typically $300K - $500K, using R2D's tax dollars, rather than let the blacks die without care.
The cig mfrs's profits are, with this menthol exception, being protected. They don't chip anything of their exorbitant profits to pay for the lung cancer treatment of their "clients". The fascists corps profit, the taxpayers pay the costs.
WC will now come in and prove that smoking doesn't cause lung cancer or any other disease, and actually causes a drop in global temperatures.
I would never try to prove such a point. That would be insane.WC will now come in and prove that smoking doesn't cause lung cancer or any other disease, and actually causes a drop in global temperatures.
Smoking, like most anything, is OK in moderation. Thing is, the addiction keeps nearly all smokers above what a safe level of smoking might be. Several other factors apply also. Primarily, different peoples bodies tolerate such poisons differently.
Don't ask me to say what a safe level of smoking is. I would only guess that less than 1/2 pack a day is a small enough quan y for most people to tolerate and that above 2 packs a day or more will likely result in cancer in most people.
All smokers I know smoke at least a pack a day.
who says weed makes you lazy?? Out of my experience while working labor intense (i used to lay brick) jobs Mexicans and black folks would take smoking breaks during lunch and they claimed it wakes them up and makes them more efficiently.Maybe only white people get lazy with it?
July 1, 2008
Black Caucus Takes Aim at Menthol
By STEPHANIE SAUL
The Congressional Black Caucus is calling for changes to a House tobacco-regulation bill, demanding that the legislation place restrictions on menthol cigarettes, the type heavily favored by African-American smokers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/bu...gewanted=print
==============
The cigarette makers just need to throw a few 1000 Benjamins at these guys. After all, they're just for-sale Congressman.
You do? Are you stupid? That can kill you . . .
So I take it you must now be against universal healthcare, right?
"Menthol cigarette brands have been rising in popularity with adolescents, and the highest use has been among younger, newer smokers. Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) explored tobacco industry manipulation of menthol levels in specific brands and found a deliberate strategy to recruit and addict young smokers by adjusting menthol to create a milder experience for the first time smoker."
"For decades, the tobacco industry has carefully manipulated menthol content not only to lure youth but also to lock in lifelong adult customers,"
"This is another example of the cynical behavior of the tobacco industry to hook teens and African Americans to a deadly addiction. This is after the industry told the American public it had changed its marketing practices."
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-tim071408.php
Parents of those black kids could do a better job of keeping thier kids from smoking.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
