My family had a friend visiting from Ecuador last year when the law passed allowing the FDA to regulate tobacco products. She was outraged. She was a smoker. And she could not believe that the US was going as far as intruding in people's private lives and personal habits. (Ecuador has very little social health movements, so I think this was pretty bizarre to her.) She understood that smoking was bad for her health, but she enjoyed it. And that was enough to keep her smoking.
She is not the only one who feels this way. Isn't personal freedom an American value most of us cannot imagine living without? Why is choosing to smoke any different? (Playing devils advocate here...) Check out the article below, it's about the FDA's new plan to "re-energize the nation’s antismoking efforts". It's a little graphic, but hopefully helpful. It will be interesting to see what kind of backlash this new regulation gets.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/11/health/policy/11tobacco.html?src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB
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I LOVE the new FDA warning labels! I think they are a great way to discourage people (especially image-conscious teens) from smoking. I also think they should increase the tax of cigarettes so that each pack costs $20 or $1 a cigarette. That would definitely discouage smoking and really make people consider whether or not each cigarette is really worth $1.
I'm all about freedom of choice, but smoking is not really a choice for many people. Many people express an interest in quiting, but are unable to do so. In addition, tobacco companies have deliberately targeted their marketing campagins towards youth and have manipulated nicotine levels to make cigarettes as addictive as possible.
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