President Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act into law on Monday bringing tobacco products under control of the Federal Drug Administration. We are very proud to have been a part of this historic legislation. The law focuses on the marketing of cigarettes to youth. Studies show 90 percent of smokers began on or before their 18th birthday and that tobacco companies deliberately target youth in their advertising. Below are highlights of the new law furnished by the Office of the White House Press Secretary.

Obama Signs the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act
The law bans candy-flavored cigarettes: By October 2009, cigarettes will be prohibited from having candy, fruit, and spice flavors as their characterizing flavors. Examples of these tobacco products include pineapple and coconut-flavored cigarettes made by R.J. Reynolds called “Kauai Kolada” and a citrus-flavored cigarette called “Twista Lime.”

R.J. Reynolds' Flavored Tobacco Products
The Law Requires a Full Disclosure of Ingredients and Additives By January 2010, tobacco manufacturers and importers will submit information to FDA in their possession about ingredients and additives in tobacco products, a description of the nicotine content and delivery, and the health consequences of tobacco products.

Photo Courtesy of Reno County Tobacco Use Prevention Coalition
Youth-Focused Marketing Must Stop By April 2010, FDA will issue the agency’s 1996 regulation aimed at reducing young people’s access to tobacco products and curbing the appeal of tobacco to the young. When the regulation becomes effective, a number of measures will take effect, including:
Tobacco manufacturers may no longer sponsor sporting, athletic, and entertainment events using tobacco product brand names and logos;
Tobacco manufacturers may no longer sell or give away clothing or other items which bear the brand name or logo of a tobacco product; and
Tobacco manufacturers will no longer be able to distribute free samples of cigarettes, and free samples of smokeless tobacco will be allowed only in adult-only facilities.

Cowboy Gear from Marlboro-Items to Buy With Marlboro Miles
Prohibiting Other Marketing Measures Misleading Consumers By July 2010, tobacco manufacturers may no longer use the terms “light,” “low,” and “mild” on tobacco products.

Courtesy of www.cartoonstock.com
New Warning Labels By July 2011, warning labels for cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products will be revised and strengthened. Warnings will comprise the top 50 percent of the front and rear panels of the package. FDA will issue regulations requiring graphics on labels depicting the health risks of smoking.

Canadian Tobacco Warning Label
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 also provides FDA with regulatory authority to regulate marketing and promotion of tobacco products and set performance standards for tobacco products to protect the public health. It is our hope, and the hope of our legislators, that these changes will make a distinct difference in smoking rates among young people. Thank you to everyone that made this new law a reality.
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This will put the Food and Drug Admin. in a whole new category, making our food more unsafe than ever while trying to curb tobacco products from getting into the hands of minors. A big warning label will not detour a smoker from smoking (you can’t teach an old dog new tricks). If you are over 18 you have the right to smoke, it’s not the Feds responsibility to tell us what we can and can’t do. If you really want to do something to help, don’t smoke! Period! Getting the FDA involved will do nothing but put a burden on our food that in the past several years the FDA can’t control anyways? Also, please keep in mind that the FDA is the same people who think it OK to stuff antidepressants down my kid’s mouth! I SAY NO THANK YOU!!!!
End the FEDs!
Surprised Obama signed it since he is a smoker himself…or maybe that’s why…show that he’s fighting it while smoking in private. This is just another example of government regulating private businesses to an unprecedented degree. Where will it stop? Smoking today, toothpaste tomorrow.
This act will generally improve the average young smokers education on the subject, and including pictures on the packs is genius. Sure people who want to smoke will smoke, but overall this will eventually drive the percentage of people in this country down who choose to smoke. It is already abundantly clear in my area, that people frown upon smoking. And I have friends that smoke which try and hide this habit from family and friends. People which are in the mid 20s, and 30s.
And personally I think if someone IS going to buy anything which they intend on consuming in one form or another, they should know exactly what is in it, and that data should be readily available on the package.
I think this is great! Anything that helps limit smoking in our country and that might deter people from starting to smoke is great progress. I wish smoking would be outlawed altogether. My father is currently dying from lung cancer. So hopefully this will protect someone from having to go through what he and the rest of the family are experiencing right now. You people who are so content to keep smoking won’t feel the same when you or your loved one are laying in bed unable to breathe.
People start smoking, precisely, because it is bad for them. It’s allure is that it is dangerous, and youmg people are impetuous by nature. No one who is smoking now is unaware of the dangers. I believe that smoking begins due to peer pressure, a desire to rebel, or to fit an image. The failure to quit as one matures is due to a weakness of character. Obama signing this legislation is hypocritical, and shows a further lack of character. The villaiainization of this industry shows the frustration of the government at their inability to control the actions of a large portion of the population. Nobody should smoke, but tobacco is not going to go away. The more the government raises taxes, the more they create a black market to skirt the rules.
this is awesome….i’m a smoker and i have 2 little girls, whom i pray will not smoke, we try to limit the girls exposure, no smoking in car, house, around them, but they know we smoke. it’s great that kids will start seeing smoking for what it is, gross and deadly. i can say though that its also parents jobs to make sure kids dont smoke…we are quiting this week, we have no choice, i will be crushed if our girls smoke, the best way for them not to start is not let them get cigs from their own home!
Sorry, I understand smoking is bad, but this is wrong. If the government fully respects the cigarette industry as a legitimate business then all of these measures are wrong. If cigarette smoking is never beneficial, than shouldn’t it have been shut down out right? No, it hasn’t because of the large monetary gains to be had through taxes and the country’s overall economy. Either, you eliminate this “cancer” to society fully or you don’t. You can’t step in like this and give these foolish boundaries to their business and regulate it. If you make the step here, then you must regulate the food industry as well putting scare labels on high starch products stating that “simple carbs cause obesity.” There’s too much pick and choose right now, and not enough hardlining from this administration; something this country desperately needs.
Yes, adults have the right to smoke BUT when the tobacco industry targets children, THAT’S WRONG.
I agree that it’s wrong for the tobacco industry to target kids. I also agree that it is a weakness of character which causes people not to quit smoking. I am an occasional smoker I am nineteen years old and have been an occasional smoker since high school It is the lack of moderation and discretion which causes invasive legislation which deprives us of our liberties. I like to smoke clove cigarettes, which I am of age to do and I don’t understand the idea that these things target kids. The only place you can buy those, at least in my area is at a tobacco shop, where they card on the way in. I for one think this is ludicrous. At twenty-one you’re allowed to drink, are we going to ban margaritas because they have sugar in them and kids might decide they want one. These types of laws don’t protect anyone, just sell cigarettes at specific stores or registers in stores like they do for liquor and the problem is no longer nearly as large. The problem is that any store can sell cigarettes and the licensing isn’t well enforced.
I am not a smoker by addiction,I am a smoker by choice. I CHOOSE to go to a hooka bar with my friends and relax with the Cultural Hooka. It is a pleasentry I do not beleive any man or woman has a right to make me give up. This body is my Temple and I will do with it as I see fit. If I choose to smoke a pack of cloves once every other month then It is my choice. If I choose to shmoke Shisha and drink Herbal tea at my Favorite Haunts, Then I see no one holding a gun to my head making me go. It’s a choice, The Oppresion this will lead to is jusy another for of Proabition. One more reason to hate our Government for turning a democracy into a monarchy!
What difference does it make if the cigarettes are tutti-fruiti or bubble-gum flavored or colored?? If you bring a pack to the counter, your age should be determined by legal identification before being allowed to purchase……simple…..works in a liquor store….works in an “adult” store…..should we now outlaw lemon vodka, kahlua, strawberry daquiris and edible underwear??? If you dont want to smoke…dont….and if you dont want to be around smoke, welcome to the new USA, where practically everywhere is banned from smoking, but where is the line going to be drawn???? I rarely smoke and when I do, I smoke a cigar or a clove cigarette. I rarely drink, but when I do I enjoy spiced rum……wonder how long till thats outlawed???
Just another example of the government trying to control every facet of our lives. They have no right interfering in commerce like this. They are not our mommies and daddies.
The federal government has 1 job and ONLY 1 job….doing what we tell them to do! Right now their most important job is to rework ALL of our international trade agreements so our “allies”, like france and japan can’t screw us any more.