Senate Puts FDA in Charge of Tobacco

"No one seems able or willing to connect the dots on the link between smoking and freedom. ... smoking is used as an excuse for the government to tell you what you can do on the street, in restaurants - even in your own home. What's more, it's the government telling companies and business owners what they can and cannot do."

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by William Campbell Douglass, M. D.

The hammer has officially been dropped on smoking. The U.S. Senate has passed a vote that will give the FDA the power to regulate the tobacco industry. For years I've bemoaned our nation's slide toward an outright ban on tobacco. And with the passing of this vote, that slide is now moving at a blinding speed.

So be ready to kiss your cigarettes goodbye … along with some other personal freedoms, to boot.

Of course, the anti-smoking types are very excited - this is the massive victory they've been working towards for decades. And naturally, these freedom-crushing zealots are predicting the usual "success" that they believe will surely result from FDA regulation. They foresee a drastic decline in the number of "smoking deaths" each year, and prophesize that healthcare costs "caused" by tobacco will drop by a whopping $100 million.

I suspect they're pulling these figures out of thin air. But what the heck, they sound impressive.

And you can be sure that President Obama will ... sign this bill in a hurry the second it lands on his desk. After all, he's already effectively socialized (sorry … "bailed out") the auto industry. Why not add the tobacco industry to the growing list of American industries that are falling under the control of the government here in the People's Republic of the United States?

When the law eventually goes into effect, it will give the FDA the power to mandate a lower nicotine content in cigarettes - clearly the first step on the way to an outright ban.

Many people see my pro-tobacco stance as my most controversial. It's considered blasphemy for a physician to actually be for tobacco these days. But aside from the fact that I believe tobacco and smoking have been unjustly vilified by lobbyists both within and without the healthcare field, I believe the issue of tobacco has become bigger than health. It's about personal freedom.

Few people realize how precariously close we are to losing... Read more>>>>