MARLBORO - WINSTON - L&M - CAMEL - PARLIAMENT - KENT - CLASSIC

Today a new tobacco control act would cut the people’s rights and intelligence. As it is known attacking the tobacco companies has always been a favorite of Congress because it is a popular thing to do. But protecting people has rarely been a priority of Congress.

Earning cheap political points by going after easy targets has always been high on Congress' agenda, but respecting the American public has not. And so, when the recent tobacco regulation bill was approved by Congress, it was both a cheap political trick and another example of Congress disregarding the possible intelligence of the American people.

The new legislation itself transferred regulation of the tobacco industry to the Food and Drug Administration (a government agency that is run by the same people that it regulates), gathers warning labels, claims that tobacco companies expose their ingredients, and bans flavored cigarettes, except menthol cigarettes.

However, menthol cigarettes of course have a considerably higher amount of harmful chemicals than others do and are targeted towards the black community just like guns.

This new bill is one of the incalculable ways that the government has attacked smoking, neglecting the idea that after decades of telling people how bad smoking is that the reason that a quarter of the country still smokes is not because they are in the dark about the side effects.

The government has already increased taxes on tobacco, a sin tax on those of us that would rather smoke than buy into the new Congress warrant of healthy living. Some states have raised their own taxes as well. For example in New York, the price of a single pack of cigarettes currently hovers around ten dollars.

But in many states, smoking is not allowed in public places even though second hand smoke has killed zero people. The passage of the Tobacco Control Act is just another attack on the intelligence of the American individual.

A smoker said: "We do not need to be told that cigarettes are bad for you, we are bombarded with that message all day long. What we need is a Congress that accomplishes something worthwhile or just stays the hell home instead of celebrating cheap victories in which they banned banana flavored cigarettes."

One of the main purposes of the new law is to reduce the number of smokers in the name of improving "public health." This is a skillful use of language to confuse rather than enlighten.