Tobacco regulation

[endarkenment]

My first reaction to the House approving legislation to put tobacco under FDA regulation (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/30/AR2008073002674.html?hpid=sec-nation) was "stupid nanny state bullshit". Well it is stupid nanny state bullshit, tobacco is regulated already and anyone old enough to purchase tobacco products should be considered amply warned about its negative health impact. However, on second thought, regulation of a consumer recreational drug through the FDA provides a model for other recreational drugs, in particular marijuana, to be decriminalized and regulated in the same manner. The argument for pot prohibition becomes even weaker if tobacco is controlled under the same agency structure which classifies pot as a Schedule I drug - that classification could then be challenged in court after they classify tobacco as Schedule V. The FDA could be compelled to justify its arbitrary classification schemes.

[Warpy]

1. Anything that ends the witless pot prohibition is fine with me

I would love to see tobacco regulated under the FDA if only to police the additives put in there by cigarette companies.

If it provides a template to end the silly prohibition against a much less dangerous substance, it's icing on the cake.

[taterguy]

2. Are you high?

That's my first reaction to anyone that thinks there will ever be consistency in the way that tobacco and marijuana are treated in this country.

[Kazak]

3. What's your point?

;)

[Fuzz]

4. I hate the big lying corporations as much as the next guy but

damn it, stop this already for crying out loud. Educate fine. But adults no matter how stupid or smart have the right to do stupid things provided they don't hurt another human being.

[endarkenment]

5. Like I said - I agree that it is nanny state bullshit

but it also just might have unintended consequences that the nanny staters hadn't quite considered.

Of course I think that pot ought to be regulated like tobacco and alcohol - sold to adults with warnings on health consequences, taxed, and otherwise left alone. (Of course the health consequences of pot usage are nearly non-existent, but that is a separate issue.)