Tobacco.org

Editorial: FDA folly - Regulation wrong remedy for tobacco  

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration may be charged with promoting and protecting the public health, but it may soon be obligated to regulate an inherently unhealthy product if Congress approves legislation giving the agency oversight of tobacco. The bill reached the floor of the Senate on Tuesday, despite the best efforts of North Carolina's senators, and seems poised for approval.

Though well-intentioned, the legislation would be the wrong remedy for the ills caused by tobacco. The Senate should listen to U.S. Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan, who have offered workable alternatives that avoid inflicting tobacco regulation on an ill-prepared federal agency.

Only weeks after North Carolina, once the capital of tobacco production, approved a ban on smoking in restaurants and bars, the industry appears poised to take another hit in Washington, D.C. . . .

North Carolina should eagerly support efforts to reduce the number of smokers and to dissuade children from adopting the deadly habit. But it should do so only in an appropriate manner that limits harm to the state, two measures by which this legislation falls short.

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