KARL ZIOMEK: It's hard to blame officials for trying to regulate the tobacco industry  

Not everyone agrees with more and more federal regulation, however.

One of our staff writers, Rene Cizio, ran an Internet blog Saturday about the impending legislation and the response was mixed.

Some people, while recognizing the harm of tobacco use, consider legislation against it infringing on their rights. One responder asked openly what the government was going to attack next: alcohol, sugar, etc.? He also noted the hypocrisy of banning smoking in some public places (restaurants, for instance) while letting it remain in others (casinos, for example), all because money does a lot of talking. Actions like these give the critics more and more ammunition against the "big government" policies of Obama's new administration.

But is it really government intrusion? Or is it just righting a longtime wrong? Is it right to let hundreds of thousands of people die each year because they have been lured into a horrible habit by a woefully under-regulated industry?

I guess Tobacco Road is going to know what Motown feels like when the government gets involved.

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