Tackiness Prevented

Jeff Jacoby at the Boston Globe posted an article today about the decision last week by US District Judge Richard Leon to block a Food And Drug Administration (FDA) rule that would require cigarette manufacturers to put graphic images on cigarette packs showing the dangers of smoking.

A few disclaimers here–I don’t smoke–never have–I hate the smell of cigarette smoke, but I don’t think smokers should be forced to stand in the freezing snow outside a restaurant to enjoy a cigarette. (However, they do need a separate section of the establishment with a separate ventilation system,)

However, required graphic images on cigarette packs is a bit much even for a non-smoker like me.

The article points out:

The FDA’s gruesome new labels are not designed to provide consumers with useful information about the hazards of smoking. After 45 years of mandatory Surgeon General’s warnings, every non-comatose American knows perfectly well that cigarettes are a noxious health risk. That’s why the share of Americans who smoke at least occasionally has fallen to an all-time low of 19.3 percent, or less than 1 in 5 — a far cry from the more than 42 percent who were smokers in 1965. No one, not even Big Tobacco, disputes Washington’s right to require cigarette makers to disclose pertinent facts about their product’s dangers. Those disclosures, it’s clear, have been effective.

The government has no power to require the cigarette companies to put graphic images on their cigarette packs. To me, the requirement that there be an anti-smoking warning is a stretch.

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