Coburn: Ban Tobacco

I don't know why it would be a “liberal” position to ban tobacco. That sounds insane, and hardly liberal. Yes, maybe people in the left want to tax it, and so forth. But has 40 years of the drug war taught us (especially liberals) anything? That when you prohibit the sale or use of a substance that some people want to consume, it leads to ALL KINDS OF horrible abuses of constitutional liberties, devastation among the poorest parts of society, and crowded jails.

Tom Coburn must like organized crime. He must like black markets, having millions and millions of Americans breaking the laws. Already 43% of all Americans 18 and older have broken our marijuana laws, more than half of them if we don't count people 65 and older. Millions more smoke cigarettes than marijuana, so we''ll have millions more lawbreakers and further erosion of the rule of law. Drug traffickers who now make billions selling marijuana and other drugs will make billions more and consequently will grow larger and more powerful.

Coburn is an idiot. I hope Oklahomans have the good sense not to re-elect him in November of 2010. Cigarettes are bad but banning them and making the black market for illegal drugs that much bigger would be even worse. We need to be shrinking that black market, not doubling or tripling the size of it. Not only should we not ban cigarettes, we should legalize and regulate the production and sales of marijuana so we could shrink that black market and these drug trafficking organizations down to something much smaller and much easier to contain.

The bill wants to make cigarettes safer but we already know the ingredients which are causing the damage so why do we need to know every ingredient and why is that the FDAs job? What additional ingredients will we learn about that can be removed to make them safer? It is already in the bill that nicotine level cannot go down to zero while trade secrets will also be protected. Do we truly believe that knowing any of the above information will be enough to get people to quit, or to not start smoking? Personally, I find the antismoking commercials to more compelling.

I find it difficult to believe that a camel advertisement or a candy flavor name induces kids to smoke. More likely they are encouraged by a friend, want to feel like an adult, or think smoking makes them a rebel. The ads or flavors my get them to prefer one brand over another but nothing more.

We need to keep the cigarettes from kids and the best way to do that is to enforce laws which make it illegal to sell to a minor. If your kid smokes, find out where they get them and put a stop to it, than treat it as the disease it is and get them help. Once addicted it is possible that they can no longer help themselves.
This is where the Senator has a point – Get rid of the product altogether or find a safer alternative to replace it.

The FDA is already overwhelmed and underfunded.
Just watch, once this bill passes your tax dollars go up and what will you get for it. Cigarettes will still be on the market minus the candy flavors, there will be less advertisement which probably does not even induce people to smoke, and this bill does not even address getting people off of the stuff.

hell yea they really should

Thats's just genious… Tom is wanting to police the people who smoke.
The more I learn about him the more I think he is “out of step with the party.”
Worse out of step with his republican voters.
Republicans dont want more restrictions, they want more freedoms.

So far Coburn has emposed a huge unimaginable tax upon his republican voters
and all oklahomans, now he wants to take away our individual rights & freedoms.
Somebody said in another blog “Anyone but Coburn” I'm begin ning to agree.
We may not get who we really want in but we can make sure Coburn dont get the votes.

I find it unbelievable that so much attention is paid to the harm of tobacco and not a breath is heard about alcohol, one of the most deadly substances used in this country. I have yet to hear of a wife beaten to death because the husband smoked too many cigarettes, or about the huge spiral of violence and death that surround alcohol abuse. I just find it laughable that everyone talks about the power of the tobacco lobby and nobody has the nerve to even mention the untouchable power of the alcohol lobby. It is a joke!

Banning Tobacco would just create another crime industry

Banning Tobacco would just create another crime industry

passive smoking is not only harmful, but it makes it impossible to think freely,
due it´s influence on the brain and thinking is widely unexplored.
It also led people to ” just try it once” which many will regret for all their life.

At least we pay for this kind of official mumbo jumbo.

I suppor the law of Ban Tobacco. it is good for the citizen’s health.