Sen. Coburn Wants to Completely Ban Tobacco

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Sen. Coburn Wants to Completely Ban Tobacco

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Sen. Tom Coburn, who is also a medical doctor, is calling for an outright ban on the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products.

"What we should be doing is banning tobacco," the Oklahoma Republican declared on the Senate floor during a debate on a tobacco regulation bill.

"Nobody up here has the courage to do that. It is a big business. There are millions of Americans who are addicted to nicotine."

The battle against tobacco use has been ongoing. Earlier this year Congress passed legislation that included an increase in the federal tax on cigarettes of more than 60 cents a pack.

Various taxes have brought the price of a pack to over $9 in New York City and to about $7 in Washington, D.C., The Hill newspaper reported.

The Senate is set to pass the Family Smoking Prevention Tobacco Control Act, which would authorize the Food and Drug Administration to restrict the manufacturing, marketing and sale of tobacco products.

But that's not enough for Sen. Coburn.

"If we really want to make a difference in health and we want to eliminate dependence on tobacco, what we have to do is to stop the addiction," he said.

Coburn said instead of putting tobacco products under the authority of the FDA, it would make more sense for the Drug Enforcement Administration or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to regulate it.

http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/cobu ... ode=810E-1
Maybe some contraversy will spark up the board. :)
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Re: Sen. Coburn Wants to Completely Ban Tobacco

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I'd like to see if this were to actually pass for a state or two and see how it goes there, as there are some parts of the country that are so 'dry' it's nearly impossible to buy beer (a friend of mine lived in a town in Arkansas that was like that).

Other than that, this wouldn't really affect me, since I have nothing to do with tobacco.
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Re: Sen. Coburn Wants to Completely Ban Tobacco

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Darryl B. wrote:I'd like to see if this were to actually pass for a state or two and see how it goes there, as there are some parts of the country that are so 'dry' it's nearly impossible to buy beer (a friend of mine lived in a town in Arkansas that was like that).

Other than that, this wouldn't really affect me, since I have nothing to do with tobacco.
I have mixed feelings about this. I'm pretty Libertarian politically, but on the other hand, tobacco is insanely bad for you. I don't smoke, but like a good cigar every few months. Would those be banned too? I can also see a black market opening up. Instead of your drug dealers, you would have cig dealers on the corner.
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Re: Sen. Coburn Wants to Completely Ban Tobacco

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Heh...or you'd have to buy them in nearby towns and try to sneak 'em in that way.
Ter wrote:I have mixed feelings about this. I'm pretty Libertarian politically, but on the other hand, tobacco is insanely bad for you.
Yeah. I don't think it'll go real far though, at least not this time around. Maybe if it catches momentum and they try every few years, then I'd start worrying.
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Re: Sen. Coburn Wants to Completely Ban Tobacco

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Let me throw in my two cents here since I'm an avid tobacco user.

I used to smoke. Smoking is bad. I quit a few months back and have never felt better. I do use smokeless tobacco, though. Imported Swedish snus (not the stuff Camel sells here in the states). Snus is spitless tobacco that is pasteurized in such a way that almost all of the carcinogens are removed. A can of genuine Swedish snus has less carcinogens in it than a hamburger from McDonald's. The Swedish government regulates it as a food product and has been studying the long term effects of it over the last thirty years and have found no links to cancer of any kind.

This is literally a wonder drug to me. It has completely removed any desire to smoke and is as safe as tobacco can be. When ever someone starts talking about banning tobacco they always want to start with the less harmful products. If we look towards the Swedes we would find a way to manufacture tobacco that doesn't kill anyone. But we don't- we put blanket warnings on things like snus and snuff that say "this product causes mouth cancer" or "this product is not a safe alternative to smoking" when any reputable health official could tell you otherwise. I wish everyone would stop smoking and live healthier, but that has about as much of a chance of happening as banning fast food outright.

There's not a civilized nation on Earth that doesn't use tobacco in some form or another. I think banning things that we don't personally enjoy is going overboard. I'm Libertarian as well, and even though I disagree with smoking and think that the world would be better off without cigarettes, I'll be very clear when I say that grown men and women should be able to use however much tobacco they want and there should be no "sin tax" imposed on them because others don't like their recreational habit.

I knew that we, as a country, went off the deep end when we not only banned cigarette smoking from airlines and hospitals but banned SMOKELESS tobacco as well. It went from "second hand smoke is deadly!" (which has been disproven time and again) to "tobacco use offends me!" If I was able to regulate all behavior that offends me in public then the general populace wouldn't be allowed to exit their homes.

I hate it, it sucks, but this is what happens when you get a lot of liberals together in government. They want what THEY think is right, despite what facts spell out differently. I love this country, but I've become disenchanted the last couple of years with not only the idiot politicians running this country into the ground, but the idiot populace that continuously elect these pompous assholes. It really makes me ashamed to say I'm American if this is the way that the rest of America thinks. I never thought I'd say that, but I feel like I'm now surrounded by a nation of morons.

Anyway, to sum up my rant; it's not about the tobacco so much as it's about personal liberties. I personally feel that alcohol kills more people each year than cigarettes, but I see no big movement to end alcohol distribution. I want the government to stop telling me what's right and to just get the hell out of my life. I don't need the government and it doesn't need me. Just my money, as far as I can tell. I've defended it time and time again yet it has never been on my side as long as I can remember. I think it's time to cut the cord.

/End rant.

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Re: Sen. Coburn Wants to Completely Ban Tobacco

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Rob wrote:Let me throw in my two cents here since I'm an avid tobacco user.

There's not a civilized nation on Earth that doesn't use tobacco in some form or another. I think banning things that we don't personally enjoy is going overboard. I'm Libertarian as well, and even though I disagree with smoking and think that the world would be better off without
e cigarette, I'll be very clear when I say that grown men and women should be able to use however much tobacco they want and there should be no "sin tax" imposed on them because others don't like their recreational habit.

I knew that we, as a country, went off the deep end when we not only banned cigarette smoking from airlines and hospitals but banned SMOKELESS tobacco as well. It went from "second hand smoke is deadly!" (which has been disproven time and again) to "tobacco use offends me!" If I was able to regulate all behavior that offends me in public then the general populace wouldn't be allowed to exit their homes.
/End rant.
Hi Rob, I was a smoker also but now i am free from it. It’s difficult to stop cigarette smoking, but you can do it. To have the best possibility of giving up and remaining a non-smoker, you need to know what you are up against, what your choices are, and where to go for help.

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