Posted on 06/10/2009 3:26:30 PM PDT by Drango
Sen. Dick Durbin was just 10 or 11 when he and his cousin Mike sneaked out behind a garage in East St. Louis, Ill., to have a smoke, Durbin's first. He didn't care much for the taste of the cigarette but, unfortunately, Mike did.
Mike died two weeks ago of tobacco-related lung disease.
"There he was, on oxygen, smoking the night before he died," remembered Durbin, D-Ill. "He just could not quit. It is a terrible addiction." Durbin's father, also a smoker, died at age 53 of lung cancer. "It was devastating to my family," Durbin said...
~snip" Reid said he, too, was 10 or 11 when he begged a puff from his older brother, ~SNIP
The Senate could vote as early as Wednesday on the legislation that for the first time would give the FDA powers to regulate the sale, manufacturing and marketing of tobacco products. The House has passed a similar bill and President Barack Obama supports it. ~snip
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said Obama has his own personal reason for backing the anti-smoking campaign. "He has struggled with tobacco addiction," she said. ~snip
Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming, the top Republican on the health committee, said he was opposing the FDA bill because it didn't go far enough to help people quit smoking or stop kids from picking up the habit. "My fierce opposition to smoking is a result of smoking killing my dad, and my mom, and my mother-in-law, and secondhand smoking conclusively affecting me," he said in a statement. "This is not political. This is personal."
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
I feel dirty that I'm on the same side as Waxman, Kennedy, Dodd, and Boxer. Except I believe the FDA shouldn't regulate tobacco, that power belongs to the states.
3,500 per day is a lot of children. You would like to believe conservatives would do something about it.
Gosh, I just find it hard to care about Dick Durbin’s problems....or his family’s for that matter.
I agree. I think it should be illegal for minors to purchase tobacco.
really? it most definately is addicting.. having said that, I love my cigars, I surely do.. not to worry though.. the dems will have tobacco banned... I see it coming.. they will ban tobacco “for the children”.
Thank Gaia I have the government to protect me.
ban tobacco and make it illegal to grow or possess. That way no one would do-I mean pot is illegal and no one grows, possess, or uses it.
Seriously if waxman, kennedy, dodd an boxer think it is so bad they should outlaw it-oh wait I forgot, the government(s) make billions taxing it.
Never mind.
So ban it then or STFU. Stop pussy-footing around the issue.
Yeah, and 13 kids per day die from gun violence.
Bingo! Nicely put.
Already illegal for minors to purchase it.
Ban it and be done with it.
How much longer would my 88 year old smoking and dipping grandfather have lived if he had never touched t’backy?
Already illegal for minors to purchase it.
Wow, that was quick! Well, problem solved then.
no more addictive than big gubermint.
I bet big,statist gubermint has killed more people, too.
That's a lot of stinky school restrooms.
Most definately.....not.
They can ban anything and everything, it won’t matter.
Just as we did when we were teens, so too will teens continue to find and obtain cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, etc. Banning something only causes them to want or try them more.
Somebody needs to put a vomit alert on this.
Bottom line - This is an issue for the states, always has been, and always will be.
Cigarettes are tobacco products - highly processed ones. You want to regulate that, fine I guess, whatever. (I’ll point out that anyone that consumes a product for 40 plus years and continues to live all that time will have a hard time convincing me that the product they’ve been consuming is principally the cause of their problems.)
My grandmother smoked for 60 years, and her health began to deteriorate precipitously the year her doctor finally badgered her into kicking the habit - never the same after that.
I’ll also point out, that tobacco companies could give a pack of cigarettes away to the distributor for free, and the distributor can turn around and give the pack to the retailer for free, and they in turn could agree to pass that on to the customer at no addtional expense, and the customer would still have to pay an average of $5.70/pack to the various governments (May issue, Cigar Magazine, 2009)
It’s ALREADY illegal to sell tobacco to minors in every state in the USA.
As such, please, is there any thing left that the federal government is not regulating in your life? I really want to know if there is something left that they haven’t touched at this point. Let that guide your heart on the issue, since most of the posts I’ve seen so far have been about how its so horrible how my wife’s cousin died of lung cancer after smoking for 30 years and not being able to kick the habit.
I had a classmate die of lung cancer at 32, and he was a marathoner who couldn’t have lived more heathfully if he had consulting help.
Leave. me. to. my. cigars. please.
It’s bad enough I can’t enjoy one under some roof somewhere, while somebody else wants ‘equal rights’ for committing acts of unprotected sodomy with random partners.
It’s just another power grab. That simple.
I think that was the joke....
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