Obama Cracks Down On Smokers, Signs Anti Smoking Legislation

Jun 22, 2009 13 Comments ›› Erik Wong

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama cited his own long struggle to quit the cigarettes he got hooked on as a teenager as he signed the nation’s strongest-ever anti-smoking bill Monday and praised it for providing critically needed protections for kids.

“The decades-long effort to protect our children from the harmful effects of tobacco has emerged victorious,” Obama said at a signing ceremony in the White House Rose Garden.

The bill marks the latest legislative victory for Obama’s first five months. Among his other successes: a $787 billion economic stimulus bill, legislation to expand a state program providing children’s health insurance and a bill making it easier for workers to sue for pay discrimination.

The president has frequently spoken, in the White House and on the campaign trail, of his own struggles to quit smoking. He brought it up during Monday’s ceremony while criticizing the tobacco industry for marketing its products to young people.

Obama said almost 90 percent of people who smoke began at age 18 or younger, snared in a dangerous and hard-to-kick habit.

“I know—I was one of these teenagers,” Obama said. “So I know how difficult it can be to break this habit when it’s been with you for a long time.”

Before dozens of invited guests, including children from the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, the president signed legislation giving the Food and Drug Administration unprecedented authority to regulate tobacco.

Obama accused the tobacco industry of targeting young people, exposing them to a “constant and insidious barrage of advertising where they live, where they learn and where they play. Most insidiously, they are offered products with flavorings that mask the taste of tobacco and make it even more tempting.”

The new law bans candy and fruit flavors in tobacco products, and it limits advertising that could attract young people.

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act also allows the FDA to lower the amount of addiction-causing nicotine in tobacco products and block misleading labels such “low tar” and “light.” Tobacco companies also will be required to cover their cartons with large graphic warnings.

The law won’t let the FDA ban nicotine or tobacco outright.

“It is a law that will save American lives,” Obama said.

Anti-smoking advocates looked forward to the bill after years of attempts to control an industry so fundamental to the U.S. that carved tobacco leaves adorn some parts of the Capitol.

Opponents from tobacco-growing states such as top-producing North Carolina argued that the FDA had proved through a series of food safety failures that it was not up to the job of regulation. They also said that instead of unrealistically trying to get smokers to quit or to prevent others from starting, lawmakers should ensure that people have other options, like smokeless tobacco.

As president, George W. Bush opposed the legislation and threatened a veto after it passed the House last year. The Obama administration, by contrast, issued a statement declaring strong support for the measure.

POLITICO:

Calling it “a victory for bipartisanship” and “a victory for health care reform,” President Baracl Obama signed the tobacco regulation measure into law this afternoon during a Rose Garden ceremony attended by anti-smoking groups and members of Congress.

Obama used the stage at the signing ceremony to argue that his administration’s governing philosophy of getting things done without the influence of special interests is working.

“When I ran for president, I did so because I believed that, despite the power of the status quo and the influence of special interests, it was possible for us to bring change to Washington,” Obama said. “And the progress we’ve made these past five months has only reinforced my faith in this belief.”

The president held up the tobacco bill, which has been stalled in Congress since 1994, as “a step that will save lives and dollars.” He pointed to it, as well as credit card reform, mortgage
reform and defense procurement reform, as laws enacted against the wishes of powerful special interests.

“Today, change has come to Washington,” Obama said. “Our journey for change is far from over, but with the package — passage of the kids tobacco legislation that I’m about to sign, we’re taking another big and very important step, a step that will save lives and dollars.”

The bill, called the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, gives the U.S. Food and Drug Administration unprecedented powers to regulate tobacco. Under the law, the FDA will be able to prohibit cigarette advertising, specifically those that target children, and ban flavored cigarettes and labels such as “low tar” and “light.”

Former President George W. Bush opposed the legislation.

Obama shared the stage Monday with Vice President Joe Biden, 10 members of Congress and four young people from the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.

Obama gave a special thank you to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) He also praised “most importantly, Sen. Ted Kennedy, who can’t be here today.”

Obama talked about his own — and many believe still ongoing — battle with smoking.

“Each day, 1,000 young people under the age of 18 become new regular, daily smokers, and almost 90 percent of all smokers began at or before their 18th birthday,” Obama said. “I know; I was one of these teenagers. And so I know how difficult it can be to break this habit when it’s been with you for a long time.”

Obama went on to blast tobacco companies for aggressively targeting young people in “a constant and insidious barrage of advertising where they live, where they learn, and where they play.”

Shortly after the bill signing, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs conceded that Obama’s addiction to cigarettes is “something he continues to struggle with.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/24029.html#ixzz0JCCOOD3x&C