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Links to Related Material FDA Tobacco Regulation: Proposed Rule and Final Regulation. FDA Jurisdiction: Legal Issues Relating to FDA Rule on Children and Tobacco. Reducing Children's Use of Tobacco: A Chronology. Online NewsHour: A lively transcript of proponents and opponents of Phillip Morris' proposal to limit teen smoking. Legal Posturing: Text of the complaint brought by several tobacco companies attacking the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration to even consider regulating their product.

NICOTINE FIX Posted September 5, 1996 Bob Dole's proposal to simultaneously cut taxes by 15% and balance the federal budget has seized much of the debate in the presidential campaign. And while economics is sure to remain the driving theme of the campaign, another issue is blowing thick new clouds of smoke into the center of the campaign: tobacco. Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, and is blamed for the deaths of over 400,000 Americans per year. Of particular concern to tobacco opponents is a continued rise in teen smoking. 4.5 million American teenagers now smoke, and the average teen starts at age 14. Smoking among 8th and 10th graders rose by more than a third from 1991 to 1995. Responding to these accumulating statistics, President Clinton has led the most aggressive White House campaign against smoking in history. Recently, he signed into law a crackdown designed to cut teenage smoking in half in seven years by granting the Food and Drug Administration broad new powers to regulate tobacco, its advertising and distribution. The timing couldn't have been worse for Dole, who stumbled badly earlier this summer when he suggested that tobacco may not be addictive, and in fact may be no worse than drinking a lot of milk! Dole looked as if he were in the pocket of the cigarette companies. Although he had never hoped to focus on the issue, Dole was asked about it along the campaign trail for several days, much to his chagrin. He became so annoyed, he even growled at the "Today Show's" sunny Katie Couric. The explosion of the tobacco wars comes after years of building pressure. Some date the beginning of the counteroffensive against the industry to the 1964 Surgeon General's report, the first official linked of smoking to disease. Recent discoveries of internal industry documents have shown that tobacco executives may have known more about the harmful effects of their product than they've been letting on, and even "spiked" cigarettes with nicotine to make them more addictive. Lawsuits have been piling up against the cigarette giants, filed by everyone from the relatives of people who died from smoking-related diseases to major states, seeking compensation for the medical costs. Smoking bans are becoming broader and more common. And with public sympathy for the tobacco companies steadily eroding, some politicians have waged aggressive new campaigns against the effects of nicotine in America. Here's a roundup of the political picture in the smoking wars: CLINTON PLAN: Clinton calls cigarette smoking "the most significant public health hazard facing our people." Recently, he allowed the Food and Drug Administration to classify nicotine as a product "intended to affect the structure or function of the body." This classification authorizes the FDA to implement a range of new restrictions on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. Many court challenges are expected against the plan, which include: Requiring black-and-white, text-only advertising in publications -- like "Rolling Stone" -- with less than an 85% adult readership, or more than 2 million teenage readers, on roadside billboards, and on billboard advertising within 1,000 feet of schools. Studies have shown that cartoon ads like "Joe Camel" can help induce young people to smoke. Photo ID required for tobacco purchases by anyone under 27. A ban on cigarette vending machines in all locations except those, like bars and casinos, that require ID for admittance. A ban on brand-name sponsorship of sporting events. Companies names like Phillip Morris may be displayed on a race car, for instance, but not the word "Marlboro." A ban on promotional brand-name-bearing paraphernalia and free samples. DEMOCRATIC ENEMIES: The Republican party has traditionally been the closer friend of tobacco, but Southern Democrats were never able to overlook the giants of that industry in their home states. Now that the Democratic base in the South has been almost entirely wiped out, however, and tobacco interests have donated to the GOP in much higher proportions, Democrats have been taking on the industry with a new vigor. Their champion, and the greatest Congressional enemy of the cigarette companies has been Henry Waxman, D-CA. Waxman hounds the industry at every turn, reading its secret documents into the Congressional Record on the House Floor (freeing himself of any legal liability) and, when he was still chairman of the House Commerce Committee, hauling its executives into hearings to make them swear under oath that nicotine is neither addictive nor harmful. (Their statements are now being studied for evidence of perjury by several grand juries.) Rep. Richard Durbin, D-IL, who was the main force behind banning smoking on domestic airline flights, has fought the government's generous subsidies for tobacco, which have been kept alive for years by powerful Southerners. SOUTHERN ALLIES: While the Democratic party has received just over $75,000 in donations from tobacco interests since 1995, the Republican National Committee has been given $2.1 million. When the GOP won control of Congress, few groups cheered more than the tobacco industry. No more would Waxman be dragging executives before the Commerce Committee. That panel was now under the control of Rep. Thomas Bliley, R-VA, who represents Richmond, VA -- the home of Phillip Morris headquarters. Bliley is considered tobacco's biggest ally in Congress, and can be relied on to fight any attempts to regulate the industry. Other active industry defenders, and major contribution-takers, include Sen. Jesse Helms, R-NC and Rep. Charlie Rose, D-NC. KESSLER: Kessler, the director of the Food and Drug Administration, is a kind of antichrist to the tobacco industry. Newt Gingrich has called him a "thug" and a "bully." Since his appointment by President Clinton, Kessler has made no secret of his belief that cigarettes are deadly, addictive, should be classified as a drug, and be made subject to heavy regulation. Kessler's active role in leading the fight against tobacco has given momentum to calls among Republicans in Congress to gut or even dismantle Kessler's agency. Bob Dole says that if elected, he'll fire Kessler immediately. THE ELECTION: By approving these measures, Clinton has all but written off the support of Kentucky and North Carolina in November. But they add up to only a handful of electoral votes. The White House is banking that they'll be more than made up for across the country, as people see Clinton acting decisively and on principle. Dole, meanwhile, has been left twisting in the wind somewhat. His earlier flirtation with pandering to the industry left him red-faced. Now he has been reduced to chiding Clinton for not taking earlier action on teen smoking, and to seize on new reports of rising drug use among young people, accusing Clinton of neglecting the drug war.