Congress aims to put out cigarettes

Source: AP

WASHINGTON - Congress is taking new whacks at the cigarette industry, banning tobacco sales in Senate buildings and — more importantly — seeking a significant federal tax increase on cigarettes. The industry, once a lobbying behemoth, is quietly working against the tax bill. But it lacks the clout it once wielded.

Several key lawmakers said they have had no recent contacts with tobacco lobbyists. And both houses have signaled a willingness to raise the cigarette tax if other provisions of a children's health bill can be resolved.

"I think the industry has tried to do things more quietly, largely because they obviously know how popular a tobacco tax is," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. The health advocacy group supports a proposed $35 billion increase in the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which a higher cigarette tax would finance.

House and Senate negotiators are trying to craft a veto-proof version of the bill. President Bush says he would veto it because it calls for a 61 cents-per-pack increase in the federal excise tax on cigarettes, taking it to $1.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071110/ap_on_go_co/tobacco_tax

Are tobacco companies increasing the nicotine content in cigarettes?



Cigarette Taxes Lead to Increased Purchase of High-Nicotine Content Cigarettes

i've seen several studies that bashed the LOW-nicotine cigarettes saying it's counter-productive in the sense that smokers seek a certin amount of nicotine, and when they switch to low-nicotine brands, they smoke MORE just to get the familiar dosage of nicotine.

high-nicotine cigarettes should theoretically lead to smoking fewer cigarettes.

as against that, the higher dosage is not time-released, and therefore doesn't do much to help the craving for the next cig....

"i've seen several studies that bashed the LOW-nicotine cigarettes saying it's counter-productive in the sense that smokers seek a certin amount of nicotine, and when they switch to low-nicotine brands, they smoke MORE"

Although an individual may quit drinking for a period, should they start again, they will start at a point of consumption as if they had never quit. i.e. If I stop at a 1/2 pint a day, as the theory goes, I will start at the point of consuming a pint a day.:shrug:

Even supposedly intelligent people here at DU advocate for cigarettes..I guess it is true what they say about denial...

humans, you see, do things like smoking, drinking, etc. We are beautifully flawed creatures. Yet inhuman people, like yourself, who apparently are so very perfect in every way that they have no flaws whatsoever, continue to make this world a more miserable place for the real human beings out there. I hope you're very proud of your perfect self.

You make the world so very much better by promoting cigarettes...It does not take perfection to realize right and wrong...Maybe in Amerika it does..:shrug:

between promoting something, and simply being okay with it because it's legal.

Torture is legal "If it doesn't cause death or organ failure" I gues it is all in how you look at things. Large corporations that pollute are actually following the laws. Does that make them right or Okay?

that we should be advocating against anything that may do harm? Toots...that's a LONG list of items. Cars pollute. Should we get rid of them? Is it okay if I invite some friends over and make a bonfire in the fire-pit in my back yard? After all, I'm spewing ash and carbon into the air. Fast food can be bad for you when not eaten in moderation, should we get rid of that? Soda? Alcohol? Sugar? Where does your list of "bad" things stop?

Careful what slopes you go racing down. What the anti-smoking crusaders fail to realize is that sooner or later, they're going to come after YOUR vice.

I'm not promoting cigarettes. I'm promoting humanity.

been written: "We are beautifully flawed creatures."

Advocating the freedom to use legal substance. I don't smoke much, maybe a pack a month, and they're usually bummed from friends when I'm at a bar or around other people who smoke. I happily smoke outside, even in bars I can smoke in, so as to not bother others.

However, next year I'm solving this whole tax issue and just growing my own tobacco. I live in Virginia. Should be a snap.

Like other addictions, the useage seems to increase with time.

When I smoked, it was like potato chips in a way. One ciggie would sometimes just make me want another.

They also make your teeth yellow.

I'm stepping off soapbox now to say...vive la difference. Some of the most interesting people I've known have either smoked or drank or had some other vice. But addictive substances are particularly insidiously dangerous...just sayin'.

I didn't realize I was addicted until the first time I tried to quit. I just put them down, thinking no problem. That was the beginning of many attempts at quitting. 25 years later I was finally able to quit..thanks to Nicorette. I still keep half a pack in my closet, which was what I had at the time I decided to quit...about 4 years ago. I guess they're pretty strong by now!

I smoke a LOT less now than I did when I was in the army. I've always been more interested in the "oral fixation" part than the drug really. When I find myself getting that need for a cigarette, I stop for awhile. That's why I say I don't advocate for cigarettes, I just believe that people should be able to do things that are legal.

You'll never hear me encouraging others to smoke, but I say the less government is able to legislate our personal choices, the better, no?

"but I say the less government is able to legislate our personal choices, the better, no?"

We need more thinkers like you in this country - imho.

But I do not like to see one habit, one industry, singled out as the source of our insurance and healthcare woes. It is more complicated than that.

Second...some of the most interesting people I've known have some vices. I believe in tolerance. I also believe it is the variety among people that makes us interesting.

Third...some of the unhealthiest people I've known - those that have to go to doctors a lot, get expensive chronic conditions, etc., are those who are obese or are depressed, melancholy type people.

Fourth - one habit in and of itself doesn't make for an unhealthy person, per se. A thin person who smokes a few ciggies a day, and who nonetheless exercises regularly and is active generally, is healthier than someone who has never smoked but is sedentary, has a pessimistic outlook on life, or is an alcoholic.

Alcoholism seems to be a far unhealthier addiction, to me. Alcholics usually don't, or can't, exercise regularly and lead a healthy lifestyle.

I was healthier than any of my friends, when I was a smoker. Now that I am a non-smoker, I am still healthier than any of my friends. It's a lifestyle that counts. Not one habit. Except maybe alcoholism, since that does seem to destroy the whole lifestyle with it.

Viva la difference is what I say.

Cheers to you.

Let the lemmings dive off the cliff. I'd rather not be pulled along with them.

We look at Europe, where they smoke and drink more, yet live longer and conclude that the problems with Americans have to do with our food consumption and lack of exercise rather than just one industry that YOU may find abhorant.

People should have the right to choose, I don't like the idea of the government making that choice for me. Still, we're talking about an addictive substance. It's difficult to make an objective decision about something when you're addicted to it. That being said, many harmful things can be addictive, even many that aren't illegal.

When my Grandfather was diagnosed with lung cancer and emphysema, he still tried to sneak out of the hospital to have a smoke. He wouldn't finish it, a few puffs and the pain was so intense he said he nearly fell on his ass, and this was a WWII vet and a former test pilot, he was a tough guy. Right before he died, he told me the thing he regretted most in his life was smoking for 50 years. His death was a wake up call for my dad, who quite smoking shortly after. It made me not want to smoke, that is my choice. Other's see that, understand the risk, and take it. That's their choice.

I've known people who died of liver failure, from alcoholism, also. It's all the same, and it's all about choice. We make our own choices, and we live with, or die with, the consequences. Hell, I could consume nothing but the healthiest food and the cleanest spring water all my life and still die of an number of diseases, at any age. That's life.

That's what I choose.

I hear it gets smoky in there.

Those of us who live in the sooty states are getting plenty of smoke from power plants and motor vehicles.

Let's get rid of as much pollution as we can so we live longer and healthier. Indoor and outdoor pollution!!

What do cigarettes do for us?

*That* is the only remotely positive thing I can say for tobacco. I have a sharp animus against smokers who stunk up the air near my asthmatic mother and would not move off when I asked politely. Voting to ban smoking in Ohio last year was my revenge.

I don't think a continued reliance on tobacco tax is popular at all.

...

Go ahead and try to make it illegal and see what you get. In fact continue taxing the shit out of it and see what you get. You think we would've learned in the 20's.

much like the speakeasies that operated during prohibition.

I have sympathy for the hard core smokers that are being treated like pariahs, although that's not to say I want to be around it either. There are many things in use that are just as harmful and yet nothing is done about them. Those so-called chemical "air fresheners" that people are encouraged to spread all over and pollute the indoor atmosphere come to mind. As do those toxic sickeningly perfumed dryer sheets that so many like to use on their clothing. Those things contribute to asthma and breathing disorders among other things, and yet nothing is done about them. Being around that bothers me far more than walking past a whiff of cigarette smoke.

I hate cigarettes. And I don't care if this is one of their ways to "control" us, I don't want cigarettes around anymore.

I can't believe the whining about 61 cents more for a pack of coffin nails. They shouldn't be shown in movies, magazines, or newspapers either.

healthcare

People taking action to improve the health of the country. It's about damn time.

Singling out one of the poorer segments of our society to fund this bill is simply wrong. This is a burden that should be paid for by other methods. What I find interesting is how so many Dems are actually advocating for the Republican inserted funding mechanism, rather than the one that the Dems took out, which would have repealed subsidies paid to insurance companies. But no, rather than taking on the insurance companies, Dems would rather burden one of the country's poorest population segments.:eyes:

It's good for them. When they have to decide between putting gas in the car and getting cancer in a box, they'll hopefully make the right choices and start abandoning their habit or seek out the assistance they need to quit.