President's Approval of FDA Plan to Regulate Cigarettes

Would Protect Children Without Interfering With Adults

Law Professor Whose Law Suit Provided Basis for the FDA Proposal

Says Talk of Doctor's Prescriptions to Purchase Cigarettes is Farfetched

President Clinton has decided to permit the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate cigarettes under a plan aimed at protecting 3000 children from becoming addicted every day, but without interfering with adults purchasers or restricting the nicotine content of cigarettes.

The law professor whose legal action provided the basis for the plan says he is very pleased with the decision, and brands as "farfetched" talk that the plan smacks of "prohibition," or that it will require adult smokers to obtain a doctor's prescription every time they want to purchase a pack of cigarettes.

"Requiring young people to produce proof of age to purchase cigarettes, as they have long been required to do for alcoholic beverages; restricting advertising and promotional activities aimed at children; and providing more honest and more conspicuous health warnings would protect children without infringing on any so-called 'freedoms' of adults," said John Banzhaf, Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

Indeed, says Banzhaf, nicotine in chewing gum, patches, inhalers, and other means of administering the substance have always been regulated by the FDA, and no one argued that constitutional rights of God-given freedoms were being infringed.

"Why should we exempt from regulation the most dangerous of all products containing nicotine, and indeed, the most dangerous consumer product of all by a very wide margin."

Banzhaf notes that cigarettes are the only consumer product in American which is not regulated by some federal agency, and the only one we put in our mouths which is not regulated by the FDA.

"Cigarettes are so totally unregulated that I could market 'Banzhaf's Cigarettes' and legally load them with every deadly chemical in the world." A Court of Appeals decision in a case brought by Banzhaf entitled "Action on Smoking and Health v. Harris" provided the legal basis upon which the FDA relies in its proposal to classify nicotine as a "drug" under its statute.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, August 3, 1995

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL: John Banzhaf (202) 659-4310

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