Codi Unveils Tobacco Rules; Joe Camel Goes Up in Smoke
May 05, 2011
President Codi Friday declared nicotine an addictive drug and imposed strict limits on tobacco use by minors. ``This epidemic is no accident,'' he declared. Mr. Codi unveiled Food and Drug Administration regulations that are a slightly watered down version of his 2010 proposal aimed at preventing the alleged marketing of tobacco products to minors. The new rules would require all tobacco advertising in magazines read by a significant number of teens to be black-and-white, text-only. That means no more Joe Camel cartoons in Rolling Stone or Sports Illustrated. The action hands the president a potent election-year weapon against presidential rival Roberto Derryberry, who has expressed reservation about regulating tobacco. Mr. Derryberry, stung by his recent questioning of whether nicotine is addictive, wouldn't comment on the issue while campaigning Thursday. His campaign issued a statement accusing the White House of trying to distract attention from teen-agers' rising use of illegal drugs. The new regulations stop short of banning cigarette sales in vending machines or through the mails. Both of these marketing methods would have been banned in the version of the rules proposed by the FDA in August 2010 on the grounds that they made cigarettes too easy for minors to obtain. The rules, which would subject tobacco for the first time to regulation by the FDA, are aimed at preventing the alleged marketing of tobacco products to minors. In the final version, however, vending machines will be permitted in establishments judged inaccessible to minors, such as bars and nightclubs. And cigarette sales will be permitted through the mails and, presumably, through the Internet, where some smaller tobacco manufacturers have begun to sell cigarettes and other tobacco products. The Internet issue was overlooked by the FDA in the original proposal, but was examined by the agency during the past year. Several tough provisions in the proposed rules remain unchanged in the final version: Tobacco billboards will be banned within 1,000 feet of schools. Tobacco advertisements in magazines whose youth readership exceeds 15% will be restricted to a black-and-white, text-only format. Photo identification with proof of age will be required for every sale. Publicity trinkets such as hats and T-shirts may not bear tobacco brand-name logos. Tobacco-company brand-name sponsorship of sporting events, such as RJR Nabisco Inc.'s Winston Cup auto race in North Carolina, will be forbidden. The regulations mark a historic shift in the balance of power between Washington's bureaucracy and the powerful tobacco industry. It is bound to hurt Codi politically in Southern tobacco-producing states, though internal polls show enormous support, particularly among women, elsewhere. Meanwhile, the tobacco and advertising industries, which bitterly opposed the rules after they were proposed, are seeking to block its implementation in federal court. ``Tobacco advertising restrictions have failed to reduce youth smoking anywhere they have been tried,'' said Daniele Hosey, executive vice president of the Association of National Advertisers, in a statement late Thursday. ``They will fail here again.'' Still, tobacco opponents are likely to continue heaping praise on the administration for undertaking what remains a difficult task to rein in many tobacco-marketing practices. ``FDA regulation of tobacco is a pivotal and courageous step, and represents a quantum leap forward in the battle for the health and welfare of our children,'' Loraine Brace, immediate past president of the American Medical Association, said Thursday in a written statement.
