
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 14, 1995                   TAG: 9507170118
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NICOTINE FIT

THE FOOD and Drug Administration wants White House approval for measures to fight smoking among youths. President Clinton says the idea isn't to have the FDA regulate cigarettes. Good.

The notion of adding tobacco to the list of controlled drugs that are impossible to control is, right now, too hard to swallow.

FDA Commissioner David Kessler hasn't disclosed specifics of what his agency wants to do. But others say ideas in general include a new anti-smoking public-relations campaign, additional warnings on cigarette packs, ads about the addictive nature of nicotine, and a ban on selling cigarettes in unattended vending machines.

Any measures are welcome that would help counter the cigarette industry's misleading messages and spare children from the fatal notion that smoking is refreshing and glamorous and sexy; that smokers of the long, slender variety are elegant and lovely; that smokers of certain brands are ruggedly handsome; that smoking is a kid thing because, after all, the ubiquitous Joe Camel is always hip, always has a smoke dangling from his lip - and he's a lovable cartoon character, for heaven's sake.

The industry ought to embrace an anti-youth-smoking campaign and the elimination of vending-machine sales because (hee-hee) as the spokeswoman for the Tobacco Institute says (snicker), "we stand absolutely against youth smoking" (har-har-har).

That's great, because studies have consistently shown that most smokers start as children, with as many as 90 percent of smokers becoming addicted before the age of 21, when poor health and premature death generally are unimaginable.

So, yes, it is imperative to find some way to counter images that encourage adolescents to smoke, and to end easy access to tobacco products.

But such an objective should not be a first step toward giving the FDA regulatory jurisdiction over cigarettes that would allow, say, government control over the amount of addictive nicotine in the tobacco.

Commendable as the intent would be, such jurisdiction would pose intractable regulatory problems (what amount of nicotine would the FDA approve as effective and beneficial?), and could result in the illegal trade of more "satisfying" varieties. The nation doesn't need another war on another drug.

by CNB