Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 10, 1995 TAG: 9508100066
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Hearst Newspapers
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
Clinton is scheduled to announce today that the Food and Drug Administration has determined tobacco is an addictive drug for young people, a finding that would empower the FDA to carry out an anti-smoking program aimed at teen-agers.
``There are a lot of wonderful people in this country who make a living as tobacco farmers and their families have for a couple of hundred years,'' Clinton told the first joint meeting of the predominantly black Progressive National Baptist Convention and the predominantly white Alliance of Baptists.
``But we cannot pretend that we're ignoring the evidence that one of the greatest threats to the health of our children is teen-ager smoking.''
Clinton delivered his tobacco speech as the White House and FDA were putting final touches on regulations that White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said Clinton will announce today.
A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Clinton will order the FDA to:
Restrict the location of 400,000 unattended cigarette vending machines.
Require that tobacco buyers prove their age.
Restrict tobacco advertising targeting the young.
The FDA regulations will be posted in the Federal Register and a 90-day public comment period will be allowed before they take effect.
Tobacco advocates promised action in Congress and the courts. ``A legal challenge is very likely,'' said Brennan Dawson of the Tobacco Institute.
The government estimates 3,000 young people join the ranks of the 3.1 million teen-age smokers each day. Smoking has increased 30 percent among eighth-graders since 1991.
An estimated 255 million packs of cigarettes are sold to minors each year despite state laws against such sales.
Federal health officials attribute the deaths of 400,000 Americans each year to smoking-related illnesses - a toll greater than the combined losses from AIDS, car accidents, alcohol, homicides, suicides, fires and illegal drugs.
``If you wanted to do something to reduce the costs of health care, help over the long run to balance the budget and increase the health care of America, having no teen-agers smoke would be the cheapest, easiest, quickest thing you could ever do to change the whole dynamic of health care in America,'' Clinton said.
He made his speech to a friendly audience that happened to be meeting in the state with the greatest dependence upon the tobacco industry.
North Carolina Gov. James Hunt, a Democrat who has warned that 200,000 North Carolina jobs might be at stake, said, ``We don't need big government trying to run our lives.''
by CNB