ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, August 23, 1996 TAG: 9608230094
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C.
SOURCE: The Charlotte Observer
Gov. Jim Hunt and North Carolina Attorney General Mike Easley said Thursday that they might file a lawsuit to stop the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from regulating tobacco as a drug.
``We will fight this thing. ... Tobacco farmers are not raising drugs,'' Hunt said Thursday. ``The cigarette factory workers [at the Philip Morris plant] in Concord are not manufacturing drugs. We don't need a big government coming in here, trying to regulate us.''
An Easley spokeswoman said that while no decision has been made, Hunt and Easley plan to meet again to look at legal options to ``protect N.C. farmers.'' North Carolina is the No.1 tobacco-growing state, generating $1 billion in income.
President Clinton is expected today to declare nicotine an addictive drug and unleash the FDA to regulate cigarettes and smokeless tobacco as devices that deliver nicotine.
The FDA rules are expected to set a federal minimum age of 18 for buying cigarettes and chewing tobacco, ban vending-machine sales of those products, limit to black-and-white any tobacco ads in publications catering to teen-agers, and ban tobacco brand names as sponsorships of sporting events - such as NASCAR.
Philip Morris, the nation's largest cigarette manufacturer, said ``We will defend the rights of the 50 million American adults who choose to use tobacco products.''
In Raleigh, Elizabeth Dole said her husband, Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, supports cracking down on youth smoking, but would not want the FDA dictating how the tobacco industry can promote and sell its product.
Teen smoking already is illegal in all states, yet 3,000 teens a day pick up the habit and 90 percent of all smokers start before age 18.
At the 2,000-employee Philip Morris cigarette plant in Cabarrus County, not far from Charlotte, workers expressed dismay about the FDA plan.
``I smoke,'' said Jackie Cruikshanks, a cleaning contractor at the plant. ``I don't feel like it's a drug. It's a choice.''
LENGTH: Short : 47 linesby CNB