The lazy new ban on clove cigarettes
September 24, 2009 by Jennifer Chait
Filed under Green Living
So as of September 22, 2009, flavored cigarettes are illegal in the U.S.. Obviously cigarettes in any form aren’t healthy – not for kids or adults, however, what I’m not on board with is the hypocritical issues surrounding this, the lazy way in which the government is looking at health issues, and the backward logic that went into the ban.
In June, President Barack Obama signed the law to allow the FDA to regulate the tobacco industry. Its authority includes the ability to ban certain products like cloves and fruit flavored cigarettes, i.e. products that they decide are being marketed to kids.
Marijke, a fellow Blisstree blogger writes, “It’s not the 40-year-old who has been smoking for over 20 years who will buy these “cigarettes,” but someone who is jut beginning and doesn’t want that tobacco taste, right? These flavors added to cigarettes and other tobacco products make them more appealing to teens. According to statistics, 17-year-old smokers are three times as likely to use flavored cigarettes as smokers over the age of 25.”
Here’s the deal.
When I was in high school I knew plenty of smoking kids. Guess what they were smoking? Not cloves, not fruity cigarettes, but actual tobacco flavored cigarettes; Camels and other mainstream cigarettes and a lot were smoking menthol cigarettes.
Do I see actors smoking cloves in movies? Do I see ads for cloves and other fruit cigs in magazines or on TV or billboards? Nope. You know what I have seen throughout my life though? I have had a certain cartoon camel branded into my brain over and over again – a CARTOON camel. I have seen real cigs smoked in movie after movie. As a kid I didn’t see adults smoking cloves, but I did see them smoking real cigarettes, and kids are more likely to smoke the same brand of cigarettes that their parents or other significant adults in their lives smoke.
In fact, according to a recent National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) (by the gov), cloves and fruit flavored cigs didn’t even make the list. Marlboro was the brand used most often by past month cigarette smokers (including the age group of 12-17 year olds), followed by Newport, Camel, Basic, and Doral.
Additionally while U.S. sold clove cigarettes are a $140 million market, regular cigarettes and menthol cigarettes outsell cloves and fruit flavored cigarettes by huge leaps and bounds. But according to one report, no one is all that surprised that the “FDA’s first venture into tobacco regulation does not cover menthol cigarettes, because they’re far bigger sellers than candy versions. Banning them first, would result in a “pretty major revolt from industry.” On its website, Philip Morris USA says it supports banning cigarette flavor varieties “other than tobacco and menthol.” Yeah, it would suck if there was an industry revolt. The government doesn’t want to make the tobacco companies too mad, not when it’s feeding the economy like it is.
Are Obama’s and the FDA’s efforts being focused on the wrong area?:
As noted above, real cigarettes are massively targeted at youth. Instead of looking at this though the FDA is looking at a minor piece of the health puzzle (cloves and fruit cigs), so minor that it’s laughable. Should cloves and other fruity cigarettes be banned. Sure, why not, but is this actually the biggest health issue facing our kids? Quite possibly no.
The 2004 National Youth Tobacco Survey, found that “Among high school students, cloves accounted for only 2.3 percent of tobacco use, with regular cigarettes accounting for 22.3 percent.”
If the FDA, Obama, and whoever else wants to make a real difference, they might want to consider a ban or major tax on any number of products that actually and successfully target youth and contribute to poor health such as real cigarettes, McDonald’s, soda pop, Kool-Aid, toxic cleaners, practically recess free schools, terrible fatty school lunches, and so on. Obesity related deaths are quickly catching up to smoking deaths in the U.S. At schools, at the stores, everywhere you go you don’t see kids smoking cloves but you do see plenty of overweight little kids. 1 in 3 small children are overweight or obese.
Number of kids smoking cloves: 2.3%
Number of kids overweight or obese: 11-18%
Um…
Most articles I’m reading are all “Yay!” about this new ban on cloves and fruit cigarettes, but when it gets right down to it, this law targets an extremely small issue and shows how lackadaisical our priorities can be. It’s not a very brave point to make when you ban something that’s less troublesome than fast food ads, fat laden school lunches, menthol or real cigarettes it’s just easier is all. It’s not the most significant point the government could make. On this choice they took an easy out and frankly it feels pretty damn lazy to me.
Hey, but on the upside, mainstream cigarette companies will be raking in even more money now! Awesome right! Go FDA.
What do you think?
[image via stock.xchng]
I’m confused about clove cigarettes. Do some contain tobacco and others not?
For instance, the cast of Mad Men smoke clove cigarettes on the show because smoking indoors is illegal, but they have to smoke cause everyone did in the 60s, apparently. I feel so clueless…
Cloves do contain tobacco. As do fruit flavored cigs. So they’re not healthy at all. But my issue is that they’re banning a flavor of cigarette, one that sells at an extremely smaller rate than all the other cigarettes out there. It’s not a horrible ban, but it is an incredibly insignificant ban when compared to all the other health issues kids face. Also, if you added up all the ads that target kids or secretly target via cartoon images – fast food, soda, real cigs, alcohol, etc they outnumber the cloves and fruit cigs by insane amounts.
Sorry- this is a long one
I think taxing anything because it’s ‘bad’ for you is a bad idea. I think getting rid of flavored cigarettes is absurd.
I feel like I live in a country where my freedoms are being snatched out from under me. I, as a consenting adult, should have the freedom to smoke a cigarette with added flavor if I so choose. That, to me, is like banning flavored alcohol. In highschool I was far more likely to drink flavored Rum than bourbon. I like my Cosmos with a citrus twist, and I, as an adult, have the right to it. I understand smoking is detrimental to your health… as is using a cell phone constantly, driving a vehicle with emissions and so on… but it is your right. I DONT advocate smoking in resteraunts, public places, smoking around children etc, however, don’t get me wrong.
I think the entire idea of a ’sin’ tax is absurd. Who are you to label ANYTHING a ’sin’? Pushing a moral compass on a grown adult is ludacris. I am all for keeping alcohol and cigarettes in the hands of adults… but this does not cut it. Harsher punishment for those who sell to minors, ticketing and punishing minors for breaking the law by drinking and smoking, making it more difficult to carry a liquor license, EDUCATING our children on the effects of smoking and drinking, and most important (IMO)- making patches, pills, and gum used to help quit smoking cheaper. A large percentage of smokers hate that they smoke, but it’s an addiction… and when you compare a box of 40 dollar patches to a 5 dollar box of ciggarettes, it’s difficult to make the right choice. Afterall… a child is far more likely to smoke if a parent does, but if that parent has the ability to quit…. they could be saving their child’s life.
“I think getting rid of flavored cigarettes is absurd.” I don’t disagree. I think in this context it’s insane. Although I think that taxes on some items is fine, a ban on little issues is a huge waste of time and it sends the wrong message.
“Who are you to label ANYTHING a ’sin’?” I’m not going to label stuff a consenting adult does a sin. Adults have been around a while, and right or wrong, they do have the right to make their own choices. Since I’m not on board with the ban, I’m not sure if you’re saying that I’m saying smoking is a sin or not, but just to clarify I’m not. It’s not healthy sure, but a sin, no. Should there be a ban – no.
The only time I think what adults do should be labeled very wrong is when it directly affects the kids they should be caring for. If an adult handed a small child a cig, sure I’d likely consider that wrong, however, I rarely see this. When I see all these obese kids, yes I DO blame parents, the media, and a seriously screwed up health and school system. As adults we directly affect how our kids are living, eating, and so on.
In any case, I don’t agree with this ban because the point was to ban something that targets kids, and I just don’t see it.
Oh I was definitely not referring to you when I said ‘you’! I was referring to the Government… YOU are fabulous and I enjoy this blog very much. I just got a little heated up reading that post! It was so shocking… I guess I should watch the news more often
This ban ticks me off every time it is brought up.
As a smoker, I attempt to be respectful to those who choose not to indulge in sweet, sweet taste of carcinogens. I’m fully in support of not being able to smoke within business establishments. I respect the fact that I do need to be 15 feet from any entry way or window of any public building before lighting up. Honestly, its just courtesy. Why would an individual want to go to a bar or dinner, just to come home smelling of cigarette smoke? I’ve made the lifestyle choice, he shouldn’t have to suffer for it.
What I can’t respect is this new law which outlaws the sale of any flavor smoke outside of regular and menthol…and the supplied and provided reasoning is to make it less appealing to children. First off, lets take a look at this from my perspective. I’m 25 and have been smoking since I’ve been 19. I’ve moved all across the spectrum and tried every brand of everything in that time, just trying to find a brand. When I started smoking cloves at the beginning of 2009, I was only able to find them at smoke shops. Gas stations in the Chicago metropolitan area only carried the typical 42 brands and three types of blunts or cigars. To get a box of cloves, I’d have to walk into a smoke shop, which operates at odd hours, and ask for a box of cloves that was stored in a glass case behind the counter. Smoke shops have carded me harder and more consistently than any gas station I’ve ever been to outside of Panama City Florida, but I digress.
I suppose my point is this:
If I can only get cloves at inconvenient times during the day/week from specialty shops that card harder and more consistently than gas stations, then where the heck are kids getting these things from? I’m more than willing to gamble the smoke shop will not service these younger individuals…which would lead to one of two sources: Their parents, siblings/friend’s siblings.
The other thing I just wanted to take a moment to point out: Who goes to smoke shops? Walking into them, I usually encounter middle aged women either buying tobacco or full cartons of her Slims and her husband’s Marb Lights. For kids to have their hands on controlled substances, they’d have to be present in the store. The women usually don’t buy them, men would feel as if they’d traded in their guy card, and people in their 20’s usually already have established a brand. To date, I believe I was the youngest person in any of the shops I’ve been to….
So how is this ban logically going to remove cigarettes from the hands of the youth when they can’t purchase the flavored tobacco anyways? I know for a fact that through high school, I saw more boxes of Camels and Marlboros flashed than Djarum and Dreams. I can’t wait to see the numbers of teen smokers increase almost as quickly as the teen pregnancy rates boosted through the 90’s. It’ll be fun to point and laugh when some “suit” reports that teen smoking rates have gone up…even though we’ve removed the product from shelves.
Then again, statistics can be skewed to show any view or standpoint that the person generating them wishes to. I suppose its time to submit to the US Utopian policies, or move to Canada. Who wants to take a long car ride, eah?
For those interested in actualizing repeal of the ban, please join Facebook group or the LiveJournal community.