The Philly Inquirer reports:

The tobacco-control movement celebrated another milestone yesterday as the U.S. Senate easily passed a bill giving the government unprecedented power over the making and marketing of tobacco products.

Supporters say the law will enable the Food and Drug Administration to protect children from the addictive lure of cigarettes, make tobacco products safer, and, ultimately, save some of the 400,000 lives lost annually to tobacco-related illness.

But like every victory in the decades-long battle to curb the tobacco industry, the latest one comes with limitations, compromises, and inherent conflicts. Even many antismoking activists doubt the law will have the intended public-health impact.

Tobacco companies will have to disclose their product research and ingredients – secrets previously revealed only in court cases – and seek approval for new products. The FDA will publish an annual list of harmful ingredients by brand and can ban the most dangerous of the estimated 6,000 chemicals in cigarettes, except nicotine, the key to addiction. Nicotine, the bill says, can only be reduced.

How flippin’ wonderful….the US will now dictate to an industry more so than in the past.  Tobacco MUST comply.  In the same vain….why not go to more extremes?  Force car companies to make cars that get 50 mpg by next model year.  Or dictate to the Insurance comnpanies what their price sand pay outs should be.  Pick anything….and let the government dictate to it….the conditions of their business.

Smoking is a bad habit…but it is just that a habit…..everyone who smokes knows it could kill, them at anytime….that it is extremely unhealthy…anti-smoking people have won…now move on to anything industry and sure and control them….okay?