From my understanding the bill would allow the FDA to regulate the amount of nicotine that is allowable in a cigarette. So one would imagine they will insist on a reduced level of said drug. Phillip Morris knows that the majority of smokers just are not going to quite, no matter how much a pack of smokes cost, and it serves their purpose to have a lower nicotine level. The lower the nicotine level, the more adicts will have to smoke to satisfy their cravings, the more money in the PM coffers.

As somebody who enjoys a nice cigar every week or so I more concerned how this will affect that industry which is already weakened from the SCHIP.

Just for comparison, let us look at the regulation of pharmaceutical products by the FDA! I have not seen big pharma companies doing too bad under that kind of regulation, did I. It is only when a product is really killing people and it cannot be avoided that then there is a move to withdraw it. The FDA does not prevent the big pharma firms to introduce "new" meds with only marginal differences with an existing product so that exclusivity is maintained etc... With that history it is quite possible that the tobacco companies realized that they would be better off under "regulations" from the FDA that would give them some cover. So rather than dying, the tobacco lobby may just be changing its clothes!

The era of transformed political economy to which Alex Koppelman alludes is pretty, but sadly fictitious. What happened to big tobacco was simply that it ran smack into something even bigger, something that even it couldn't dislodge — big medicine.

The health insurance companies have made it a priority to target the major threats to their business model. Now that they've sewn up the entire medical sector, from schools to hospitals, the next stage is to go after its largest expense centers, and at the top of that list are lung cancer and obesity.

As the health insurance cartels pour money into the public health initiatives and policy activism that leads to changes in diet and smoking habits, it's tempting to look the other way and just figure that if they improve the quality of our lives in the process, what is there to complain about?

Tempting... but fatal. (Maybe literally.)

The thing is that while big medicine is getting us all excited about killing off smoking and getting rid of trans-fats (and next corn syrup, one presumes, once they feel up for taking on big ag), our medical system is plunging ever deeper into dysfunction.

We aren't seeing any of the benefits the health industry enjoys from all of this clean air and lean food and healthy living. Instead, they charge us more.

And cover fewer and fewer of us.

And push more and more pills on us in lieu of any alternative because pills are cheap — especially when the cartel makes them itself.

Preventive medicine, homeopathy, general practice, compassionate health care — that's what we're being swindled out of while we watch the tobacco sideshow.

Personally, I stopped cheering for this sort of thing a long time ago. Rather than be excited that Big Brother is beating up on the tobacco industry again, I'd like to see the medical establishment get serious about health insurance reform: dismantle the cartels, put a stop to institutionalized fraud, build credible universal public health care.

Then it will be appropriate to get excited about ending smoking.

You are spot on!

I agree, except that homeopathy is a bunch of feel-good bunkum. You'd be just as well off taking sugar pills, if you believed they would help you.

I understand the desire to regulate cigarettes and some of the new nicotine candies being developed by the big tobacco companies and I particularly dislike the efforts of big tobacco to market cigarettes to teens, notwithstanding their denials. From a public health standpoint, regulation of cigarettes is long overdue.

However, I tend to get concerned whenever the FDA is given power over yet another plant. For years, I've argued that cannabis should not be prohibited, and that it was the height of governmental folly to regulate plants -- the gifts of Mother Earth. While the new legislation specifically excludes agricultural producers and warehousers of raw tobacco from regulation, how far away are we from taking that next step? Are we headed towards prohibition and the creation of an entirely new black market?

The other thing that bothers me is that the new bill strikes close to home. I'm a pipe smoker. Once every week or so, I enjoy sitting at an outdoor sidewalk cafe or on my patio, drinking some coffee, reading, and enjoying a pipe. I prefer aged Virginia tobaccos, blended with a touch of perique. The interesting thing about pipe tobacco is that although the market is incredibly small, there are a plethora of small companies that strive for incredibly varied and quality blends. Producers such as G.L. Pease, Cornell & Diehl, and McClelland Tobacco immediately come to mind.

I'd be willing to bet that while big tobacco companies such as Phillip Morris and RJ Reynolds will have the lawyers, guns and money to navigate the FDA rules and get their products to market, the small manufacturers of artisan pipe tobacco will be disproportionately affected and many will be driven out of business. Ardent anti-tobacco crusaders won't shed a tear over such an outcome, but the folks who run these small companies are real craftsmen (and women) who take a great deal of pride in the quality of their product and who work hard in a market segment that does not provide the same financial rewards associated with big tobacco.

The new legislation contains provisions that require the FDA to help small companies comply with the rules, but in my experience, such efforts by regulatory agencies result in many more headaches and are little more than window dressing to help Congress feel good about helping the "little guys." I wish Congress would simply have exempted pipe tobacco produced by companies with less than 100 employees. That would have taken care of the problem with the large cigarette manufacturers, but would have preserved the livelihoods of many small business owners.