Stop press!!!!! Nicotine is a DRUG!

Yesterday the House of Representatives at long last passed a bill giving the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.), for years a thorn in the tobacco industry's side, sponsored the bill, which will further restrict tobacco advertising and will ban flavored cigarettes which are designed to appeal to young people.

The bill is almost certain to be vetoed by a tobacco industry friendly White House. President Bush's ties to the tobacco industry are strong and deep. Karl Rove, until last year Bush's Deputy Chief of Staff and political Svengali, was formally on Philip Morris's payroll from 1991-1996 as a political intelligence operative. Another of Bush's close friends and advisors, Haley Barbour, who was Chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1993-1997 and is considered by many to be a potential Vice-Presidential candidate in 2008, has strong tobacco ties. In 2001 his lobbying company Barbour, Griffith & Rogers was named by Fortune as the most powerful in the nation and it has made millions in fees from lobbying on behalf of tobacco companies.

Back in September 1999 Martin Feldman, a tobacco industry analyst with Salomon Smith Barney said "The prospect of Bill Clinton gone and a George Bush presidency makes the industry almost giddy." And President Bush has not disappointed. He has resisted federal tax hikes on tobacco products, he has advocated tort reform which heavily favours the makers of dangerous products such as cigarettes, he has refused to ratify the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control - the worldwide agreement to prevent children from starting to smoke and restricting tobacco companies advertising and promotional activity designed to recruit new, young smokers.

In outlining White House opposition to the FDA taking authority over tobacco, Health & Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt suggests that the FDA has no expertise in the field.

It's funny - I'd have thought that an organzation that was "responsible for protecting public health by assuring the saftey, efficacy and security of human drugs..." and has been doing so effectively since 1862 was EXACTLY what we needed here. If they don't have expertise in the field, who does?