Originally posted by Jeff Stier @ Forbes, 03.09.10, 11:54 AM EST
The results of President Obama's latest trip to the doctor revealed last week that he has been unable to completely kick his smoking habit. But if he relies on the advice of his doctors, as well as his own Food and Drug Administration (FDA), he's likely to remain frustrated and vulnerable to illness.
The first is Swedish-style smokeless tobacco called snus, a small pouch of tobacco that goes between cheek and gum, delivering the nicotine that smokers crave without the harm that comes from burning and inhaling tobacco. Surprisingly, the risk of oral cancer from smokeless tobacco is low--far lower than the oral cancer risk from smoking cigarettes. And switching from cigarettes to snus eliminates the risk of heart disease, lung cancer and the other systemic diseases related to smoking--not to mention secondhand smoke.
Still, the legislation the president signed last June giving the FDA authority to regulate tobacco makes it nearly impossible for smokeless tobacco manufacturers to state the simple truth about their product: It is far less harmful than cigarettes.
Penalizing smokeless tobacco sends the implicit--and dangerous--message that it won't do people any good to switch, so they may as well keep lighting up. But the evidence from Sweden, at least, suggests that snus helps smokers quit. True, smokeless tobacco is not 100% safe (what is?), but it makes no sense for regulators and antitobacco activists to rob current smokers of this less-harmful option. The regulators' approach suggests that "quit or die" is the only acceptable choice to offer people.
I have long fantasized about getting Obama addicted to snus so that my habit may find some protection from the tobacanazis.
The problem is that if an elected official does kick his sticks habit with the snus, there is no way he is going to do what he should (shout praises of snus from the rooftops), he is only going to roll over and let the tobacco hating majority kick him in the belly and call him bad.
The FDA is stupid, they ban e-cigarettes but not normal cigs? How the hell does that make sense.. simple, it doesn't.
Snus > E cigs > cigs
Yet they ban snus and e cigs.....
He has to use the politically correct big pharma products with a list of side effects including suicidal thoughts.
We can only hope and pray that Obummer will pursue and act upon suicidal thoughts.
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of the people I killed because they were annoying......
I've been wrong lots of times. Lots of times I've thought I was wrong only to find out that I was right in the beginning.
Actually, by now I thought Obummer would have quit smoking with the help of "lead therapy" by an over-zealous citizen.
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of the people I killed because they were annoying......
I've been wrong lots of times. Lots of times I've thought I was wrong only to find out that I was right in the beginning.
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