Hypocrite Cigarette Smoker Obama Attacks Tobacco

On June 22, Obama, who hypocritically sneaks around the White House to puff his cigarettes, signed into law the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. The landmark legislation gives the U.S. Food and Drug Administration broad new authority to regulate the marketing of tobacco products. Under the law, the FDA has two years to issue specifics about the new graphic warnings tobacco products will be required to carry. Tobacco companies then have 18 months to get them onto packages.

If U.S. regulations are modeled after those already in place in Canada and other countries, the warnings will be shocking: blackened lungs, gangrenous feet, bleeding brains and people breathing through tracheotomies.

Over the last decade, countries as varied as Canada, Australia, Chile, Brazil, Iran and Singapore, among others, have adopted graphic warnings on tobacco products. Some are downright disturbing: in Brazil, cigarette packages come with pictures of dead babies and a gangrened foot with blackened toes.

Ironically cities, counties and states are increasing dependent upon heavy tobacco taxes to fund their insatiable appetite for money. A further irony is that as taxes go up tobacco use has gone declined.

In a yet-to-be published study, 541 adult smokers in the United States and Canada view a mild image of a smoker’s mouth with yellowed teeth; a moderately graphic image of a diseased mouth; and a third photo of a grotesque, disfigured mouth.

The most disturbing photo evoked the most fear, prompting more smokers to say they intended to quit.

About 21 percent of the U.S. population smokes daily, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While powerful, the gruesome warnings won’t get everyone to quit.

“Nicotine is highly addictive,” researchers say. “Health warnings are not a magic bullet, but they help move people closer to quitting and provide a constant reminder of why many people want to change.”