Opioids, vaping, the rich cheating for college entrance, Betsy DeVos devouring public education, EPA deregulating our resources, locking kids in cages, disputing CHIPS funding...........
Wow! What a great country for our youth under the Trump Administration.
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Scott Gottlieb is probably one of the few appointees of President Trump that was actually good and had bipartisan approval.
Of all the agencies and politics, the FDA and Gottlieb's leadership seemed to be on one of the few places Americans from both aisles could actually agree on. His and his immediate boss, Azar, pushed for biosimilars to make drug pricing more competitive. The FDA cannot set pricing, but can facilitate introduction of new competition to drive pricing down, which they tried to do. Surprisingly, Gottlieb's FDA ran more counter to what we would normally expect You'd think Republicans would help big pharma but actually have pushed back more than you'd think.
Though Trump is deemed racist by many readers here, his pick of Gottlieb and their efforts to regulate menthol cigarettes (which is preferred by blacks, causing blacks to inhale deeper meaning more cancer, cause menthol is a numbing agent, think of cough drops) would benefit the black community greatly. So be mindful of what you say liberals, sometimes, your "enemy" is actually trying to help you in some ways.
Gottlieb will be missed as one of the few, rational, picks from Trump. A sane, rational, fair, administrator or official is a blessing these days. Hopefully the next one holds similar values.
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It was while I was still in college that the Surgeon General's report came out, telling us cigarette smoking was bad for our health. For a brief time, our cigarette sales dropped. Then they surged back. That was over 55 years ago. Why are the tobacco companies still trying to kill us?
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If the purpose of e-cigarettes is to help smokers get off of tobacco, as their makers contend, then they should be banned for use by anyone who doesn't have a prescription from a doctor to use them for that purpose alone. Fat chance of that happening.
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@Mike It's my understanding that there is no credible research showing that e-cigarettes help in smoking cessation. Furthermore, I'd be interested in the teen population that reportedly did not have any knowledge of e-cigarettes. I work in a high school and I can guarantee you that not only do teens know about these products, they have ready access to them. I'm very disturbed by the Juul ads on TV passively suggesting that these products are helpful and that, once again, money in private pockets trumps the health of children.
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"...long-term plans to lower nicotine levels in cigarettes to nonaddictive levels and to ban menthol cigarettes..."
"Dr. Gottlieb had planned to ultimately force tobacco companies to cut nicotine to nonaddictive levels, and said in interviews that he believed he had the authority as F.D.A. commissioner to issue such a policy..."
"Altria last year told the F.D.A. that it would oppose any effort to reduce nicotine levels in cigarettes, and disputed the agency’s authority to do so."
"Dr. Gottlieb had also suggested pursuing a ban on menthol cigarettes, and said that the F.D.A. is now developing that rule, which would need to win White House approval."
in the ever-changing regulatory realm, other nations can also act as testing grounds or battle grounds. for example, i believe that canada has now banned menthol cigarettes and an EU ban will take effect next year. as might be expected, some are trying to delay or to rescind the upcoming EU ban. enforcement of existing regulations is also an issue.
regulation of nicotine levels (and flavors) in tobacco--and old, established product--can be related to regulation of nicotine levels (and flavors) in nicotine vaporizing liquid--a new, innovative product. even if the levels are not set to (near) zero, they can be set below a maximum allowable level.
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I have shares in Altria. Hope it goes up
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The lobbyists should be cheering. As with all his other picks the new FDA chief will be picked for his, in this order: pro Trump support, pro-business bias and pro conservative viewpoint Qualifications are not a requirement.
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This industry's malfeasance is staggering. I can't help but notice how neatly their aims align with anti-regulatory/anti-tax conservative groups, too. It's almost as if caring more about money than people leads to behavior that hurts people. Imagine that.
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Tobacco kills about 480,000 /year in the US.
More of these die from blood circulation diseases than from cancer.
How low can the tobacco companies sink that they deliberately try to addict teens to tobacco so that they can make money selling a product that they know will kill.
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Trump’s voters put him in the White House in part to reduce regulation
So we can have more coal and oil production and people have the freedom to smoke as well as to keep their guns
If it costs lives, wipes out animals species, starts children on the path to cancer or increases global warming it is a very small price to pay for them.
Promises kept.
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I smoke e-cigarettes. They have nicotine in them. They are fruit flavored. I like them. Oh yeah, and I was a smoker for 50-odd years. We allow alcohol, caffeine, marijuana in more & more areas, not to mention sugar, corn-syrup fructose, factory-farmed red meat, e. coli-tainted lettuce, milk laced with hormones, artery-clogging junk food, smog- and climate-change producing modes of transportation, war-mongering policy-makers... and the Great State of Nanny wants to take away my e-cigs? Really???
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Is it a coincidence that when the regulators start cracking down on Juul, who holds the largest market share, Gottleib retires? I think not.
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So the nicotine drug dealers are circling Congress like vultures. I'm not sure there is any difference between them and the Cali Cartel or El Chapo. They just wear nicer suits and have graduate degrees.
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the only way to address corporate/GOP heartless greed...overturn Citizens United
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Corporate lobbyists, Citizens United, corporations lobbying government... Why are these even things?
Sociopaths have taken over the world.
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As long as the makers can’t portray tobacco smoke and vape as cool, healthy, hip, harmless, fun, sexy, manly, womanly, etc.; or depict celebrities doing it, even through news articles and stories about the celebrities; and as long as they are required to print the warnings on the packaging, prominently and legibly; and as long as health groups are allowed to explain the health hazards of the products, and as long as marketing and sale to minors is a felony, I’m ok with whatever they want to do.
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With the percent of our citizens who smoke continuing to fall( about 20% now), I think the nicotine level in tobacco is the critical factor - change it to a nonaddictive concentration and it will just be a matter of time before smoking becomes history. Don't allow e-cigarettes to use nicotine either.
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The risk of e-cigarettes—a boon to helping smokers quit when properly supervised—in addicting our young people is real and present.
In the recent news has been the question of FAA "collusion" with the airline industry—
And what about our other critical and protective government agencies, like the FDA and the EPA.
Beginning with George W. Bush they have been defunded and demoralized and their independence impaired.
And it continues with the absurd administration of Donald John Trump.
But we depend upon these agencies. We should all be profoundly distressed.
The importance of our protective agencies, like the FDA, cannot be overstated. They must be well funded and staffed with the most competent people, free of industry compromise.
A physician MD
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The almighty dollar over anything else.
A mango flavored product you can inhale and look cool doing it...gee, wonder what market they're targeting???
All those tobacco executives who lied to Congress why weren't they indicted?
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Kill one person in a moment of rage - homicide.
Addict and kill 10,00 over their lifetimes - business as usual.
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Our Congress is just a rubber stamp for corporate greed. Nicotine is the gateway drug to a host of addiction problems. Any nicotine delivery device should be taxed excessively. Addicts don’t have free will when it comes to addiction. Ask anyone with a nicotine addiction how hard it is to quit. Ask anyone with a narcotic addiction how hard it is to quit. This is not an issue of freedom of choice as Big Pharma and the Tobacco Libby would have ignorant Americans belueve. These corrupting corporations know you create addicts at a young age, especially during the critical time for the developing pre frontal cortex of teenagers. These corporations are promoting substances with absolutely zero social value.
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@jeff bunkers why don’t we just start sending smokers to prison by your logic, don’t worry the prison lobby will love the idea ... again why are so many people here expecting the govt to make all the decisions for people. This is part of being human some people want to smoke others get addicted to sex to drinking to food to extreme sports like dirt bikes and skydiving ... how far are you open to having govt control every aspect of your life? Think hard about this! Because you or your grandchildren one day may find themselves without much freedom of choice if you all get this wrong
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I hear from many people that they are horrified that lobbyists, tobacco people and soft drink makers could be so irresponsible that they seek to keep open the profits from tobacco, vaping, sweetened soft drinks and opioids. US was able to mount a large offensive against tobacco, initiated in large part by the Luther Terry Surgeon generals report. Do we still have a surgeon general? Just joking, I know that we do. Wouldnt you expect Dr. Jeome Adams to use his bully pulpit to pull the country into activist mode on nicotine? Oh and maybe Scott Pruitt can get everyone excited about cleaner air and water? He's gone? Oh maybe, like Gottlieb, he was too activist for the current administration.
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We just lost yet another member of our family to lung cancer; I find it astounding that our country doesn't yet treat tobacco as we treat methamphetamine, fentanyl or heroin. It's far more deadly to our society and to world health. It's marketed to the young because the companies know if they can hook'em before the age of 18, they have customers for "life," however shortened and diminished those lives will be. Vaping is just the latest generation of nicotine-pushing strategy to build the next generation of addicts.
Given all of the outright fraudulent and criminal efforts to mislead citizens and governments about the dangers of tobacco, given all of the deaths and disease directly and indirectly caused by its use, why haven't we treated the executives of the tobacco companies for what they are - accessories to hundreds of thousands of deaths, billions of dollars of lost potential for our country? Why aren't they all in prisons, rotting away as have their victims?
We could outright pay all of the people employed in the industry handsomely to stop growing tobacco, with a fraction of the monies spent trying to help those people suffering from its ravages.
Well, the answer is disgustingly obvious. The very wealthy who benefit from the industry know how to buy off the government and they have no shame in their role in the greatest narcotic scourge of history. They should be made to pay for their actions.
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After all the decades spent fighting for a smoke-free society it is astonishing that we are now forced to deal with a new scourge, one that will be virtually impossible to police in the public space. New York needs to simply declare vaping to be a public nuisance, just as was done with spray paint, and make it as difficult as possible to purchase as current law allows.
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Excellent item, in particular documenting the front groups that the tobacco industry uses to influence policy.
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This column ties to another in today's NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/opinion/federal-aviation-administration-boeing.html ("Why Does the US Tolerate So Much Risk?"). That column ends with a comment about the 737 fiasco, but has similar implications for what we see from the tobacco and vaping industries: two conjoined Merchants of Doubt. I hope the joys of those latter two industries are short-lived and we do not allow the current administration to further denigrate the health and safety environs of the nation.
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Like flies around honey. The US doesn't care about it's citizenry. Money and greed are the gods of this country. People, especially children, are last.
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@heysus that right the govt needs to butt out of people’s personal choices whether it is who they marry, when and if they conceive and how, and what they eat, drink and inhale... some people seem to not understand this concept of limited government
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"Juul declined to disclose the size of its donations."
'Bribes' is the word you're looking for. We must stop using euphemisms.
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@Victor I. Whatever they are they wouldn’t be needed if wasteful agencies like the FDA never existed in the first place.
See how that works? The bureaucracy creates more bureaus and then when we the people need to succumb to paying them off then we get accused of bribing. Very clever how that works.
Here’s an idea just scrap the entire federal bureaucracy and let each state determine with peoples votes what they want or don’t want in their community. We have the technology for it why continue with this ridiculous system of some so called czar of this or that telling 100s of millions of people how to live!!
No, Dom. We are the UNITED States of America. As much as some states (read: Kentucky) continue to disappoint (read: McConnell), we have a duty to vote in a sane Federal government to protect the rights of the people of each and every one of them, and must continue to exercise that duty at the ballot 'til we croak ourselves hoarse. A sane government would ensure the bureaus regulate the megacorps, not the other way around, and if such rogue Republican states don't like it then they're welcome—and urged—to secede. (Again.)
But they'll have to pay for their own big beautiful bigotry monuments then. :)
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"why continue with this ridiculous system of some so called czar of this or that telling 100s of millions of people how to live!!"
I agree on that point. That czar "telling 100s of millions of people how to live"—the smoke of Juul-Altria's death sticks that cuts those lives short—needs to be impeached for good.
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