Friday, June 12, 2009

Bravo to Kay and Big John... sticking it to big tobacco...

There was a big Senate vote on tobacco laws, and Kay and Big John both broke from a lot of members of their own party and came down on the side of sanity and good health (link). Excerpt follows...
WASHINGTON - “Miracles still happen,” declared Sen. Edward Kennedy. “The United States Senate has finally said ‘no’ to Big Tobacco.”

The Senate struck a historic blow against smoking in America on Thursday, voting overwhelmingly for legislation Kennedy has been promoting for years. It would give regulators new power to limit nicotine in the cigarettes that kill nearly a half-million people a year, to drastically curtail ads that glorify tobacco and to ban flavored products aimed at spreading the habit to young people.

[SNIP]

The 79-17 Senate vote sent the measure back to the House, which in April passed a similar but not identical version. House acceptance of the Senate bill would send it directly to Obama, who said Thursday that final passage “will make history by giving the scientists and medical experts at the FDA the power to take sensible steps.”

Both Texas senators, Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, voted for the Senate bill.

Could this mean a national smoking ban is on its way? I am excited that we might have the fun cigarette packaging they have in Europe...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrzaszcz/338033193/in/set-72157594441404226/

I bet this will have big implications for the way smokers are treated in society. Smoking will become even less socially acceptable, which is a great thing.

Way to go Kay and Big John.

1 comment:

  1. Sorry, I think you're wrong. I think smoking is bad, but it is not the government's job to force people not to smoke. It should be there own individual and personal choice. The only thing the government should be doing is insure that the tobacco companies are not lying about health effects, nicotine et cetera, not controlling big tobacco and people's ability to smoke.

    ReplyDelete

Hey now, campaign characters. Be nice. I know a lot of you on both sides, so I don't want any overly foul language, personal attacks on anyone other than the candidates themselves, or other party fouls. I will moderate the heck out of you if you start breaking the bounds of civility.