That isn't your choice to make, except for yourself.

No company should be able to market a product that contains highly addictive chemicals in it. Maybe they start making nicotine laced cola? Get people hooked on their cola, and a Coke or Pepsi will not work, because it does not have the nicotine that they require. Maybe they make nicotine laced potato chips, Lays would just not do then.

If I found some highly addictive chemical, would the government let me separate it out and put it in my product? I think not.

Ma told me about droppin an asprin in a Coke and downin it . I said , "aww, did ya know ya was hooked on opion?" After a bit of being called all sorts of ignorent and vile crap. And only gettin in, "not what I ment yer taking this wrong!" . "Bassturd, yer just like yer father" . Then went on with something else and so did I.

Let's see if I get you right. We should ban caffeine, processed sugar, television, radio, meat of any type and the list goes on. For many people all of these are highly addicting. Just the combination of television and processed sugar account for the biggest health problem this country faces, obesity. Look at our overweight children and you know it's true. When are the parents going to break these addictions and keep their kids on the straight and narrow of organically grown vegetables. Get real

hehe get em rothen

I concur. Egad, these so-called research concerns, public and private, can conduct a study and find a risk associated with anything. Only the most Neanderthal parent would fail to comprehend Little Johnny or Jill might become momentarily ill if the child ingests some of these products. For those parents and others around above the age of eight, here are a few things to keep away from the toddlers, no costly study and statistical correlations needed: Don't drink the bleach. Stay away from Mommy's Xanax. Daddy's gin is not an eyewash. Don't climb up on the flat screen and yank it over on your precious little self. Avoid tottering around with the unabridged dictionary, lest you develop an itty-bitty hernia.

Mercy. Now, I'm going to the porch for my afternoon cigar. I only hope the dog doesn't come down with something because of a whiff of secondhand smoke.

These products were featured on 60 minutes and shown to be far safer than cigarettes. No lung cancer, no secondhand smoke, no mouth cancer because of the way they are packaged. If you don't use them, and they aren't hurting you, what's it to you?

To answer your question, the potentially dangerous drugs that the pharmaceutical companies promote on TV for the most part require a doctor's prescription to get, not so for cigarettes. Luckily for the tobacco industry. Could you imagine any doctor in his right mind prescribing cigarettes?

But, speaking of being in your right mind, I have a question; what could you have POSSIBLY seen or heard, anywhere, that would lead you to, in any way at all, believe that any tobacco product is even remotely "good or healthy or safe or whatever"?

gimme a break! i never said that tobacco is good in any way; i'm just tired of something getting banned or some law is enacted because someone else thinks it's bad. leave us alone and let us make our own choices. sorry for those of you who know someone who died from this or that or something happened to someone you know -- that's life! we're born, we live, we die. if i want to take a chance that my death will be from smoking, let me make that choice.

as for the pharmaceutical companies and their advertising on TV, a prescription might be needed for most of them but i'm willing to put money on it that there are a lot more prescriptions being written because of these ads because otherwise, what would the payoff be for spending millions in advertising? and i'm sure that there are quite a few doctors writing prescriptions for addictive drugs because it keeps their patients coming back...same as the tobacco companies to me.

gimme a break! i never said that tobacco is good in any way; i'm just tired of something getting banned or some law is enacted because someone else thinks it's bad. leave us alone and let us make our own choices.

Then you DO think tobacco is bad. Much better. The way you were writing it, it sounded like you only thought "some law is enacted because someone else thinks it's bad."

as for the pharmaceutical companies and their advertising on TV, a prescription might be needed for most of them but i'm willing to put money on it that there are a lot more prescriptions being written because of these ads because otherwise, what would the payoff be for spending millions in advertising?

Absolutely right. They advertize on TV for the same reasons a book is sold on a shelf in a bookstore or in a review in a newspaper...if people didn't see it, they wouldn't know it exists. Then the person goes to a doctor and asks about it.

and i'm sure that there are quite a few doctors writing prescriptions for addictive drugs because it keeps their patients coming back...same as the tobacco companies to me.

Again, absolutely right. Like Michael Jackson's doctor and the drug he got for him that was never to be used outside a hospital. Fortunately, as he's finding out, there are already laws against that.

sorry for those of you who know someone who died from this or that or something happened to someone you know -- that's life! we're born, we live, we die. if i want to take a chance that my death will be from smoking, let me make that choice.

Thank you. Yes, my mother and father both died of lung cancer from smoking. My wife and I smoked too, but we both quit for fear of what our second hand smoke was doing to our (then) new child. But by the time I convinced my parents to quit, it was too late for them.

Don't get me wrong here, I don't care. They would be dead now anyway, if of old age at least. When we all started (1962 for me) cigarettes were advertized as cool, no mention of what smoking was going to do to us. It's obvious that we should have figured it out, after all, man's lungs were not designed to breathe smoke, right? With all the science about it now, you'd have to be pretty dumb indeed to start or continue smoking. Like drug use, it boggles my mind that there are people out there dumb enough to shoot up heroin when they can look anywhere and see what it will do to them. My solution to the drug problem is to let all the stupid addicts die, and the dealers will have nobody left to sell drugs to, all that will be left is us smart people. If they'd only kill faster, the cigarette problem would solve itself the same way, then the Tobacco Industry wouldn't need to be restricted. But like you say, there are always more stupid people trying to save these idiots by banning this and that and trying to save them. You're right, we're stupid, they should just hurry up and die.

My only reservation to that is pushing to kids. We've got severe laws against drug dealers pushing near schools, We should have severe laws against Tobacco Companies pushing 'nicotine-laced candies' to kids. (Not just fine the 7/11 clerk who 'accidentally' sells product to a kid, fine the tobacco company. They're the one making a profit on this, and they don't give a damn if the clerk has $150 taken out of his paycheck to cover 7/11's loss.) I don't expect an elementary school kid to grasp the big picture, and that's what the Tobacco Industry is counting on too. After all, I was twelve when I thought I was just the coolest dude walking the street with a butt hanging out of my mouth.

They aren't marketed towards kids at all. You have to present a valid I.D. to purchase them, they aren't showing commercials of these products during Saturday morning cartoons, they aren't handing out free samples to children in stores.

Frankly I am sick of people telling me how something should be handled and how I am wrong because I am a smoker when they are the ones sitting there overweight. I don't run up to people and tell them to put the Big Mac down and I don't see how it is anyone's business besides mine if I choose to be a smoker. I don't smoke around my children, I used to smoke in bars but that is wrong for some reason. It should be up to the owner of the establishment to make the choice to allow smoking or not and then it is your choice to enter the establishment. It should not be your choice to force your will on others. That is fascism plain and simple.

those poisoned kids can thank their parents or whatever adult should have been watching them. the government needs to QUIT banning things, not ban more things.

The only reason the gov't bans anything is cause it cant think of a good enough way to tax it.

I agree. No advertising ever, EVER motivated a kid to start smoking. The choking and coughing while I learned to smoke was awful. It was peer pressure, not Joe Camel, that got me smoking. Read that again, friends- PEER PRESSURE-

And it was flavor, not some dude on a horse, that had me smoking Marlboro brand. I am sick of using kids as a cause for banning advertising. I really liked my Marlboro branded premiums. I still use the Adventure Team coffee mugs and backpack.

Unfortunately, it's not that easy. As a retail clerk, I've seen too many cases of adults buying cigarettes for kids. Some actually ask the kids which brand they prefer, then insist the cigarettes are for themselves. The law puts the clerk in a no-win situation: We are not supposed to sell to minors, but can't refuse the sale if the person says it's for himself. Most of us are not allowed to, or stupid enough to, follow the buyer and see if he gives it to the underage person and then try to do anything about it.

Tobacco mints will simply be impossible to control.

I say "Ban them."

Actually, clerks can refuse sales. I had adults come in and bring beer to the counter, and watched as a minor passed them the money. I told them I needed to see the minor's ID since it was his money. Same with cigarettes. I dare a customer to formally challenge or complain that I refused a sale because it was clearly going to minors. It doesn't happen. No manager would discipline a clerk under that scenerio.

Seeing the minor actually pay for the beer makes a big difference. It also depends on the laws of the state in which you live. The manager may not discipline you, but our laws are pretty clear, and I could lose my license to sell and pay a hefty fine if I didn't follow them.

Yeah, who decides for us? Big Brother? If we KNEW what was REALLY in the foodstuff that we eat...scary! For instance,read the ingredients in cool whip..I can't pronounce one of them!

Yes indeed, let's have candy with nicotine in it. Don't tell me that young children will not be able to buy it or have available to them. So we can have the little chaps already slightly dpendent on nicotine by the time they're in their teens. Ban the filthy things RIGHT NOW! The last thing we need is cheldren being conned into tobacco addiction. It's bad enough waching some young person with a gasper in their mouths-- I just want to go up and say "You know who to whom you're giving money? The very people of whom you are supspicious and may even br hostile to. Give them the finger and quit--you're giving them around four grand a year, for god's sake."

There are liquors that tastes just like Jolly Rancher candies that the kiddies would love too, not to mention Godiva chocolate liqueur and any brand of Irish Cream. Children's medicines are made sweet and tasty so kids will take them. Should we ban all of these too? While we're at it, lets ban whipped cream that comes in a can that can be used to get high on whip-its. The medicines and food products aren't even behind a counter, egads! However are the children to survive this dangerous world?

Look, teenagers are always going to get their hands on beer, liquor, cigarettes, drugs and pretty much whatever they want. Young children on the other hand aren't going to stand outside the local deli and ask adults to buy them some nicotine candies. The only place they're going to get them is from adults who leave them lying around, so if someone is worried that their kids may get into their stash the solution is easy - don't buy them. Nobody is saying you have to. To me there's not much difference between this and chewing tobacco except that it's much less messy and infinitely less disgusting. There are few things more gross than sombody sitting in a public place with a cup half full of spent tobacco and brown spit.

Nicotine is an antidepressant and an appetite suppressant. It is the carcinogens in CIGARETTES that are harmful. This type of tobacco is not smoked and has been shown to not cause cancers of the mouth. As a replacement to smoking for those unable to it could actually save lives.

I read that it does increase oral cancer. It may be better than smoking it but it shouldn't be packaged like candy; it should be in a bottle like Advil or Tylenol.

Only if we change the definition of "adult" alongside the tobacco age increase. It's already a shame that we have soldiers out there risking their lives for us who can crack open cold beer after a day of being shot at. Now they're not going to be allowed to smoke either? You're considered an adult at 18 years old and held accountable for yourself in our courts, but you're not old enough to decide whether you should smoke or drink? It's hypocritical.

I don't like tobacco products and don't agree with their use in public places, but I'll stick up for a person's right to buy them.

Jim, do you realize that only about 20% of smokers get cancer? Before it was blamed on smoking it was probably blamed on family history. It will probably be confirmed in the not so distant future that your family history has more to do with cancer than any enviromental issues.

We have had friends in their 40's that were not smokers die of cancer and heart attacks. One died at the gym during his work out, and he had no history of heart disease.

I agree. It's our job as Adults and Parents to keep any substance away from those that should not use them. Read any medicine label. I'm sure you'll find these words.

"WARNING: KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN"

Exactly. There's no more personal responsibility or accountability. It's much easier to blame a large corporation than to admit the truth: "I made a terrible mistake, I wasn't paying attention, I dropped the ball, and a child got hold of these and suffered because of it."

We've become a blame-shifting society when it comes to our kids, and also to ourselves: "It's not MY fault I weigh so much; there's too much fat in the 6 Big Macs I've been eating daily for the past 20 years." Right, 'cause of course NOT eating 6 Big Macs a day just isn't an option, huh? Cursed McDonalds.