This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by SoRelle, R. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by SoRelle, R.

(Circulation. 2000;101:e27.)
© 2000 American Heart Association, Inc.

Circulation Electronic Pages

Attorneys Argue FDA Regulation of Tobacco Before Supreme Court

Ruth SoRelle, MPH¹

¹ Circulation Newswriter

	Introduction

 
Justice Department attorneys presented their arguments as to whether the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can regulate tobacco before a skeptical US Supreme Court in early December. The case, named FDA versus Brown & Williamson Tobacco is a major part of the Clinton administration’s attempts to reign in the politically powerful tobacco industry and to promote public health by reducing the number of people who smoke.

The brainchild of former US FDA Commissioner David Kessler, the suit seeks to regulate cigarettes on the theory that the nicotine it contains has drug-like properties, despite the fact that the FDA has turned down chances to regulate tobacco in decades past. At that time, the agency claimed it had no authority to regulate cigarettes. However, the FDA said it has changed its policy because of new revelations found in documents the tobacco companies were forced to release.

Attorneys for the tobacco companies argue that cigarette makers make no claims of health benefit for their product, and therefore, the FDA has no jurisdiction over it.

Forty states backed the FDA’s attempt to regulate tobacco, filing a friend-of-the-court brief that referred to rising rates of teenage smoking and the attempts by the tobacco industry to conceal the deadly nature of its products. Indeed, the FDA attempted with its first regulations to stem the teen smoking tide. It would have required that those who sell cigarettes and other tobacco products check the identification of buyers under the age of 27 and prohibit cigarette vending machines . . . [Full Text of this Article]

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. E. Wiktorowicz Emergent Patterns in the Regulation of Pharmaceuticals: Institutions and Interests in the United States, Canada, Britain, and France Journal of Health Politics Policy and Law, August 1, 2003; 28(4): 615 - 658. [Abstract] [PDF]