The FDA is going to try to lower the nicotine cont

The FDA is going to try to lower the nicotine content of cigarettes, and claiming that it's the "most important public health initiative of our time."

Well, now. Experts on smoking addiction say that what will happen is that smokers will have to smoke more cigarettes to get the same nicotine fix, so they'll end up smoking more cigarettes. A lot of people think that the biggest problems with cigarettes are all the additives, and the dioxin from bleached cigarette paper -- so this will expose smokers to even more carcinogens. There's a brand of (believe it or not) ORGANIC cigarettes with unbleached paper, specifically to address those concerns.

Now, how about a REAL FDA "important public health initiative"? How about an FDA that is able to hire more people, so they can decide more quickly whether to let a clinical trial progress, and they review the results of those trials more quickly so that sick people can get the drugs? How about if they stop letting petty personal dislikes prevent drugs from being approved, even if those drugs only help a subset of people with a disease instead of all people? (Look up Ampligan if you want a sickening example -- many patients testifying that it gave them their life back, yet FDA panel refused to approve because they didn't like the sleazy president of the company.)

FDA wants the "most important public health initiative of our time"? That's easy -- reform the FDA to serve the people, instead of throwing stumbling blocks in front of companies. I'm all for being really careful with safety issues -- but good drugs need to make their way through the approval process much faster.

Maybe if Kevetrin were to prove efficacious for lung cancer and could get approved quickly, they wouldn't have to worry so much about people getting lung cancer from cigarettes.