Ever since the harmful effects of tobacco use have become apparent, the battle to determine who, if anyone, should regulate it has raged. Health care professionals and consumer protection groups have initiated and funded studies to determine the negative health effects of tobacco products. As evidence supporting their claims mounted, they have doggedly pursued campaigns to warn the public and to obtain a ban on or regulation of tobacco products. However, the tobacco companies have historically denied the allegations that its products were responsible for the illnesses and deaths of smokers. They have also minimized claims about the danger and addictiveness of tobacco, and accused their opponents of being scaremongers. They have successfully used the enormous profits from tobacco sales to fight litigation and most attempts to regulate their products. Despite their efforts, there is no longer any doubt that tobacco use is a major medical and social problem (Reaney 2002, 1). Because nicotine is a harmful drug, manufactured and sold by unprincipled companies, it must, in the interest of public health, be regulated by some governmental body, such as the FDA, whose primary function is to protect the public health from drugs. .
Nicotine is an addictive and dangerous drug which causes health and behavior problems. Jeffrey Wigand, a former vice-president of research at the number three tobacco company, Brown and Williamson, describes cigarettes and smokeless tobacco as lethal products. According to this former industry insider, four hundred thirty thousand people die in the United States each year from smoking-related illnesses (Salter 2002, 2). Smoking causes respiratory system illnesses such as lung cancer, emphysema, pneumonia, and chronic obstructive lung disease. Nicotine also hardens the arteries, causing a wide range of heart diseases such as Ischaemic heart disease, myocardial degeneration, atheroscelerosis, aortic aneurysm, significant hypertension, Pulmonary Heart Disease, and cerebrovascular disease.
