New West Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming
Citizens of Denver and Colorado Springs are excited about a public hearing set for Wednesday on the current test marketing in the cities of dissolvable tobacco products, which critics say are packaged to appeal to young people, a charge hotly denied by corporate officials.
It’s the second round of test marketing by the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company of the brightly packaged, flavored line of lozenges, strips, and sticks that deliver nicotine when they dissolve in the mouth. The first tests were done this spring in Indianapolis, Portland, Ore., and Columbus, Ohio.The marketing in Colorado is accompanied by a program in Charlotte, N.C.
The hearing, conducted by the Colorado Board of Health, will be held Aug. 17 at 4300 Cherry Creek Drive, Building A, in Denver, from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.
Dissolvable tobacco has been around since 2001, as The Gazette in Colorado Springs reported this week. A Virginia company called Star Scientific introduced a lozenge called Ariva, followed in 2003 by Stonewall.
By law, the only tobacco products the Food and Drug Administration regulates are cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, smokeless tobacco, and roll-your-own.
Star Scientific is readying to release a low-nicotine versions of its two products. Dissolvable tobacco often carries no more nicotine than cigarettes, and sometimes much less.
“It is not just the amount of nicotine but the route of administration and speed of absorption that determine its physiological effects,” Scott Tomar of the University of Florida Department of Community Dentistry and Behavioral Science said recently in the peer-reviewed Environmental Health Perspectives, published by the National Institutes of Health.
“The goal should be relief from addiction to nicotine, not long-term maintenance,” Norman Edelman, chief medical officer for the American Lung Association, told the journal.
In January of 2009, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act was enacted, which required FDA to establish a scientific advisory committee to examine the question of dissolvables and their potential use by minors.
Public meetings were held by the committee this July 21 and 22, and others are scheduled in November.
The three Camel Dissolvables being test-marketed by R.J. Reynolds are called Orbs, Strips, and Sticks.
“In my mind there’s no safe level of tobacco,” Dr. Chris Urbina, director of the state’s Department of Public Health and Environment, told the Denver Post. “I’d be very concerned about children picking these up. These look like small candy or mints.”
Colorado has slashed its budget for management of tobacco products this year to $5.4 million, compared to $25.4 million in 2007, the newspaper reported.
Spokesmen for RJ Reynolds said the products are sold behind checkout counters with age restrictions and ID requirements. They said the packaging is child resistant, and carries the same health warnings as cigarettes do.
The goal should be to find a less damaging way to be addicted to nicotine and these new products seem to be less damaging than smoking. The War on drug doesn’t work.
A rational society would ban nicotine sales in any form, over the counter, and put this highly addictive substance under the purview of the FDA.
Problem is, about 20 percent of the population is already addicted and politicians — from town hall to Congress — have been thoroughly bought off by the tobacco companies.
What Mr. Garcia doesn’t see is that this is just a new gateway for kids to get sucked in, and a new generation of addicts gets delivered to Big Tobacco’s tender mercies. Yes, it would be less damaging to personal health (smoke and chew are deadly delivery systems), but it still addictive — moreso than alcohol and even heroin!
This is so insane.
Until scientific advances can prevent addiction at the molecular level by popping a pill without dangerous side effects, attempting to ban addiction using laws and prohibitions is fruitless, wastes time and money, and has proven to be counterproductive.
I’m no fan of the Prohibition experiment, nor do I think the war on drugs has done anything worthwhile. De-criminalizing drugs should only come with a massive tax that pays for addiction treatment. Addiction to alcohol, heroin, cocaine or nicotine is a disease and should be treated as such, not criminalized to fill our prisons to over-flowing.
I quit smoking over 6 years ago using nicorette lozenges and gum as part of my version of nicotine replacement therapy for over 12 months. I never totally quit smoking during the time I was using the lozenges, rather using the lozenges as a substitute for when I did not want to smoke or could not smoke. What this substitution did was prepare me for the day that I decided to quit… and that day came about a year after I started using a nicotine substitute. For a moderately motivated quitter, I found these products helpful.
As for these current products, I had a friend who used the tobacco sticks as his sub. He is currently smoke free and off the sticks. I took a look and smell of these products when he was using them, and made the comment, “the tobacco companies know exactly what they are doing”… they smelled wonderous and I was half tempted to try one…. but of course, my brain kicked in and I did not.
These products can play a role with smokers, present a less risky nicotine product than smoking, and should –as other tobacco products– be restricted to adults.
I’m not surprised by this new product. Tobacco corporations are in the addiction business, plain and simple. Nicotine should remain legal, but be regulated and taxed in any form of delivery. And taxes should be used to pay for regulation, education, and addiction rehab services. Hooking kids on nicotine continues to be a strategy used by Tobacco to ensure long term demand.
I say limit nicotine highs to cigarettes and chewing tobacco. That way, at least some of the addicts will succumb to their habits. This planet is too crowded and anything that will lower the people numbers is a good thing.