Thursday, 24 September 2009

  • The Ban on Flavored Cigarettes: Too Little Too Late?

    The Ban on Flavored Cigarettes: Too Little Too Late?

    The Food and Drug Administration has put a ban on selling flavored cigarettes in hopes to keep children away from tobacco use.

    While taste buds have enjoyed vanilla, chocolate, clover and fruit flavored cigs for years now, the soaring number of kids and teens smoking these sweet cigarettes have forced the FDA to change the law and stop the sales.

    Although this is of course a step in the right direction, is it too late?

    Well I think so.

    According to Way2Quit.com, the nicotine in cigarettes are sent to the brain within 10 seconds of each puff. Because of this quick reaction time, it creates an immediate reward system - if you're stressed and you smoke, your stress will begin to decrease within 10 seconds of your first pull from your cigarette. This reward system thus begins the creation of addiction.

    42% of the teens who have tried and become addicted to these flavored cigarettes will become lifetime smokers. Even though their snack-flavored cigarettes will be unavailable for purchase, their addiction to tobacco will keep them coming back to the counter to buy more.

    What's even worse is that it takes a few weeks at MAXIMUM for people to become addicted to smoking if done on a regular basis. Unfortunately for those who have started smoking, this means that there isn't too much of a delay between enjoying one social smoke session and the reality of addiction.

    What does this mean for the teens who have had their fill of flavored cigarettes? Sadly enough, many of them will keep coming back to buy more even though they lack flavor. Almost half of these teens will have to battle with an addiction to nicotine for the rest of their lives.

    So is this ban on flavored cigarettes too little, too late? Should the FDA have taken action sooner? Or, do you think that the FDA should stay out of the cigarette industry and let people make their own smoking decisions?

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Comments (45)

  • frozencherries@xanga

    The young smokers I know don't smoke flavored cigarettes. & i've yet to see a 9 year old puffing a vanilla flavored stogie walking through the playground.

    Flavor is not the issue.
  • QuantumStorm@xanga

    How about we leave the FDA out of people's lives? The guardians of those underage children should be held responsible.
  • frozencherries@xanga

    @QuantumStorm@xanga - totally agreed.
  • KimisBarbie@xanga

    i don't think the flavored cigarettes are what's making them want to smoke.
    so I don't think it will make a difference.
  • TrishaJustTrisha@xanga

    I have to disagree with it taking a few weeks maximum to become addicted. When I was a sophomore in highschool I smoked every day, every chance I could. I did for about a year, until I got a boyfriend that really hated it. SO, I just quit. No withdrawals, no cravings.
  • FIREExATxWILL@xanga

    No one I knows smokes flavored cigarettes. I think it should be up to the individual what they want to smoke, honestly. We all know smoking is bad for you, they will never be able to stress that enough. If you choose to start smoking and risk all of the consequences of becoming addicted, then well, that's your choice. It's unfortunate, but it's your own fault and there are resources for you when you want to stop and with a lot of will, you can do it.
  • saxoholic2006@xanga

    It's time for the FDA to get out of people's lives when it comes to cigarettes. Many people drink alcohol and become alcoholics, but we don't try to ban alcohol, do we? The one time they tried, it completely backfired on them. If someone wants to smoke, let them. If someone doesn't want to smoke, they don't have to. I'm pretty sure it's going to take something more convincing than flavored cigarettes to make people, especially kids, want to smoke.
  • Tastes_Eclectic_Fashion@lovelyish

    Wait, there were flavored cigs?!


    In any case, I think many teens will end up wanting to smoke anyway. Flavored cigarettes (however old they may be) might be new but teen smoking is not.
  • kittiING@xanga

    @Tastes_Eclectic_Fashion@lovelyish - Yeah, you pretty much nailed it. Teen smoking has been a problem since before they upped the age on how old you have to be to buy cigarettes... the only difference is now teen smoking is illegal. I'm sorry but I say let the kids do what they want. For one thing, it's on the parents to teach them about the health risks before the doctors even consider them old enough to talk to them about it. Secondly, if you try and forbid a pubescent teenager from doing something, they're more likely to do it.
  • enterthelabyrinth@xanga

    How is that a step in the right direction? They should be emphasizing stopping teen access...not taking away the free choice of willing adults who desire those products. This is yet another attempt on the government's behalf to censor our lives by putting a marketable spin on it.
  • emaciationxisxthexgoal@xanga

    I heard about it last night and it's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of in my life. Kids will smoke whether a cigarette tastes like a certain flavor or not. Hell, my first cigarette was some nasty-ass "lite" cigs that I stole from my aunt. Plus, I kept smoking because I wanted to, not because I was addicted. I periodically quit smoking for lengths of time, mostly in winter because it's too cold to take it outside. I never have problems with withdrawal or cravings, and as someone with a VERY addictive personality I find it strange that just about the only thing I HAVEN'T been addicted to is nicotine.
  • KiLLxeViLm0nzTeRz@xanga

    the flavors really don't matter! it's preference that does! and most people don't prefer these stupid flavors anyway!
  • ShimmerBodyCream@xanga

    @enterthelabyrinth@xanga - seconded.
  • Ulma@xanga

    It's not too late to save some of the next generation. 
  • silent_planeteer@xanga

    No one likes flavored cigarettes. I see a lot of people who don't really smoke but only do to look cool smoke this flavored stuff, they probably experimenting. Isn't the purpose of smoking at times to get rid of the taste of the food we ate?
  • whateverwords@xanga

    Any kid I've ever seen smoking has been smoking a normal cigarette, nothing flavored.
    Actually, I don't think I know anyone who smokes flavored cigararettes, they sound disgusting.
  • blackspiders@xanga

    @QuantumStorm@xanga - I agree!

    I think the FDA has missed the point. anyway. I don't even know a single person who smokes flavored cigarettes.
  • anorexique_xo@xanga

    @frozencherries@xanga - agreed. flavored or not, teens WILL smoke. the FDA blows my mind.
  • soyeahthatswhathappened@xanga

    i hate smoking, but seriously, this is stupid.


    this isn't going to stop teens from smoking. they have a nicotine addiction, not a flavor addiction, and maybe they'll be disappointed for a while about their cigarettes going off the market but it won't stop them from smoking.


    and seriously, taking it away completely? people who are 18 and up have every right to smoke whatever flavor tobacco they want, why should they get it taken away from them just because teens smoke it? are we going to outlaw alcohol too, because so many teens drink illegally? ridiculous.
  • faded_memorii@xanga

    Personally, I think it's silly. Drugs are banned, too, but a lot of kids are hooked on them. So, banning flavored cigarettes just because the FDA hopes that it won't attract more kids seems silly to me. If there was a serious health concern (beyond that of regular cigarettes), I would be more inclined to agree.

    Additionally, I was wondering, are they also going to ban flavored chew? From what I've heard, the flavored chew is what started flavored cigarettes once it did so well. And I have friends who work in areas that sell tobacco products who say that the majority of chew that they sell is flavored.

    And I have at least one friend who talks about flavored cigars. Are those also going to be banned?

    I'm not trying to be smart with these questions, I'm actually curious if anyone knows. :p My friends who sell tobacco products don't know, I've asked! I think, though, that they just sell what they get and if they don't get it they really don't notice, because these friends of mine are not smokers or chewers.
  • Lifebeginsafter30lbs@xanga

    Im underage and I smoke, not flavoured cigarrettes because they taste awful and weak. this is kind of an infringement on peoples rights though, parents need to be better parents, lol im 15 and Im even saying this.
  • Lifebeginsafter30lbs@xanga

    @faded_memorii@xanga - Ban on flavoured cigars... that would mean no more black and milds :(
  • nooitzben@xanga

    should just try hookah..you know the big vases with water in them with pipes? they have flavored tobacco and its not dangerous to your health..even the smoke that comes out smell fruity.
  • bestofRiley@xanga

    @nooitzben@xanga - i can see where you've come to that myth since the nicotine level in hookah is smaller than in cigarettes and that the smoke is being purified by water but this is far from the truth..


    Hookah is just as addicting as cigarettes due to the fact that the flavored tobacco is being smoking from a pipe. Smoking from a pipe, the person is most likely to inhale a higher dose of chemicals.


    im not saying that hookah is just as bad as cigarettes but if you smoke hookah at a friends house or at a bar for, let's say, an hour? it's equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes.


    hookah and cigarettes are equally dangerous to a persons health depending on moderation.
  • TequilaKisses@xanga

    I disagree to most of the comments above. I'm not a smoker and have never smoked anything in my life. But when I read about these flavored cigarettes, I do wanna try them for once.
    So yes, I acquiesce in the ban although I do wish they could have done it sooner.

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