Lord, make me chaste but not yet

The Feds' macabre dance of death with Big Tobacco continues:

In a dramatic bid to get more Americans to quit smoking, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday released nine graphic warning labels that will appear on all packs of cigarettes by no later than September 2012.

One image shows a man's face and a lighted cigarette in his hand, with smoke escaping from a hole in his neck -- the result of a tracheotomy. The caption reads "Cigarettes are addictive." Another image shows a mother holding a baby as smoke swirls about them, with the warning: "Tobacco smoke can harm your children."

A third images depicts a distraught woman with the caption: "Warning: Smoking causes fatal lung disease in nonsmokers."

A fourth picture shows a mouth with smoked-stained teeth and an open sore on the lower lip. "Cigarettes cause cancer," the caption reads.

In addition to the images, the label on packs of cigarettes will include a phone number -- 1-800-QUIT-NOW -- so smokers will know where to go for help quitting.

By law, the labels must appear on every pack of cigarettes sold in the United States and on all cartons and in all cigarette advertising. The campaign marks the first major change to cigarette packaging in the last 25 years, the FDA said.

Cigarettes... looks like pretty horrible stuff. Maybe the government should ban it outright. Probably would were it not for the billions and billions of dollars that flow into the government coffers from the tobacco industry via taxation. Seriously... who would want to deny worthy programs like SCHIP and other childrens' programs from the necessary funding that it would take to see after potential future smokers so we can keep this whole thing going?



As Augustine, pleaded: Some day, just not this day.