Lurid photos FDA overkill
Sun Sentinel
I applaud the tobacco companies’ lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration for infringement of free speech, caused by government-mandated lurid and graphic pictures to be placed as part of cigarette packaging. Once again, a regulatory agency has overstepped its bounds with little thought and with great hypocrisy in its quest to control a society that never elected it to office.
Under First Amendment freedoms, the government, through the courts, has said it is unlawful to prevent the depiction of our flag from being defecated upon in a public forum, for the public can simply not view it. It is unlawful to prevent screaming, chanting demonstrators from stating their message using a grieving congregation as their theater, for the public is not forced to view it.
However, when it comes to cigarette packaging, the FDA wants to force a legal enterprise to do its bidding through pictures of diseased lungs, blackened gums and tarnished teeth in an effort to discourage smoking. Only this time, the packager and the buyer of the product have no say.
Tobacco companies sell a product that is lawful and appealing to a segment of society. Tobacco companies pay fees, employ people who pay taxes and contribute to a community. Imposing packaging requirements is a free-speech issue and should be left to the companies as to whether they want government-sanctioned depictions on their product.
