Save Our Snus! FDA Comment Period Extended

FDA has extended the time for public comment on the sale and advertising of tobacco products via the Internet, smart phones and other non-face to face methods.  Today, I’m on my soap box calling for your attention and action while there is still time.

ACT NOW and tell FDA it is your right to be able to legally purchase tobacco products like our friend Swedish Snus, over the Internet just like any other legal product.

Age Verification of non-face-to-face tobacco purchasers and Signature Required delivery are and have been the law of land since the PACT Act and Tobacco Control Act went into effect. “The children” are protected the same or better than those purchasing wine or other alcoholic beverages remotely.

FDA needs to understand that killing nicotine alternatives to cigarettes which ARE effective and up to 99% safer for smokers is bad public health policy and and just plain bad public policy, period.

– Tell FDA to pay attention to the FACTS concerning nicotine alternatives to cigarettes instead of the bumper sticker rhetoric of the Anti All Tobacco Extremists.

– Tell FDA to finally put the rights and health of American legal tobacco users above the lobbying and profits of Big Pharma.

– Tell FDA to stop hiding the facts inconvenient to their anti-all-tobacco zealotry and recognize that informing the adult public; not spewing propaganda tailored to their personal opinions, is part of FDA’s mission and responsibility.

FDA’s anti-all tobacco/anti-snus extremism will cause millions of American smokers to die before their time and cost our already overburdened health system trillions of dollars unnecessarily. Stand up for your rights as a legal adult tobacco user and tell FDA to stop trying to limit your purchasing options and range of available products.

Here is the official FDA announcement from last week:

The FDA is extending the comment period until January 19, 2012, for an Advance Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (ANPRM) that was published in the Federal Register of September 9, 2011 . In that document, FDA requested comments, data, research, or other information related to non-face-to-face sale and distribution of tobacco products; the advertising, promotion, and marketing of such products; and the advertising of tobacco products via the Internet, email, direct mail, telephone, smart phones, and other communication technologies that can be directed to specific recipients.

The Agency is extending the comment period in response to a request to give interested parties additional time to comment. Electronic or written comments should be submitted by January 19, 2012. Check out a complete list of Public Dockets for Comment. This link also lists information on submitting comments through the Federal Register on a number of specific issues related to implementation of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act).

For resources on legal, regulatory, and policy issues related to tobacco products, visit FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products Guidance, Compliance & Regulatory Information web page.

If you don’t fight for your rights in the War Against ALL Tobacco, who will?  If you enjoy having the freedom to choose from over 150 wonderful and different products (in the case of snus) instead of the dozen or so over-priced over-the-counter Big American Tobacco psuedo-snus offerings, you had better join in the battle.

If you don’t want to see nicotine banned and tobacco possession a crime, now is the time to stop it from happening.

If good former smokers like ourselves do nothing, then the anti-all-tobacco extremists win…..and the 45MM nicotine dependent US smokers lose most of all.

Wearing my General Bullet Proof Edition Snus Can over my heart*,

LARRY WATERS
Reporting from the front lines on the War Against Tobacco

* Disclaimer:  Swedish Match has made it very clear that General Bullet Proof should not be used in place of body armor.  The can does stop a bullet but I understand Swedish Match’s position and hold them harmless if I am killed by an Anti-Snus Terrorist.  I’m invoking literary symbolism; not practicality in this case.