To the Editor:
After reading Sean Quigley's '10 column on the banning of clove-flavored cigarettes ("R.I.P. cloves," Oct. 13), I found myself sitting on the fence as to whether he was actually taking the banning seriously or if the write-up was some sort of elaborate joke. He seems to wander in a fuss between mourning the loss of flavored cigarettes to "progressive busybodies" who decided to bring about the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, and overcomplicated and unjustified jabs at liberalism and some sort of correlation between the "traditional family" and loving liberty, tying the entire tirade together with a tinfoil-hat theory that the government under Obama is seeking to be a replacement for those ever-cited, never-found "family values."
Somehow, all of these are tied to an FDA ruling that will only serve to weaken our nation's dependence on the tobacco industry, which, if not for its stranglehold on a significant portion of our country's GDP, would have been banned long ago.
I understand that Quigley feels like his "family values" and liberty are under fire, but cigarettes are far from a liberty to be respected, regardless of who introduced the habit into his life. They are unnecessary, an addiction and a tradition that only serves to further wound this nation's deteriorating overall health, which the Obama administration actually acknowledges and is taking action on, for a change.
If Quigley had done even a little digging, he would see that the measure was meant to reduce cigarettes' appeal to younger consumers, something essential to loosening the industry's vice-grip on American culture, and the first step in the process of removing tobacco from America's list of self-inflicted wounds.
In summation, just because Big Brother is being responsible and of right mind in the American consumer's stead doesn't mean we're losing our liberty; rather, we're healthier for it — at least those of us who lean on the legal side of the market. Even if flavored cigarettes are out of the commercial side of things, there still is demand for them. In reality, this ban will most likely transfer a fraction of flavoreds to the black market — with hiked prices. Still, this will do what the FDA intends: make the items in question more difficult for younger buyers to obtain.
But for you out there who still have an itch, don't worry. I'm sure there's a provider out there willing to scratch it. This is Brown, anyhow.
Nick Morley '13
Oct. 15
