The American legislative process, I believe, can be better understood as a positive force than a negative one. By that I mean, when we judge a piece of legislation as citizens, we should be as or more concerned with what that bill actually does to change our society than with what it fails to do. With this in mind, I propose to focus on the positive (productive) changes established by HR 1256, or the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, of which there are several.

To begin, the Act deals explicitly with the rights of manufacturers of tobacco products, as opposed to tobacco producers, or farmers, thereby bringing all major cigarette corporations in America under the federal regulation of the FDA. It is important that the regulations only apply to manufacturers; revocation of the freedom to farm a crop, particularly one which has so drastically contributed to the growth of this country, would be an appalling abuse of power by the federal government, thoroughly un-American, and a slap in the face to the 45 million Americans who freely choose to smoke. Prohibition, as we should all know by now, is not the answer—and luckily, this Act does not seek to prohibit tobacco.

The Act’s main goal is to dramatically limit the ability of such manufacturers to add harmful foreign substances to their tobacco products—substances other than tobacco, nicotine and tar, all of which will be found in an organic tobacco product. According to this BBC article, any of at least 600 foreign substances and chemicals may be present in various commercial cigarette brands. The offshoot is that by regulating and prohibiting non-additive-free tobacco products, many of the negative health effects associated with smoking can be avoided altogether. In fact, I would wager, without having any supporting evidence on hand, that the majority of tobacco-related ailments in the non-senior population are caused by foreign additives in manufactured tobacco products. Smoking tobacco has been around for centuries and I guarantee that it provides no real threat to the fabric of society. But the nefarious practice of adding foreign chemicals to tobacco, without so much as labeling the product, is less than a century old. THIS practice does pose a serious threat to society’s health, as the health repercussions of such chemically treated smoking sticks are far worse, far more serious. The chemical additives present in cigarettes are to my mind the main culprit.

As an added bonus, the legislation actively denies tobacco companies old and new the use of misleading marketing tactics directly aimed at the recruitment of young (adolescent) smokers. If used to its maximum potential, HR 1256 will dramatically improve the health of stubborn cigarette smokers, saving billions in healthcare costs in the process, simply by substantially limiting the tobacco industry’s right to lie. That the bill fails to out-rightly prohibit tobacco production, manufacture and use is no failing point; rather, it is a victory for both American freedom and bipartisan compromise. As you can see, I generally support the measures taken in HR 1256…