247 



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Th« N«tiont1 Institute of Orvig Abuse has called cigarette smoking the most 

 coann exM^lt of drug dependence In the U.S. The NIOA, The World Health 

 Organization, American Psychiatric Association, the Harvard School of 

 Public Health and others have declared tobacco use to be a form of 

 addiction sluilar to cocaine and heroin. 



The econoailc costs to society are also staggeringly high. The Office of 

 Technology Assessment in an August 1985 Staff Memorandum, Smoklnq-Related 

 Deaths and Financial Costs estimated n*«.alth care and lost productivity 

 costs to be S65 billion a year In the United States. 



Because of the lack of regulation of tobacco products due to specific 

 statutory exemptions or failure to meet definitional requirements under 

 the FDCA, the tobacco Industry has remained fmt to continue to 

 manufacture, promote and advertise their products. Each year the tobacco 

 Industry spends over $2 billion dollars to market their products making 

 the number one preventable cause of death also this nation's most heavily 

 marketed consumer product. Free samples of cigarettes and other tobacco 

 products are routinely handed out to people, including young people, on 

 our streets, at rock concerts, at sporting events, and through the malls. 



The Food and Oruq Administration would not allow such practices to be 

 carried out for a prescription drug such as "vallum." Such allowances 

 would amount to the sanctioning and promotion of drug abuse - an absurd 

 notion by any standard. But for numerous reasons, some clearly 

 politically motivated, others historically related, the federal government 

 has turned its back when the product is tobacco. 



