Graphic Cigarette Warning Labels Are Constitutional, U.S. Court Rules

Graphic Cigarette Warning Labels Are Constitutional, U.S. Court Rules

Cigarettes contain over 4000 toxic chemical products, including thirty one chemicals that are very harmful and dangerous to the smoker as well as bystander’s health. Smoking cigarettes will gradually affect the lungs as well as other organ systems. Smoking may cause cancer as well as heart disease and yet millions of people worldwide smoke cigarettes and thousands more pick up the habit daily. The FDA proposed the placement of graphic images in an effort to deter current and future smokers. The tobacco companies, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Lorillard Tobacco Co. strongly opposed this idea and filed suit against the FDA claiming that it would be a violation of their right to free speech. I believe that cigarettes are bad, as many Americans do, however I do not think placing pictures of dead bodies and rotting lungs on cigarette packaging is the right way to deal with the problem.

On March 19, 2012 a federal appeals court ruled that the warnings on cigarette labels were not a violation of the first amendment rights of the cigarette companies. Cigarette makers had unsuccessfully sued the Food and Drug Administration in an effort to eliminate the new labeling and advertising requirements. Cigarette makers feel that the new restrictions on packaging interfere with their right to communicate with adult consumers. I hate to say this, but I am actually on the side of the tobacco companies. I know that their product is deadly, but I do not really want to be reminded of this daily through the new proposed packaging and advertising.

We live in the age of information. Those that smoke are well aware of the harmful effects of cigarette smoking. They do not continue smoking because they are unaware of the potential health risks, but rather because they are addicted to the product and cannot kick the habit. Rather than forcing the cigarette companies to alter their packaging and advertising campaigns, I believe the tobacco companies should be made to provide assistance to those tobacco consumers wishing to quit smoking. I feel as though this would be a much more practical way to spend advertising dollars. Rather than showing people the harmful effects of cigarette smoking, of which most are well aware of, we should focus on promoting different outlets available for current smokers interested in quitting as well as deterring juveniles who may be curious about smoking. I feel as though this tactic of using gruesome images may have worked 50 years ago when the effects of cigarette smoking were not as well-known as they are today. Perhaps if people had known how deadly this habit was from the beginning cigarettes would have never become so popular.

When the law was passed in 2009 Congress asked that the Food and Drug Administration come up with specific regulations as to the size and color of the warning