Flavorful Or Not?

. “Cigarette Ban With a Loophole .” New York Times. New York Times, 23 September 2009. Web. 23 September 2009<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/opinion/24thu2.html>.

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The Food and Drug Administration was granted the right to control and regulate tobacco sells back in June of 2009. The United States as a whole is trying to lower to number of under aged children that get drug into the cigarette world. This following week the FDA passed a law that banned any cigarettes with candy, fruit or any other taste to be sold in stores. The United States believes that sweet tasting candy like cigarettes are targeting young teenagers. The only problem within this new law is that the definition of what a cigarette is not defined. The cigarette companies that promote flavorful cigarettes are losing their best consumers, which are young teenagers. The fact that the law does not clearly state what a cigarette is allows these cigarette companies to promise flavorful cigars. I believe that this law needs to be rewritten with clear definitions. From what the author has written I think that he is trying to make it clear that cigarettes are not for children and cigarette companies need to change their advertising. I believe that the author is a strong promoter of this law. The author believes that this law needs to more clearly so that cigarette companies cannot even sell flavorful cigars either.

I have a strong option to this topic. I am a believer in this law because in my eyes these companies know what they are doing when they create flavorful cigars or cigarettes. I believe that the smoking age is already too low. Eighteen years old is pretty young already, companies are always trying to promote to the ones under the legal age limit. It is human nature for a young teenager to like things with flavor and in most cases old people do not want to smoke on something fruity. This article challenges me to think about a lot of things though. I want to know the ratio of young teens who smoke non flavorful to flavorful cigarettes. Of course the flavorful cigarettes are going to be higher but how much higher? Does flavor honestly have anything to do with these children smoking? In my eyes I see any teenager just trying to fit it with someone who is smoking. So this article challenges me to think about a few questions. Is it really the flavorful ones attracting teens or it is younger kids wanting to just be cool with the older kids? I would like to know the percentages of young teenagers who still smoke cigarettes even without the flavorful ones available. So in conclusion, I will support this law if it is rewritten with clear and specific definitions.