New Justice Department plan to ban the Marlboro Man is
'health facism'
WASHINGTON, DC -- A plan by the Justice Department to outlaw the
Marlboro Man by restricting cigarette advertising to text-only formats;
criminalize all cigarette vending machines; and require half the space
on cigarette packs to be reserved for "graphic" health warnings is
"Nanny State health fascism" at its worst, the Libertarian Party
charged today.
"This plan treats adults like children, and violates the First
Amendment," said Steve Dasbach, the party's executive director."
"In the interest of forcing Americans to make healthier decisions about
smoking, and in an effort to prove it is 'tough' on Big Tobacco, the
Bush administration is running roughshod over civil liberties and the
free market."
This week, the Justice Department revealed that it will ask a federal
judge to impose unprecedented restrictions on tobacco companies'
marketing efforts. Federal bureaucrats want to:
- Prohibit all photographs and color in cigarette advertisements, and
restrict them to text-only, black-and-white formats. Ads would also
have to devote 50% of their space to "graphic" health warnings.
- Ban all cigarette vending machines sales -- even in adult-only
establishments like bars.
- Require cigarette packages to carry health-warning inserts.
- Forbid any tobacco product from being labeled "light" or "mild."
- Require half the space on every package of cigarettes to be reserved
for "graphic" health warnings "created and supervised" by government
bureaucrats.
The plan is an escalation of the federal government's War on Tobacco,
and would be imposed in conjunction with an ongoing lawsuit against the
major tobacco companies. The lawsuit accuses the companies of fraud and
racketeering by concealing the health risks of tobacco.
But the War on Tobacco -- and the proposed new restrictions on tobacco
advertising -- rest on the assumption that American adults are too
stupid to know that smoking is dangerous, said Dasbach.
"Puritanical politicians and busy-body bureaucrats seem to think they
are the parents of a nation of not-too-bright children," he said. "Of
course cigarettes are dangerous -- and every adult American has known
that for more than 30 years. But it should be up to individuals to
weigh the risks of smoking. We don't need the federal government to nag
us about our bad habits."
And the ban on advertising is a "free speech issue, plain and simple,"
said Dasbach.
"Even if you don't like what tobacco companies advertise, we shouldn't
give the government the power to ban a whole class of advertising,
simply because it disapproves of the legal product being advertised,"
he said. "The damage to the First Amendment by this kind of Nanny State
health fascism will be far greater than any damage to the Marlboro
Man."
For all these reasons, even people who don't smoke should oppose this
new Justice Department plan, said Dasbach.
"If bureaucrats get away with this, your bad habit will be next," he
warned. "Whether you like alcohol, dangerous activities like
motorcycling or hang-gliding, or eating fatty foods, your right to
choose will go up in smoke, too.
"Once the government has the power to regulate personal habits in the
name of public health, it's only a matter of time until you become
their next target."
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