The American Cigarette Will Be Shocking

As of next year, cigarette manufacturers in the U.S. will be forced to sells packs with horrific pictures plastered on them, designed to discourage smoking.

A smoker after a tracheotomy, who is blowing smoke through the hole in his neck; a smoker after a stroke, who needs to use an oxygen mask; a dead smoker with his chest sewn shut.

These images and six others will be forcibly seen by anyone in the U.S. reaching for a cigarette next year. These images will take up half of each side of the package and 20 percent of every cigarette advertisement.

The Food and Drug Administration hopes that by 2013, the macabre images will drive down the number of smokers by 213,000 people. “We want kids to understand that smoking is gross — not cool,” explained Maragaret Hamburg, the commissioner of the FDA, in the Washington Post.

In terms of actual numbers, the campaign is projected to save the government several hundred million dollars annually, between $221 and $630 million. These savings will come as a result of decline in the incidents of lung cancer and other respiratory diseases.

Various tobacco companies are threatening the U.S. with lawsuits. They contend that the campaign interferes with their right to free speech and property rights because the images push their logos off of their products, demonize cigarette manufacturers and unfairly label cigarette smokers.

These manufacturers could also challenge the FDA’s cost saving theory, just like Phillip Morris did 10 years ago in the Czech Republic. When the Czech government reached the conclusion that treating smokers is a strain on the budget and considered constraining tobacco advertising, the world’s largest cigarette manufacturer hired a consulting firm, which proved the opposite of what the government said. The more the Czechs smoked, the more the government saved on retirement pensions, unused health benefits, housing and elderly care.

This detailed report concluded that the Czech government actually made money off of smokers, taking into account the aforementioned savings plus the cigarette taxes collected. In total, they calculated that the government made $147 million annually.

In the case of the United States, these savings would undoubtedly be much greater. However, the storm created by that report effectively ended any such research afterward — at least publicly.

“(The Czech) report is powerful evidence that the kinder, gentler Philip Morris depicted in the company’s U.S. ads is just a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Matthew Myers, the president of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, commented. “The time has come to end the glorification of tobacco use for profit,” he said.

The tobacco industry has had to deal with this kind of problem since 1966, when it became mandatory to attach discrete warnings about the risks of smoking to cigarette packs. From that time, the percent of Americans smoking decreased from 42 percent to 20 percent, where the decline has come to a screeching halt. Estimates put the number of American tobacco related deaths at 443,000 annually.

In February, Michelle Obama announced that her husband, after 30 years, had quit smoking. The president, however, has remained silent on the issue. Some suspect that he still smokes, hiding his habit from his wife and the rest of the country.