Judge Declares New Cigarette Warnings Unconstitutional

FDA Plan Would Require Graphic Images On Packs
BY WILLIAM WEIR, bweir@courant.com
The Hartford Courant
4:37 PM EST, November 7, 2011
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's plan to require large, graphic warnings on all cigarette packages suffered a blow Monday when a federal judge declared the mandate unconstitutional.
In June the FDA unveiled the nine images that would grace all cigarette packs by September next year, including a pair of lungs ravaged by tobacco and a man with a cigarette in his hand and smoke billowing out of a hole in his throat. The images were paired with text messages — "Cigarettes cause cancer" and "Smoking can kill you" among them.
But U.S. District Judge Richard Leon Monday declared that the requirement would violate tobacco companies' First Amendment rights. Here's the full story from Reuters: http://reut.rs/rPYVCF.
In June, we discussed the new warnings with Bryte Johnson of the state chapter of the American Cancer Society, who thought the images would go a long way to deterring new smokers. In Connecticut 4,700 people take up smoking every year. Here's the full story: http://bit.ly/uX4dsR.
Copyright © 2011, The Hartford Courant