Legal Issues

Court Case B  

There are numerous documents developed within the tobacco industry dating as far back as 1962 that indicate nicotine as being addictive. In fact, on August 15, 1997 Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal forced tobacco companies to release formerly confidential documents that provide evidence of fraud and conspiracy on the part of big tobacco.

Food and Drug Administration v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. A Possible Misleading

On March 21, 2000, the Supreme Court of the United States delivered their ruling regarding the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulating tobacco products. Since 1996, the FDA asserted jurisdiction to regulate tobacco products, after concluding that nicotine was a drug, in the meaning of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA). The definition for drug was a substance that "affects the structure or any function of the body." Nicotine, being an addictive drug, was without question a drug by that definition. The FDA concluded with field research that most smokers begin their habit before reaching the age of 18, and started to propagate regulations with the intent of decreasing tobacco consumption among children and adolescents. This, according to the FDA, was the best way to curb the number of people in future generations to be stricken with disease and death attributable to smoking.

The Supreme Court ruled that the FDA cannot regulate tobacco products because it meant that the FDA was exercising authority that Congress had not explicitly given to them. Generally, agencies are allowed some interpretive freedom in there area of administration; however, the Supreme Court felt that Congress had clearly precluded the FDA from regulation of tobacco products.

Even the Supreme Court acknowledged that the FDA has amply demonstrated how harmful smoking can be to a person's health, but they stated that, "no matter how important, conspicuous, and controversial of the issue, and regardless of how likely the public is to hold the Executive Branch politically accountable, an administrative agency's power to regulate in the public interest must always be grounded in a valid grant of authority from Congress." This means that Congress needs to give an official "okay" for the FDA to regulate tobacco products, which Congress has not given yet.

It is imperative that tobacco be regulated by a reliable agency such as the FDA to help fight the problem of tobacco, which affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide.