Smoking In America

Even before the founding of our nation, there were certain things that were an integral part of our society. One of these was the tobacco plant. Hundreds of years before Europeans set foot on what is now our country; Native Americans who were indigenous of this land grew this plant. For hundreds of years it was a vital part of their society. Native Americans cultivated tobacco in North America before the first English settlers arrived in Jamestown in 1607(smokingsides.com). The Indians believed that native tobacco had both religious and medicinal importance. Its use, for example, had great ritual significance for the Indians in the Chesapeake region. Native Americans often smoked tobacco in a pipe to cement a peace accord (smokingsides.com).

When Europeans arrived in the Americas, nothing changed. In 1612 John Rolfe, an Englishman sent with the Virginia Company, found that tobacco would grow well in Virginia and sell profitably in England (Glantz 71). This was wonderful news considering that many of the Jamestown colonists had died or suffered miserably as their farming efforts had been relatively unsuccessful. Throughout Virginia and the greater Chesapeake, the potential cash value of tobacco soon captivated the imaginations of the colonists. They began to plant it in every available clearing, from fields to the forts and streets of Jamestown, and eventually to much of Tidewater Virginia. Dominating the Virginia economy after 1622, tobacco remained the staple of the Chesapeake colonies, and its phenomenal rise is one of the most remarkable aspects of our colonial history (Glantz 73).

Some colonial aristocrats in both Britain and the American colonies believed that tobacco smoking was evil and hazardous to the health. This had little effect in halting the spread of the practice. By the eve of the Revolutionary War, tobacco had become the leading cash crop produced by all the colonies, North and South. Exports rose to over 100 million pounds a year, constituting half of all colonial export trade with Britain.

Since Rolfe introduced the plant in 1613 the leaf has assumed major social, industrial, economic and medical implications. Consequently, persons concerned with tobacco on a commercial or personal basis have been subject to a variety of different regulations over the past 360 years (Kranz 27).

Tobacco has been attacked by social observers and medical authorities for the damage it has allegedly done, to the social and physical condition of people. Yet it has also provided a substantial source of revenue to the state and Federal governments of the United States.

Much like alcohol, tobacco has long been subject to regulatory controls over the quantity and quality of production. On the other hand, laws affecting tobacco have been far fewer-and weaker-than those aimed at alcohol. In fact, there has never been a time when tobacco was prohibited throughout the United States although consumption under certain circumstances has been forbidden at various times in different jurisdictions.

Tobacco-associated today with smoking of cigarettes, and to a lesser extent, of pipes and cigars-has been popular at times for both snuffing and chewing. Indeed, until about 1870 cigarettes were relatively rare in the United States, and almost all tobacco consumed domestically was chewed during the mid-19th century (Bender 33).

What ever the preferred mode of consumption, tobacco has always been the subject of debate respecting the appropriate governmental attitude. On the one hand, supporters of the leaf stress its social benefits and its economic and industrial significance. Some enthusiasts even endorse its alleged medical and psychological benefits. Opposed are those who cite the health hazards of smoking and others who are convinced of its immorality.

The motivation for regulation has come from both sides of the controversy. Most restrictions were fostered by the groups against smoking in an effort to suppress the habit. Those who seek to institutionalize and foster use of the plant focus on the regulation of the quantity and quality of production.

The effect of smoking on health has been the subject of discussion for hundreds of years. Early participants in the tobacco controversy, beginning in the late 16th century, did not associate the use of tobacco with the production of cancers although they credited it with causing or curing nearly every other known disease.

In 1939, the first scientific study linking lung cancer with smoking was published. Between 1950 and 1954, 14 more studies associating cigarettes and serious diseases were completed (Balkin 52).

At the present time, there is no government agency with clear jurisdiction over the health aspects of cigarettes. The Federal Trade Commission can act on matters of advertising and package information. The Food and Drug Administration concerns itself only with foods, drugs, solids, or liquids that are eaten or drunk. Tobacco is neither a food nor a drug under current legal definitions. Nor are cigarettes eaten or drunk; they are inhaled.

In the 1890 edition of the U.S. "Pharmacopoeia", an official listing of drugs published by the government, included tobacco (Balkin 57). In later editions, tobacco was dropped. Former senator Maurine Neuberger has claimed that the removal of tobacco from the list was the price paid to get support of tobacco-state legislators for the Food and Drug Act of 1906. The leaf was thereby removed from the jurisdiction of the FDA (Leone 44).

The first statement from the "Public Health Service" on the subject was made by its Surgeon General, Leroy F. Burney, M.D., in the Journal of the American Medical Association (the A.M.A) in November, 1959 (Pietrusza 63). The heart of this statement was that "the weight of evidence at present implicates smoking as the principal factor in the increased incidence of lung cancer".

In June, 1961 the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the National Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease Association jointly requested that a commission be appointed "to consider the responsibilities of government, of business and of voluntary agencies relative to the health hazards of cigarette smoking and to recommend a solution of this health problem that would protect the public and would interfere least with the freedom of industry and the happiness of individuals"(Glantz 282).

On June 7, 1962, Surgeon General, Dr. Luther Terry, announced, with the approval of the President, that he was establishing an "expert committee to undertake a comprehensive review of all data on smoking and health (Glantz 285)."

The members of this committee were respected scientists who had previously expressed no opinion about the relationship of tobacco to health. All members were approved for appointment

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