The past year has witnessed a remarkable change in Washington’s interest in protecting our nation’s children from tobacco. The Food and Drug Administration, the state attorneys general, President Clinton and various congressional committees have all broken new ground.
And for good reason. Thousands of children fall prey to tobacco addiction each day while the tobacco industry ever more aggressively markets toward youth. The pressure for action also comes from the blunt facts that show our nation has been unable to deal with the epidemic of youth smoking despite decades of attacks on tobacco.
If Congress and the president fail to make passage of a tobacco-control policy a reality in 1998, the ramifications could be dramatic. Not only will more and more young lives be threatened by tobacco, not only will the industry be emboldened by avoiding the first real attempt to control tobacco, but the nation’s leaders will have failed to address one of the most compelling issues on the minds of voters.
