Is Tobacco Candy a Good Idea?
Posted by Danielle Bean in News on Monday, April 26, 2010 10:00 AM
Here’s a New York Times story that made me do a double take this weekend:
Flavored Tobacco Pellets Are Denounced as Lure to Young Users:
R. J. Reynolds Tobacco, the nation’s second-largest cigarette maker behind Philip Morris, is test marketing the product, Camel Orbs, along with other dissolvable tobacco products, in three cities. It is part of a broad industry trend to create smokeless products in response to declining cigarette use and the rise of smoke-free air laws.
The study says Orbs, pellets made of finely ground tobacco with mint or cinnamon flavoring, are packed with nicotine and can poison children and lure young people to start using tobacco. The pellets dissolve in the mouth, like breath mints.
These do look like candy. And apparently taste like mints. Sounds like a pretty terrible idea.
Almost as bad an idea as those candy cigarettes we enjoyed as kids years ago. Remember those? Tell me I’m not the only one who remembers those crazy things.
I am interested in hearing others’ opinions of these “tobacco pellets.” Personally, I am not buying the tobacco industry’s claim that “Virtually every household has products that could be hazardous to children, like cleaning supplies, medicines, health and beauty products, and you compare that to 20 to 25 percent of households that use tobacco products.”
Really? And are these hazardous household cleaners in every household packaged and flavored like candy? Do adults carry them around and ingest them in front of children?
And don’t get me started about the potential for older children to abuse them on purpose. It would be very easy to hide this kind of nicotine “buzz” delivery system from parents and teachers.
Am I way off track here? Am I squelching legitimate business innovation and compromising other people’s rights to enjoy a variety of tobacco products? Because I think these “candies” should not be manufactured. Period.
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