PALM DESERT, Calif. -- Cigarettes can kill and now the Federal Drug Administration is making that graphically clear.

The FDA is forcing cigarette manufacturers to make warning labels bigger and include color images illustrating how deadly so-called "cancer sticks" can be.

Tobacco use is responsible for nearly one in five deaths in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society.

But it also says that smoking is the most preventable cause of death in the world.

So, the question is: will the government's new law on labels curb smoking?

"Nah," said Alex Acevedo, 18, who has smoked cigarettes for more than seven years. "I already know what it does."

Really?

So, a warning label saying cigarettes cause cancer, or that tobacco smoke can harm your children wouldn't force you to think twice about kicking the habit?

"If you do anything in moderation it's fine," said Jack Bruning, co-owner of Palm Desert Tobacco.

How about a photo of a cadaver?

Shots of a toe-tag? Or, smoke billowing from a man's throat?

"When I saw them I thought it was a very very good idea because I think if I would have seen it at a younger age, when I occasionally smoked, I think it probably would have stopped me," said Annette Hamrick, a resident of Palm Desert who smoked in her teens.

Hamrick eventually quit and believes young people will be turned off by the images and think twice about smoking.

"Before, it was all glamorous and you'd see, you know, pretty girls smoking on, you know, the ads," said Hamrick. "I think seeing that is just the reality of what cigarette smoking can do to you."

The FDA unveiled 36 warning labels Wednesday that it may possibly enforce cigarette manufactures to place on cartons.

The labels are required to appear in the upper portion of the front and rear panels of each cigarette package.

They must also comprise at least the top 50 percent of the box.

"My grandfather used to say, 'If God wanted you to smoke, he would have made your nose upside down like a chimney,'" said Dr. Amy Austin. "I mean, people know that it can't be positive to smoke a cigarette."

Bruning agrees with Austin.

"They've done it in Canada for years and years and years," he said. "I don't sell many American cigarettes here, but I sell tons of Canadian cigarettes here to the Canadians that come and visit us. So, it hasn't deterred them."

Austin is a psychotherapist and has practiced in the desert for more than 10 years.

She specializes in addictions.

Austin says addicts have to come to terms with their addiction on their own.

Nicotine dependence provides a physiological need that can't be broken by an image.

Smokers at the beginning of their habit might think twice before taking a puff, but for longtime smokers, Austin said, "They don't care. They absolutely don't care if there is an open chest (or that) they were smoking through a tube in their throat. It wouldn't matter."

"They're a little gross," said Acevedo. "But they show worse stuff in school. "So, no, its not going to be stopping me."

The FDA will accept public comments on the proposed labels until January.

It will then narrow the choices down to nine images in June.

Manufactures will then be required to used those labels on all U.S. cigarettes by Oct. 22, 2012.


http://www.kesq.com/news/25753689/detail.html


So, smoking is BAD !...SHEESH! So is drinking, racing motorcycles, having unprotected sex and eating Big Macs!

Where's th' pictures?

So just one bullet in the head a day should be fine by that logic right? Or maybe a pedophile can just molest one child a year or something. Hey - it's in moderation - it's fine!

anybody with an addiction whether it be smoking, alchohol ,drugs, over eating, ect. will try and jusitfy it no matter what.Its is only when they themselves come to realize its time to stop that they will.
Until then nothing on a pkg. will stop them or deter them.

Maybe it will deter a few from starting. Can't expect much.

I was raised to learsmoking was "cool".
It was even endorsed by cartoons...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJLnPM0BjaQ&feature=related

How stupid. What's next pictures of really fat people on McDonalds Big Mac containers........

They have waged war on the tobacco industry for a long time and they are winning. They have made smokers social outcasts and now they want them to suffer more.

People who smoke really do know what they are doing to their bodies. How could they not?

not entierly true, while a lot of PR work has gone into making smoking not as appealing as it used to be in the States outside your borders its a whole different ball game...over here the non smoking section is your home. any effort to create non smoking sections in public places is mostly to cater to non smoking tourists..

everyone here knows smoking is bad for you, but its still seen as a personal choice with no judgement put on the person who does or doesnt..and smokers take responsiblity for their own health, they dont smoke for 30 years and then expect the tobacco companies to bank roll their health care costs if they get sick.

Yea here they have cigarette vending machines. There is one right outside my building.

They are waging war on the tobacco industry? Poppycock. They are using the tobacco industry to fill coffers. (and yet where they say the money is going is as accurate as claiming LOTTERIES send money to schools - how many school levies have you had to vote on lately).

Taxes on that substance have gone up (in the case of roll-your-own) 2700%... (if they raised taxes on gasoline that way yall would riot).

If you go into a convienance store and purchase something you get 'points' for every purchase EXCEPT tobacco.

There be more to this than you might think.

I really think this is soooooooooooo lame, & out-of-line!!!!!
Our local paper states that the images will cover the entire top
half of a pack of cigarettes....front & back.....
some of the images they are considering are: a man with a
tracheotomy smoking a cig.........a cartoon of a mother blowing
smoke in her babys face..............rotting teeth & gums.........
COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!! Isnt this going a bit TOO FAR???????????

It really irritates the hell out me how they can continue to make
such a specticle of us smokers!!!! I mean.....we cant even smoke in
a damn BAR!!!!!!!! take out alcohol from the bars too then!!!
Why dont they focus alittle more on
alcohol too????? I mean REALLY!!!!!! Tax the hell out of that too,
make the price sky-high, like theyve done to a pack of cigarettes!!!!!!! Its time they lay OFF!!!!! Alcohol isnt
ANY BETTER for us than smoking...yet smokers are the hardest hit! smoking is
OUR CHOICE..........they have no say in whether we do or not! We all
know its not good for our health, but we are making that choice
ourselfs!!!!! (lights a cigarette.......... )besides, i rather
enjoy it!

I was in a hospital once watching a woman smoke a cigarette through a hole in her throat because she had throat cancer from smoking and had to have part of it removed.People are going to smoke no matter what.


I say leave the people alone!Everyone already knows smoking is bad for you and smokers don't give a rats a**.As a welder for over 10 years I have probably inhaled things 100 times worse than cigarette smoke.I inhaled it because I also don't give a rats a**.I could care less if I don't make it to 80.I am going to live my life the way I want to and I don't need a nanny telling me what is good or bad for me.

As Chuck norris said once "Lady if I want to kill myself it's my business"(taking the 6 pack of beer out of the garbage and throwing the fruit and vitamins in the garbage can).

"Everything in moderation" is one of the stupidest ****ing sayings I've ever heard. Its obviously complete nonsense, and yet huge numbers of people treat it like its a sensible guideline for how to live, or a meaningful aphorism, a gem of wisdom. Its isn't. Its completely dumb, and a favored means of rationalizing/justifying our vices.

The idea is that all behaviors are acceptable as long as they aren't 'overdone', right?

Everything? How bout a bit of raping, burning, and pillaging? This was once socially acceptable in some cultures - in moderation! How about I lock up my geriatric neighbors in my basement and torture them to death? I mean - just a few of them. Moderation, remember. Or how about I just start urinating on people on the bus. Not every day, mind you - just a few days a week.


How about this: Nothing to excess. Thats the intelligent form of this 'everything in moderation' BS. Don't do anything excessively. Some things you shouldn't do at all.

ummm...what you just wrote reads like six of one or half dozen of the other..
if I follow your argument, then it would be, dont rape to excess, dont pillage to excess (leave a little for the next group)...

No, not at all!

Everything in moderation is a statement of endorsement of any behavior, provided that the behavior is done in moderation.


"Nothing in excess" leaves unstated whether you should do some things at all.

Maybe you are thinking in terms of "everything is okay as long as nothing is in excess" - which is not what I said.

They have been doing this for years in Canada... Research shows the pictures must change regularly to deter the use of tobacco... Canada fails!



I try and avoid the impotence warning labels on my packs

"Half of all premature deaths among life-long smokers result from tobacco use."

No ****, Einstein.

When my grandmother was young, they used to call them coffin nails. Even back then they knew.

What will happen to the money promise SCHIP from the cigarette tax hike if everyone quit smoking (something that is their choice to do BTW)