TOO DANGEROUS

No rational person thinks Congress ever intended the Food and Drug
Administration to regulate tobacco as a drug; Congress is too much under
the tobacco industry's brown-stained thumb for that. But nicotine, the most
addictive ingredient in cigarettes, arguably fits the agency's definition
of a drug, and the FDA asserted its power to regulate after it became clear
that the industry was tailoring its products to deliver specific doses of
nicotine.

The FDA's position found little favor with the Supreme Court this week. In
fact, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor suggested that, if the agency did have
jurisdiction over tobacco, it would have to be banned because - however
effective nicotine might be as, say, an appetite suppressant - tobacco is
patently unsafe.

In other words, the FDA can't regulate tobacco because the stuff is just
too deadly. Catch-22, anyone?