Congress could and should take hold of tobacco products with new legislation, but that is not likely to happen as long as U.S. Rep. Thomas J. Bliley, R 7th District, is chairman of the House Commerce Committee. Bliley has blocked regulation of the tobacco industry in the past, and he has defended Philip Morris on Capitol Hill as a creator of jobs for Virginians who live in his district. Gov. Jim Gilmore, a Republican to whom Bliley serves as political mentor, has taken the same provincial approach, preferring to defend the company rather than give sufficient emphasis to public health issues. Gilmore and Bliley jump on the bandwagon with everyone else when the debate turns to the issue of underage smoking. Nobody, including the public relations staff at Philip Morris, claims to favor selling cigarettes to anyone under the age of 18.
Hunt thinks that is malarkey.
In his Wall Street Journal column, he says Philip Morris officials know that almost 90 percent of the smokers start in their teens. Their rhetoric notwithstanding, they don t want the FDA to stop their clever entrapment of kids.