Now, lets roll forward from 1959 to 2009.  Fifty years of trying to eliminate this deadly product.  A couple of months ago (Sept. 2009) clove cigarettes were banned for sale in the United States because they are “flavored cigarettes.”  It took only seven days for these Indonesian-produced products to re-create themselves and make it back to the market as “flavored cigars.”  Cigars were exempt from the law.  And the clove-cigars, they smoke and look just like their cigarette counterparts, except the paper is now made from tobacco-leaf. (Clove cigarettes amount to less than 1% of cigarette sales in the United States.)

It seems to me if Clove cigarettes (usually made of 80% tobacco and 20% cloves) were considered “flavored,” why wasn't menthol included in the ban?  Menthol is a flavor added to tobacco.  This is nothing less than a form of treason by our lawmakers upon the American people, who elected them to do the right thing. Do you think there was influence-peddling done between Washington and the tobacco producers??

And, even, in the case of the banned cloves, I find it shocking-at-best to realize stocks of Indonesian clove cigars had already been stockpiled awaiting the law to take effect.  These cigarette companies were ready with valid-product to make the change.

These companies are always 10-steps ahead of the people sworn to protect us.  Cigarette companies are no better than criminal-thugs, and those that accept their “influence,” are treasonists against the American people.  Their accepted-influences are aimed at killing people.

So, you say to yourself, “well they're not as easily available and certainly out of the reach of children and young people!”  You think so?  You can't imagine how shocked I was yesterday to stop by our local liquor store, and upon paying noticed a box on the counter with what looked like little packages of assorted candies in it, all, individually packaged.  

I asked the girl, “what are these?”  She said, “oh, those are free samples of new tobacco products from Camel, but, hardly anyone takes any.”  “Free samples?”  I said, “can I have some?”  “Help yourself, take as many as you want!”  And, I did take a big handfull.  I wanted to take them home and look at them.  And, although, I finally freed myself from tobacco addiction on August 30, 2009, I wanted to check these product out.  I wanted to see and taste what new goodies Capt. Hook has brought into our lives, and, into our children's lives.

(photo via tobaccoproducts.org)