President Obama Invokes Own Struggle With Cigarettes as He Signs Tobacco Bill

I had no idea that our President battled with cigarretes.

Hopefully for his heath he will be able to kick the habit.

mmm i think i'm gonna have a cigarette right now, they are so tastey.

what is weed tobacco????????

"...he would quit the vile weed tobacco"

I'm not sure about everyone else but, the reason I started smoking was because my parents did and I could easily steal cigarettes from them without any notice and I can remember most of my friends doing the same. As for flavoured tobacco product, I can't think of anyone in the group of smokers at my school (and there were a fair few) who smoked flavoured cigarettes. We all just bought which ever was cheapest. In my opinion as a smoker I would love to stop the habit and would love to see the sale of tobacco completely banned. I know people think it should be up to them to smoke or not but, at the end of the day it is an addiction that kills just like any other drug that is banned

I agree that the media contributes greatly to the amount of people smoking cigarettes. I mean, they make a ton of money! However, I don't necessarily agree that banning flavored cigarettes is the solution. People should be free to do what they want, and I even think that increasing the tax on tobacco would be a better idea.

I am a long time smoker of imported clove cigarettes. It is an outrage that the price has doubled in the past 2 years for them, but to ban them is ridiculous! This makes Phillip Morris and RJ Reynolds have complete control over the industry. Hope the government is happy. I refuse to smoke Marlboro or Camel and help support the lobbyists who helped get this bill passed.

Somebody should have an online Photoshop contest: Create a photo of Obama smoking cigarettes.

The winner gets to watch Obama smoke a cigarette.

Smoking is bad for the environment, and bad people. Its ignorant to say that the government shouldnt protect the environment or the majority of its people with the argument being that we dont HAVE to deal with it. But we do
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Javon,

We allow people to drink alcohol too. That results in killing 10 Times the number of US soldiers fromt the entire Iraq War each year!

Smokers result in 5 to ten times that number of deaths deppending on various studies.

Guess what, the government gets HUGE $$$ from the usage of these substances. They are not going to make them illegal. Tried that once...didnt work!

Here is the face of liberal idiocy on full display!

Obama claims that 1000 kids a day are being "recruited". Well, after all....HE is the one who signed SCHIP! Therefore HE is the one recruiting them to pay for the SCHIP program!

Smoking is bad for the environment, and bad people. Its ignorant to say that the government shouldnt protect the environment or the majority of its people with the argument being that we dont HAVE to deal with it. But we do

I'm still curious as to why we've never seen a picture of Obama smoking, other than those goofy college pictures. If he's a smoker, one would assume that all through the campaign he had to stand outside and smoke -- while surrounded by a hundred photographers and camera men.

And not one picture was taken?

If John McCain, Sarah Palin or Hillary Clinton had smoked a cigarette in front of cameras, you can be sure that that photo would have been shoved down our throats constantly prior to the election.

Skip: "Oh baloney. I told you I wasn't in favor of making them illegal."

You've already argued that raising taxes decreases smoking rates. If tobacco is inaccessible due to excessively high taxes, they may as well be illegal to those that can't afford them. Again, that's not the place of the government in a free society.

Skip: "I just think it's perfectly fair to make smokers pay to compensate for all the damage they do by exercising their right to do something so detrimental."

Damage to whom? Themselves. No one is forced to be around smokers. That's an individual choice.

It's even less of an issue in states that have passed public smoking bans which I also disagree with. Certain businesses and private clubs should have the right to allow smoking if they choose. Workers aren't forced to work there and people aren't forced to congregate their.

If your addiction to cigarettes makes you so irresponsible that you are willing to miss eating in order to afford them then or you need clinical help. Its not fair that people who want to be healthy are forced to deal with the consequences of nicotine addicts. Second-hand smoke is worse than first-hand. So if your gonna make the general public suffer, the least you can do is pay a tax for it. Dont ban it, make them pay

Danita, Obama would never think "god" was talking to him, remember, he is the Messiah himself!

Once again, it's all about him.

@Ami : What would you consider to be "hard hitting criticism of Obama"?

Obama to teenagers: "Don't do what I say, do what I do...smoke cigarettes."

cigarettes = good?
pot = bad?
creationism in schools = good?
abortion = bad?

'freedoms' seem to be a pretty damn selective point of view........ it's the never ending 'don't tell me what to and how to live".... but I'll tell you.

if a 'terrorist' group killed as many americans per year as tobacco..... we would demand an immediate invasion and launch a war against them.....

just another example of how the US is still run by corporations....

It's funny isn't it? We cannot seem to find any hard hitting criticism of Obama so we have to resort to this.