Name: Anonymous 2006-03-31 1:18
Pharmaceutical companies are required to conduct tests and clinical trials that last for decades in order to ensure the effectiveness and safety of a new drug. If a new drug is known to cause medical problems in a small subset of the population, the drug is pulled within days (Vioxx, etc). However, cigarette companies routinely pump out millions of cigarettes and sell them to consumers knowing that smoking significantly increases your chances of developing lung cancer and emphysema. Not only do cigarettes kill the people that smoke them, but they cause lung and pancreatic damage to people that are around the smoke on a daily basis, like their children. Why does the FDA allow this?