Bush’s Surgeon General supports a total ban on tobacco products

I have to admit I was shocked that Richard Carmona, Bush’s surgeon general, told a House panel Tuesday that he would “support…banning or abolishing tobacco products.”

That’s pretty strong stuff. Even anti-tobacco folks rarely call for a complete prohibition on these products, preferring to lobby for strict limits on marketing and sales to minors. The thinking usually is that the tobacco industry targets young people so it’ll have customers — and drug addicts — for life. If we can curtail youth smoking, we can necessarily limit adult smoking.

But Carmona, to his credit, announced support for a total ban. We’ve had other surgeons general who have haven’t shied away from taking on the tobacco industry — C. Everett Koop comes to mind — but Carmona is the first to cross the “prohibition” line.

Carmona may be Bush’s surgeon general, but that didn’t stop Republicans from quickly disassociating themselves from Carmona’s position.

“I’ve never heard anything like that from any public official — and even from the advocates against tobacco,” said Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.). “I was pretty disappointed and surprised, and quite shocked.”

The White House also went out of its way to distance the president from the surprise announcement, with White House spokesman Scott McClellan saying that Carmona’s position “is not the policy of the administration.”

What always amuses me is the widespread agreement about the deadly hazards associated with smoking but the complete unwillingness for public officials, in general, to even consider banning tobacco products from the marketplace. Carmona’s unexpected announcement came at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on so-called “reduced risk” tobacco products. Through the course of the hearing, lawmakers from both parties agreed that tobacco is a terribly addictive drug that kills hundreds of thousands of people every year and is marketed by an unscrupulous industry bent on targeting children.

But the moment a physician says be believes we should remove these dangerous products from shelves, there’s an uproar.

Kudos to Carmona for having the courage to say what he actually believes. I can only hope that Bush, who has enjoyed extremely generous support from the tobacco industry, doesn’t force him to resign.