Let's Back Obama on Graphic Warning Labels for Cigarettes

COMMENTARY | As a smoker and an American, I'm disgusted with U.S. District Judge Richard Leon right now over his siding with tobacco companies as reported on Reuters, on the issue of graphic warning labels for cigarettes. He's apparently listening to lawyers instead of his conscience.

While His Honor ruled the issue of the warning labels on cigarettes comes down to First Amendment rights for tobacco companies, I say the right to a healthy, productive life for America's youth should trump the commercial interests of any company.

It is more important that our children have a chance to live healthy, full lives than to protect the income of a few executives. They're not worried about their ability to market a beneficial product or service. They're afraid addicted users will become aware of the harm done to their bodies, like any other drug pusher.

Over the years in various discussions, I've heard others griping about the government hampering the tobacco industry and affecting a citizen's "right" to enjoy a smoke. I've even said it myself, foolishly, that smoking is a choice - one which the government had no business influencing. I now regret those words. I resent myself for ever letting my addiction do my thinking for me. What kind of choice is it, if not a fully informed one?

What would I give to be able to go back in time and scare myself silly over cigarettes? I wish now that someone had made me see the images of what sort of future I may very well face. If only someone would've vividly described what it felt like to hear myself wheezing at night, as I lie there, afraid of death by cancer.

I wish someone would have cared enough to make me understand what a slow, foolish suicide my cigarettes were. I'm unable to change the past - but I'll be man enough to speak up now for President Obama on this topic.

Tobacco companies may worry about how their image may be tarnished because of the label requirements, and their sales to gullible addicts may be impacted - but the new labels are a logical action. According to the Centers for Disease Control website an estimated 443,000 deaths are caused by smoking and second-hand smoke in the US annually.

How would anyone expect our government to react to an assault, equivalent to a 9/11-sized event, approximately every three days in the U.S.? It's not an invasion, but the dead are still just as dead. These numbers are real. This many people die a terrible death due to smoking every year - and the tobacco companies are worried about their image?

Whatever other flaws the man may have, President Obama is correct in requiring the graphic image warning labels on cigarettes in the U.S. Those who disagree with the action are merely unwilling to face the truth about this disgusting, harmful and powerfully addictive habit. They can hang their feelings, for all I care. We have to care about our future.