For years, the government has waged a war against smoking. They’ve taxed it, forced manufacturers to print warning labels, and banned most smoking advertising with the hope of scaring customers off their legal addictions and onto more healthy drugs like heroin. (Not really, though cigarettes are more addictive than heroin and alcohol is more harmful than heroin.) So far, nothing has worked. Over 20 percent of the US population smokes, but the FDA hopes that new graphic cigarette packs that feature pictures of cancer patients and dead bodies might cut down on smoking rates.
The FDA recently gained the power to regulate, but not ban, cigarettes. Immediately, they pushed for new graphic packs like the kind shown above. By October 22, 2010, all cigarettes sold in the US will feature the new graphical packs. Some 39 other countries feature similar anti-smoking warnings on their cigarette packs; Europe’s seem to be the most gruesome, showing pictures of tar-blackened teeth and decaying mouths. The hope is that the new packs will be enough to keep kids from smoking.
Tags: cigarettes, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, new cigarette packages show cancer patients and corpses, scary new cigarette packs, scaring kids off cigarettes, unusual images, scary cigarette packs, anti-smoking cigarette packs, graphic labels, labels with images on them for cigarettes