[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1853 Introduced in House (IH)]







104th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1853

   To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to require the 
  reduction and eventual elimination of nicotine in tobacco products.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 15, 1995

 Mr. Meehan (for himelf and Mr. Hansen) introduced the following bill; 
            which was referred to the Committee on Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to require the 
  reduction and eventual elimination of nicotine in tobacco products.
    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Freedom From Nicotine Addiction Act 
of 1995''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Tobacco use remains the largest preventable cause of 
        illness and premature death in the United States, responsible 
        for the unnecessary deaths of more than 419,000 Americans each 
        year.
            (2) Tobacco is a uniquely harmful product in that it kills 
        if used as intended.
            (3) The United States health care system expenditures due 
        directly to smoking totals $50 billion a year. The United 
        States economy loses $47 billion a year in productivity due to 
        smoking.
            (4) The 1988 report of the United States Surgeon General 
        concluded that cigarettes and other forms of tobacco are 
        addicting, that nicotine is the drug in tobacco that causes 
        addiction, and that the pharmacologic and behavioral processes 
        that determine tobacco addiction are similar to those that 
        determine addiction to heroin and cocaine.
            (5) The 1994 report by the United States Surgeon General 
        concluded that the nicotine in tobacco products is responsible 
        for the rapid addiction of up to half of all children who 
        experiment with tobacco.
            (6) Among adults in the United States who have ever smoked 
        daily, 91 percent tried their first cigarette and 77 percent 
        became daily smokers before they were 20 years old.
            (7) Nicotine addicts over 3,000 children each day into an 
        activity which eventually will kill approximately \1/2\ of 
        them.
            (8) The current Commissioner of Food and Drugs has labeled 
        tobacco a pediatric disease.
            (9) A senior research scientist for one of the largest 
        cigarette manufacturers in the United States has observed: 
        ``The primary incentive to cigarette smoking is the immediate 
        salutary effect of inhaled smoke upon body function . . . The 
        physiological effect serves as the primary incentive; all other 
        incentives are secondary . . . Think of the cigarette pack as a 
        storage container for a day's supply of nicotine . . . Think of 
        the cigarette as a dispenser for a dose unit of nicotine . . . 
        Think of a puff of smoke as the vehicle of nicotine.''.
            (10) The use of tobacco products continues to be 
        widespread, in spite of increased awareness of their lethal 
        nature, because nicotine which is the single, removable 
        substance in tobacco that causes addiction in children and 
        reinforces that addiction in adults.
            (11) Tobacco manufacturers have the capability to remove 
        all or virtually all of the nicotine from their tobacco 
        products using technology already in existence.
            (12) Nicotine destroys the freedom of millions of children 
        and adults in the United States to choose whether or not to 
        continue using tobacco products.

SEC. 3. REGULATION.

    (a) Definition.--Section 201 of the Federal Food, Drug, and 
Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 321) is amended by adding at the end the 
following:
    ``(gg) The term `tobacco product' means any cigarette, cigar, 
little cigar, pipe tobacco, fine cut tobacco, or any smokeless tobacco 
product.
    ``(hh) The term `nicotine' includes any substance that has 
pharmacologic activity similar to nicotine.''.
    (b) Reduction in Nicotine.--Chapter V of the Federal Food, Drug, 
and Cosmetic Act is amended--
            (1) in the title by adding at the end ``AND TOBACCO 
        PRODUCTS'', and
            (2) by adding after subchapter C the following:

                    ``Subchapter D--Tobacco Products

                    ``regulation of tobacco products

    ``Sec. 545. (a) It shall be unlawful to introduce or deliver for 
introduction into interstate commerce any tobacco product that is 
adulterated.
    ``(b) A tobacco product shall be considered adulterated if it 
contains nicotine in a quantity per cigarette exceeding the following:
            ``As of January 1, 1997, 10.00 mg. nicotine.
            ``As of January 1, 1998, 8.00 mg. nicotine.
            ``As of January 1, 1999, 6.00 mg. nicotine.
            ``As of January 1, 2000, 4.00 mg. nicotine.
            ``As of January 1, 2001, 2.00 mg. nicotine.
            ``As of January 1, 2002, .05 mg. nicotine.
    ``(c) The Secretary shall prescribe a reduction in the nicotine in 
tobacco products other than cigarettes which is comparable to the 
reduction required by subsection (b). Such reduction shall be published 
in the Federal Register. Such a tobacco product shall be considered 
adulterated if it contains nicotine in a quantity exceeding the 
quantity prescribed by the Secretary.''.
    (c) Enforcement.--Section 301 of the Federal Food, Drug, and 
Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C 331) is amended by adding at the end the 
following:
    ``(v) The introduction or delivery for introduction into interstate 
commerce of an adulterated tobacco product.''.
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