TY - JOUR T1 - Taking aim at the bull’s-eye: the nicotine in tobacco products JF - Tobacco Control JO - Tob Control SP - 215 LP - 218 DO - 10.1136/tc.7.3.215 VL - 7 IS - 3 AU - CLIFFORD E DOUGLAS Y1 - 1998/09/01 UR - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/7/3/215.abstract N2 - The epidemic of tobacco-caused illness and death may be seen as the rings of a target. Each concentric ring represents a different advocacy strategy for mitigating its harm. Although reasonable minds may differ over the exact order of the rings, the target might look something like this: the outermost ring promotes tobacco cessation programmes. The first interior ring supports effective enforcement of strong restrictions on access by young people. The next ring advocates the end of tobacco advertising, whereas the ring inside that champions well-funded counter-advertising and education. Further in is a ring backing restrictions on smoking in public places and worksites. The last ring supports price increases, including excise tax hikes.Finally, there is the bull’s-eye, the most challenging but also the most rewarding point on the target. It represents control of the product itself.The new focus on the bull’s-eye is what the tobacco industry fears most, and why it continues to resist unrestricted regulation over tobacco products by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The headline of a New York Times editorial—after a federal court in North Carolina upheld FDA jurisdiction over tobacco products as drug delivery devices—spotlighted the industry’s worst nightmare. It read simply: “new power to redesign cigarettes”.1 This year, landmark tobacco control legislation was killed by the industry’s friends in Washington, DC, at least in part because “Congress [was] considering measures to let the Food and Drug Administration regulate the nicotine out of cigarettes.”2 The legal challenge to the FDA’s assertion of jurisdiction over tobacco products is expected to eventually make its way to the United States Supreme Court. On 14 August 1998, a panel of three judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, located in Richmond, Virginia, reversed the 1997 lower court … ER -