The health police cometh

Along with countless others, we've been warning for months that socialized health care will mean socialized health. When every is paying for everyone else's medical bills, your personal fitness will become everyone else's business. Consequently, the state will crack down on unhealthy habits to try to save money.

Health care reform passed a week and a half ago and it's already happening. The FDA has announced strict new regulations on tobacco that will go into effect June 22.

The rules prohibit

sales of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco to individuals younger than age 18;

sales of cigarette packages with fewer than 20 cigarettes;

sales of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco in vending machines, self-service displays or other impersonal modes of sale, except in very limited situations;

free samples of cigarettes;

tobacco brand name sponsorship of any athletic, musical, or other social or cultural event, or any team or entry in those events;

gifts or other items in exchange for buying cigarettes or smokeless tobacco products; and

sale or distribution of items, such as hats and tee shirts, with tobacco brands or logos.

The new regulations also limit distribution of smokeless tobacco products and require that audio advertisements use only words with no music or sound effects.

In other words, tobacco companies are essentially no longer allowed to advertise their product, unless they want to pay for the equivalent of a radio public service announcement. Regulations on cigarette PR were already tight, but this latest clampdown makes it almost impossible for tobacco companies to do business. Congress also passed an anti-smoking bill last year that outlawed sweetened and light cigarettes, among other changes. Couple that with punitive state and federal excise taxes that have driven cigarette costs in New York up to $11 per carton, and you have an industry where it's almost illegal to sell a product.

Despite the fact that Obama is a former smoker and has struggled with quitting himself, his administration seems hell-bent on just making smoking illegal, period. It's the next logical bend on the road to socialized medicine.