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New Poll in Tobacco States Indicates Strong Support for FDA Regulation [09/17-1]
Excerpts from: FDA tobacco curbs supported
By JOHN REID BLACKWELL Richmond Times Dispatch [09/17/04]
A poll commissioned by a major tobacco-control group indicates strong support for federal regulation of tobacco products among voters in tobacco-growing states, including Virginia.
Support for a buyout of U.S. tobacco growers was far weaker, especially if it isn't coupled with legislation giving the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate the industry.
The phone survey, funded by the Washington-based Campaign For Tobacco-Free Kids, asked 1,101 likely voters in the tobacco-producing states of North Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee about competing versions of legislation in Congress that would fund a multibillion-dollar buyout of the U.S. tobacco quota system and give the FDA regulatory power over tobacco products.
Sixty-five percent of the respondents said they favor FDA regulation, but only 29 percent favored a proposed $10 billion buyout of tobacco growers while 53 percent said they opposed it.
In Virginia, 69 percent of respondents favored FDA regulation of tobacco products while 19 percent opposed it. Twenty-two percent said they would support a quota buyout and 58 percent opposed it.
The poll backs the position held by most public health groups that a buyout of the Depression-era tobacco quota program essentially a government licensing system to grow the crop should be coupled with FDA legislation. Fifty percent of respondents said they would favor the Senate version of the legislation, which ties a buyout to FDA regulation. Thirty percent favored the House version, which would fi- nance a buyout but has no FDA provision.
The poll indicates that "tobacco states are not that different from the rest of the country," in more strongly supporting regulation of tobacco products than a buyout, said Danny McGoldrick, research director for the Campaign For Tobacco-Free Kids.
Tobacco-farmer organizations have backed FDA regulation along with a buyout, and they have worked with public health groups to get legislation passed.
The weak support for a buyout indicates "the necessity to marry the two proposals, with the buyout attached to FDA," Davis said. "If we go with [a buyout] . . . alone, the probability of something happening is going to be very, very low."
The survey, conducted Aug. 30 to Sept. 1, included 601 respondents in North Carolina and 100 people in each of the other states. The poll was larger in North Carolina because it has more people who would benefit financially from a buyout.
In North Carolina, respondents favored FDA regulation of the industry by a margin of 59 percent to 33 percent. Thirty-nine percent supported a buyout while 49 percent opposed it.
The overall poll, conducted jointly by a Democratic polling firm and a Republican firm, had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
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