Senate bill aims to snuff 'tobacco candy'

WASHINGTON — They're the newest smoke-free tobacco products — dissolvable pellets or strips that don't require users to chew or even spit. Sold in shiny plastic cases, the products melt in your mouth like breath mints.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. is test-marketing dissolvable products in three cities and says they are designed for adults.

Some lawmakers disagree. They call the products tobacco candy and say they are designed with one thing in mind: to get kids hooked on nicotine. They want to give the government power to restrict sales.

"Tobacco candies are clearly designed to appeal to children through both packaging and taste," said Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. "This is not a safe product. This is not safe tobacco. It is a product that, like cigarettes, causes cancer and kills."

Merkley and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, have co-sponsored a provision in the Senate tobacco bill requiring the government to study health effects of dissolvable tobacco. The Food and Drug Administration would be given authority to restrict how the products are marketed and sold.

The Senate is expected to vote this week on legislation giving the FDA sweeping controls over cigarettes and other tobacco products. The bill would give the agency power to regulate the content of tobacco products, order the removal of hazardous ingredients, restrict the marketing and distribution of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, clamp down on sales to young people and require stronger warning labels.

"For years, tobacco companies have deceived consumers and marketed products to children — continually trying to replace the 400,000 customers they lose each year to tobacco-related deaths and illnesses," Brown said. "There is no doubt that smokeless tobacco products are aimed squarely at children. We have a responsibility to protect children from suggestive marketing and dangerous products."

A spokesman for North Carolina-based R.J. Reynolds accused Merkley and other lawmakers of intentionally distorting the nature of the dissolvable products, which are being test-marketed in Portland, Ore., Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis.

"It's not tobacco candy. That terminology is their terminology," said David Howard, a Reynolds spokesman. "These are tobacco products. They are made from finely milled tobacco. All the packaging says dissolvable tobacco, they are sold side-by-side with other tobacco products and their sale is age-restricted."

But Merkley and other critics said the packaging makes some of the products look like cell phones, while others look like breath mints. Words like "mellow" and "fresh" are prominently displayed.