Annotated Bibliography

Spurgeon, David. "Tobacco Companies Say Regulations are Unconstitutional." BMJ (2002). BMJ. LSU Libraries Online Catalog. Baton Rouge. 16 Apr. 2008 .

This article briefly discusses Canada’s tobacco policies and its current opposition by the tobacco industry. It states the side of the Canadian government, describing the decisions they have made and how they defend them and also portrays the opposition’s arguments. I found this article to be useful in that it is short and concise and helps me organize my arguments. It is easy to read and its simplicity as well as informational nature makes it a useful tool for my paper. On the other hand, this is not a useful article for in depth information

Drozd, Joanna. "Avoiding the Taxman." Smoke Ring Law. LSU Libraries Online Catalog. Baton Rouge. 15 Apr. 2008 .

This is a good article talking about the effects of tax laws on cigarettes. It begins with the purpose and theory of these laws, if they are meeting their original goals, and their unintentional consequences. Among these consequences, and the main subject of this article, is the innovation of the online tobacco industry. These online retailers sell tobacco products not only cheaper than local stores, but also tax free. This means no three dollar tax per pack of cigarettes in New York or varying taxes elsewhere. It discusses how it is completely legal and its impact on the battle for a smoke free America. This was a useful article for me because it is related to the legal side of tobacco use. A major part of the article that impacts my paper is how it discusses one way tobacco laws affect consumers, the decisions consumers have left concerning tobacco, and what decisions we make and why.

Caragata, Warren, Kaye E. Fulton, Luke Fisher, and Patricia Chisholm. "Tobacco Advertising Ban Unconstitutional." The Canadian Encyclopedia Historica. 1995. LSU Libraries Online Catalog. Baton Rouge. 17 Apr. 2008 .

This is an informational article discussing the very controversial laws imposed upon the Canadian tobacco industry and their strong opposition. While it concerns Canada and not the United States, it is easy to draw parallels between the two country’s situations. Both countries are using very similar laws and tactics in their anti-smoking campaigns and so the general concern of their constitutionality is present in both situations. This article does a very good job of showing the rightful opposition to these laws. By simply listing out contradicting statements from the Canadian government itself, one can infer that something is quite wrong, if not illegal, about these laws. This article was quite useful as well as interesting. I found that as well as being informative, it makes a good although unintentional case of the worldwide tobacco war that governments are declaring.

Fritschler, Lee A., and Catherine E. Rudder. Smoking and Politics: Bureaucracy Centered Policymaking. 6th ed. Pearson Prentice Hall, 1996.

This is an excellent book that outlines the history of tobacco control as well as its sources of control. The way it describes that bureaucratic policymaking arms of the government, but not Congress or the president themselves, make and enforce laws is a powerful argument for my paper. As described, the backbone of our government has been cornered into a reactive system instead of a shaping system for the laws that govern us. Perhaps the reason that this book works so well for me is the fact that it is in fact a proponent of tobacco control and marvels at the complex system that has created a loopholed control system that would not normally be possible had the constitutional rules been followed. The book describes that because the government cannot legally control tobacco in the “nanny” sense of the word, policymaking arms such as the Department of Agriculture and the Telecommunications Agency have made individual advances against Big Tobacco that as a whole, effectively completely regulate an entire industry. “Smoking and Politics” also mentions shocking facts such as the “convenience” of second hand smoke after lawmakers were shocked to find they could not discourage smoking if it did not hurt America as well as individuals. Overall this book is absolutely fascinating as well as a very useful tool for my paper. It has so much information that I did not find in other sources and would recommend it to others.

Feldman, Eric A., and Ronald Bayer, eds. Unfiltered. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2004.

This book describes the history and current laws and lawmaking systems concerning tobacco. While containing much information, it reads much like an economic textbook and requires hours of work to extract useful information from it. Because of its narrow subject matter and incredible depth into it, I will not be using it as a source and do not think it would be very helpful to other people in this class. Fortunately, I like my economic textbooks and think this book is interesting, so I will be reading it anyway.