I’m about sick of it. The June 9 article “Who got most from voucher expansion?” says it all. My tax dollars are going to private (mostly parochial) schools while all I hear about is “woke” and “grooming” our children in public schools while banning “offensive” books. You want to teach religion to your kids? That’s fine, that’s what Sunday school is for. Now, you want me to pay for this special privilege in everyday schools? You get subsidies if your income is less than $150,000 for a family of four? That’s highway robbery for the rest of us. Funny. Separation of church and state — unless it’s your church. It’s time to tax the church for taking us to the cleaners all these years.
- Dr. Robert Gardner, Englewood
How do we know when we’re in trouble? We’re in trouble when Big Tobacco is writing to the FDA, complaining that the government must do something about a vape product coming from China. Metatine.
Let me back up a little. In April 2022, the FDA was authorized to regulate tobacco products containing nicotine from any source, including synthetic nicotine. Some companies had begun producing vaping products with synthetic nicotine stating they didn’t have “tobacco”. so the FDA had no authority to regulate them. Congress corrected that. October 2023, vape stores in the U.S. started selling a product named Spree Bar. Spree Bar was sold claiming it was FDA premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) exempt. This product, and now others coming from China are marketed as containing “Metatine”, a trademarked name for 6-methyl nicotine, a synthetic nicotine. So again, manufacturers have, for the time being, found a way to work around the system until the FDA can decide whether 6-methyl nicotine can be regulated as a drug under the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA).
Let me return to the letter Altia Group, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes, wrote to the FDA. In speaking of the warning vaping products that had 6-methyl nicotine in them, warning they posed a “new threat”. “The introduction and growth of chemicals intended to imitate the effects of nicotine, if left unchecked, could present unknown risks to U.S. consumers and undermine FDA’s authority,” the letter said.
Who loses in this story? Our kids do.
- Bruce Barcelo, Xenia