Children Buy Herbal Cigarettes Legally

Insight on the News, Sept 17, 2001 by Robert Treadway

Herbal cigarettes look harmless enough in the hands of 16-year-old Twinetta Linx. The package, adorned with leprechauns and shamrocks and using the brand name Herbal Gold, could be mistaken for a box of candy.

But health officials say such cigarettes are deadly -- although retailers can sell them to children legally. Herbal blends "are not statutorily required to bear a U.S. surgeon-generals warning and ... are not subject to laws that bar tobacco sales to minors," according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Instead of tobacco and nicotine, herbal cigarettes contain catnip, wild lettuce, damiana, passion flower and marshmallow. They often are marketed as a safe alternative to tobacco smoking. Health professionals say that is nonsense.

"Light tobacco? That truly is not the case," says Anne O'Donnell, associate professor and chief of pulmonary critical care at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington. "Any smoking has the potential for medical problems and an addiction to the smoking itself."

Sales are brisk for the herbal alternatives. Benjamin Bright, president of Temple of Ecstacy Corp., sells millions of packs of Ecstacy cigarettes a year. Legally, he cannot make a claim as to the safety of his product. But he "would prefer them over tobacco," adding that there have been no health studies on his products. Baltimore-based HerbalEcstasy .com is the largest online seller of the Ecstacy brand cigarettes, selling 1,000 packs a week.

Last year, the FTC forced two companies, Santa Fe Natural Tobacco and Alternative Cigarettes, to post a disclaimer on their packages saying they are not safer than traditional smokes. Now the brands carry the warning: "Herbal cigarettes are dangerous to your health. They produce tar and carbon monoxide."