Cigarette, anyone?

How far can government go?

First - I don't smoke. I never have. Ever. But, that does not mean that I believe in this so called "new" packaging to supposedly deter people from smoking. It just wasn't/isn't right.

But if I did smoke - I'd just remove the cigarettes from the disgusting package and place them in some pretty monogrammed case.

Last year (or whenever it was) when the law first passed that this would eventually happen - I had looked into this for a story. I didn't like it then and I still don't like it now.

So, when I heard -- a few hours ago -- that a judge had blocked the federal requirement that would have begun forcing U.S. tobacco companies to put large graphic images on the packages - I was relieved.

I just didn't think it was right. Where do you draw the line?

Should we place pictures of sick individuals on cookies - to prevent diabetes? Or of grotesquely obese people on fried foods - to prevent obesity?

Maybe we could add pictures of jaundiced individuals or of black livers on what once were beautiful Napa wine bottles?

Yeah, I thought so - frustrating. And wrong.