Obama signs anti-smoking measure

President Barack Obama in the Rose Garden with a number of lawmakers and other guests today "signed the strongest anti-smoking measure ever, calling it an extraordinary accomplishment that will help keep children from getting hooked on cigarettes," the Associated Press reports (6/22).

According to a different AP article: Obama talked about his own "struggle to quit the cigarettes he took up as a teenager as he signed" the bill and "praised it for providing critically needed protections for future generations." Obama said, "The decades-long effort to protect our children from the harmful effects of smoking has finally emerged victorious" (Elliott, 6/22).

CBS Political Hotsheet: Obama said the law would help to reduce "the number of American children who pick up a cigarette and become adult smokers." He said the legislation does not ban tobacco products, which allows "adults to make their own choices" (Montopoli, 6/22).