This is EXACTLY the sort of thing that could get indigenous Americans eternally steamed at the FDA...
Dear Fellow Pipefans:
Data's Calabash here again - and for the agency that pushed Fen-Phen quite some time ago as an "approved medication" for weight control, and similarly has brought statins (with attendant loss of mental function for some patients), blood thinners like canagliflozin (that can all too easily make one feel like they're becoming a hemophiliac) and other questionably-FDA approved medications that CAN hurt people all too seriously and all too easily...
...now, the FDA is going to ban pipes THEMSLEVES?
Like I've stated before here a number of times, it's the substantial number of the 600+ Native American indigenous tribal groups east of the Continental Divide that have rights to tobacco use that go back into pre-Columbian times that are GOING to have to say something in opposition to such idiotic FDA policies.
One perfect example of this concern could be the indigenous American tribal access to the mineral named
Catlinite, used for the crafting of Native American calumets, chanunpas and other indigenous pipe styles. As the linked Wikipedia article states clearly:
"Only enrolled Native Americans are allowed to quarry for the stone at the Pipestone National Monument, and thus it is protected from over-mining."
...is the FDA planning on prohibiting Native Americans from having access to limited pipestone resources, strictly to be the "decider" on all such issues concerning ALL pipe smoking/collection issues? What might the FDA order...backfilling entire catlinite mines with concrete, perhaps, or just their entrances, to prevent currently-legal Native American access?
Methinks that the FDA has NO idea how strong the pushback from Native Americans is going to be, not very far into the future...if the FDA doesn't remember the many injustices the American government has repeatedly visited on native peoples in the USA, perhaps they ought to study up on the presidency of Andrew Jackson (the seventh US president, and a nearly genocidal one in Native American circles to this day) and many, MANY other, countless instances of the injustices dealt to Native Americans over centuries' worth of time.
It's the
Native American Rights Fund website where I'd first expect to see evidence of this "pushback"...it could take a while, but IF the FDA really IS that foolish, they also probably don't have any realization of HOW strong the pushback against them could be someday!
Yours Sincerely,
Data's Calabash
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