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NYT: Senate Passes Landmark Bill to Regulate Tobacco.

Both of my parents died young. A pack-a-day cigarette habit probably played a role in my mother's death. Twenty-plus cigarettes each day definitely contributed to my father's. My father's second wife died of a massive stroke. The three packs of cigarettes she smoked every day did not help. I grew up in a house choked with cigarette smoke and I was constantly sick: colds, ear infections, bronchitis, strep throat, allergies, and asthma. As soon as I moved out of that house I was sick like a normal person: colds once or twice a year, asthma evaporated, allergy symptoms abated. I haven't had strep throat or an ear infection since.

You know how addictive this stuff is. You know that it's killing people. I watched my dad -- who was (and remains) the toughest person I ever knew try -- and fail -- to quit over and over and over again. I wheeled him out of his hospital room about a week before he died...to have a cigarette. He'd been told he had no more than a month to live. At that point, I wasn't going to deny him his fix. And it was a fix. I could see him relax after he took a drag. A lot of people are powerless over this stuff.

I'm not starry-eyed enough to think we can get everyone to quit smoking, but if we can slow the rate at which we mint new addicts we'd reduce health care expenses and save smokers -- and the people who love them -- tremendous amounts of pain.

Bravo, Congress!