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This week in FDA history.This weekly feature from 2006, the FDA's centennial year, highlights history and progress in the agency's first 100 years.A sampling of significant events in the Food and Drug Administration's first 100 years.
Poster distributed in 1997 to retailers.
Poster distributed in 1997 reminding retailers of FDA regulations that prohibited sale of tobacco to children under 18.
March 21, 2000:
The U.S. Supreme Court, upholding an earlier decision in Food and Drug Administration v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. et al., rules 5-4 that the FDA does not have authority to regulate tobacco as a drug. Within weeks of this ruling, FDA revoked its final rule, issued in 1996, that restricted the sale and distribution of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products to children and adolescents.
 

FDA in 2006
The FDA has approved several products to aid in quitting smoking by reducing cravings and easing nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Nicotine patches, lozenges, and gum are available without a prescription. Two other nicotine-replacement products, a nasal spray and an
inhaler, need a doctor's prescription. Another prescription drug in pill form has been shown to reduce nicotine withdrawal symptoms without the use of nicotine, and is approved as an aid in smoking cessation treatments.
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