The Nation - News from Nov. 17, 1988

The Arizona Board of Pharmacy asked the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to voluntarily withdraw its test-marketed smokeless cigarettes pending a determination of whether it is a drug, but the company refused. The board did not determine whether the Premier cigarette is a drug delivery system, as critics contend, or a non-burning cigarette, as the company argues. Nor did it act on a request by the American Medical Assn. to halt sales of Premier cigarettes in Arizona. A similar request has been made of state officials in Missouri, where Premier also is being test-marketed. R. J. Reynolds, in a statement from its headquarters in Winston-Salem, N.C., declined to withdraw Premier from the market.