Nicotine is an addictive drug that poses a significant health hazard; that’s demonstrated by countless studies, including those made by the tobacco companies themselves.

The federal government, wanting to allay the dangers of tobacco, seized upon the most convenient piece of bureaucratic apparatus at hand: the Food and Drug Administration, which is officially charged with overseeing the use of safe and effective medications.

The Supreme Court has rightly grasped upon that mission to question the FDA’s authority in regulating tobacco. The justices ask: If the federal government contends that nicotine’s palliative effects are far outweighed by the damage tobacco causes — which is obviously the case — then how can the FDA be allowed to control that substance?

It just doesn’t fit, argued Justice Sandra Day O’Connor last Wednesday, when the matter came before the court. It strains credibility to see how these products can be safe.

Let’s be clear: Tobacco must be regulated. Already, it has laid waste to millions of lives, and threatens to do so to millions more. But there is legitimate concern over who is responsible for protecting the public against the dangers of tobacco, and it is apparent that the FDA is not the proper general to lead the war on tobacco.

Too often, Congress abdicates its responsibilities, leaving the executive branch little choice but to ply inappropriate tools to repairing a national problem. Be it an executive order demanding fair treatment of homosexuals in the armed forces or another administrative law that empowers the Internal Revenue Service to administer social engineering via the tax laws, Congress is too willing to set aside its constitutional duty to create the laws of the land, preferring to allow the bureaucracy that is meant to serve the people’s will to dictate the rules people must follow.

It is not too much to ask Congress to consider the overwhelming evidence of tobacco’s ills, and to in turn create legislation that manages those problems appropriately. It is wrong to try to control tobacco through class-action liability lawsuits and executive fiat.

Congress must obey the overwhelming sentiments of the American people: Tobacco is a public health hazard that needs to be checked.

We will not know the Supreme Court’s thoughts on the FDA’s authority until sometime later this year. Hopefully, Congress will decide to preempt the court, and do what it has long refused to do: Take responsibility for setting policy, as the Constitution dictates, and deal with the dangers of tobacco head-on.