Koop-Glantz Letter

October 20, 1997

Stanton A. Glantz, Ph.D.
University of California San Francisco
Cardiology Division - Box 0124
1186 Moffitt Hospital
San Francisco, CA 94143-0124

Dear Stan:

I'm responding to your communication of October 10, 1997 on the tobacco deal.

You and I are on practically the same wavelength. I was first disturbed that the President's proposal, although adhering very closely to what I, along with Kessler, had proposed to him, focused exclusively on children. This I think is the result of the peculiar psychological attitude in the country recently that the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids was the only show in town. It is my personal belief that it is a lot easier to get adults - especially now - to quit smoking than it is to keep youngsters from starting.

The avowed purpose of the new organization ENACT is to see the President's proposals enacted into law. You and I know that when that comes to pass there will be all sorts of compromise and if the President's proposal is the goal, we'll end up with half of that. I can't understand why the public health people are not carrying the carrot out further in front of the horse. They should be setting up a gold standard so that when that is compromised, as it will be, it might not fall any lower than the President's proposal. I agree with all of your other points essentially. When it comes to FDA, we should not let the tobacco industry dictate how a government agency does business.

ENACT has asked me to be its spokesperson and I will have to tell them this week that I cannot be a spokesperson for a program that aims so low as far as public health goals are concerned. I also must say that when I am asked to take an important position such as a spokesperson for an organization, I think I should have been asked a little bit about what I thought about its platform.

Keep up the good work, Stan.

Sincerely yours,

C. Everett Koop, MD

Tobacco.org