Tobacco.org

A RECORD OF PROMISES BROKEN AND AN OPPORTUNITY LOST A Report by the CAMPAIGN FOR TOBACCO-FREE KIDS and the American Heart Association

• Philip Morris Site
• Lorillard Site
• Brown & Williamson Site
• RJR Site

This edition of Policy.com's "Issue of the Week" turns its focus to the impending tobacco settlement. It examines the proposed tobacco resolution reached last summer and highlights the key provisions of embryonic Congressional tobacco legislation, including the manner in which tobacco is to be regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, minors' access to tobacco products and restrictions on tobacco advertisements and the debate over immunity and special protections for the tobacco industry. Join Policy.com's moderated discussion on the tobacco settlement, Wednesday, March 18, at 4:00pm ET/1:00pm PT in the policy chat room. American Council on Science and Health President Elizabeth Whelan, Ph.D. , will join the discussion to provide expert commentary.

Source Documents

Remarks made by key Attorneys General on the tobacco deal at a Washington news conference.
• 06/20/97 Part 2
• 06/20/97 Part 3
• 06/20/97 Part 4
• 06/20/97 Part 5

Government Documents

This Congressional Budget Office (CBO) paper--prepared at the request of the Assistant Majority Leader of the Senate--examines the settlement's potential impacts on consumers and the industry. The reduction in cigarette consumption and the amount of payments by the industry are estimated under various assumptions regarding increases in the price of cigarettes and the response by smokers to those price hikes.

The line is already forming at the teller's window, and there's more than a little shoving involved. . . The public policy questions involved may turn out to be easier to solve than it will be to satisfy the personal and institutional greed that the prospect of a settlement -- a k a the honey pot -- has already loosed.

House COMMERCE Committee HearingsDecember 8,9, 1997

• 12/20/97 843 Minnesota Documents
• 12/08/97 Bliley Expects to Make Tobacco Documents Public Before Christmas
• Hearing Document: BLILEY Statement
• Hearing Witness: MICHAEL MOORE
• Hearing Witness: NANCY ANN MIN DEPARLE
• Hearing Witness: JEFFREY MODISETT

The group, including representatives of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, testified that Canada's experience doubling cigarette prices from 1984 to 1993 held cautionary lessons for Congress as it considers steps to fight underage smoking. Smuggled cigarettes from the U.S. poured across the border, undercutting the goal of reducing tobacco consumption, the witnesses said. . . a U.S. law-enforcement official testified that other components of the proposed settlement -- including education, law-enforcement efforts and the lack of a sudden, dramatic price increase -- might actually prevent development of a black market.

The expert, Michael Eriksen of the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testified that a survey in 1995 showed that while 40 percent of white female high school students smoked, only 12 percent of black female students did. . . "White and American Indian girls described smoking as empowering, particularly in relation to males," Eriksen said. But he added that black girls "held extremely negative views of smoking," and "they believed that smoking would compromise their future and mess up their lives." Eriksen noted that unlike white teen-agers, black and Hispanic females often also believed that smoking was disrespectful to their parents.

"I think it goes without question that everyone involved in this (tobacco) issue is rightfully concerned about teen-age smoking," said Whitfield, R-Hopkinsville, who represents Paducah as well as much of tobacco-rich Western Kentucky. "But I would also say that this is an unprecedented assault on one industry," Whitfield said at a meeting of a House subcommittee on which he serves. "... I think attorney generals also have a responsibility to look at the movie industry.

"There is no single magic bullet," said DePaul University psychology Professor Leonard Jason told the House Commerce subcommittee on health and environment. "The best approach is a combination of tools, including restricting access and advertising, school-based programs and price increases."

A fight is brewing over the spoils of tobacco legislation, with state officials calling on the Republican-controlled Congress to protect their share of billions of tobacco-industry dollars from federal bureaucrats. Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles, among others, asked the House Commerce Health and Environment Subcommittee to take action to ensure that states keep any money they receive under settlements with tobacco companies. Committee Chairman Mike Bilirakis (R., Fla.) has introduced a bill that would ban the federal government from claiming a share of states' tobacco settlements.

Critiques & Analyses by major players

While this bill, S. 1415, raises the price of tobacco products higher than the deal and takes away some hurdles to FDA regulatory authority, it closely resembles the discredited industry deal and falls far short of the principles and goals of Save Laves, Not Tobacco and other public health and consumer groups. Most disturbing are the massive and unprecedented special protections from legal liability that the industry would be granted under the bill.

• 12/14/97 Part 1: Big Tobacco and Its Foes Wrestle On Deal Worth Billions
  • What's in the Tobacco Deal?
• 12/15/97 Part 2: In Advertising, A New Battleground
  • The Deal on Advertising
• 12/16/97 Part 3: Tobacco Wants Broad Immunity From Lawsuits. But At What Price? Focus on BURL BUTLER case
  • The Deal on Litigation
• 12/15/97 Kicking the Habit
• Web Links

• 02/21/98 State Interests in National Tobacco Legislation: An Analysis . Features comparison charts of the Hatch, Kennedy and McCain bills.

This is a copy of a mass mailing by Brown and Williamson that was received May 12 and provided to Public Citizen. The mailing contains exaggerated and inaccurate claims about price increases in tobacco products and pre-printed, addressed and stamped postcards to U.S. Senators (see below) in an effort to simulate a grass-roots campaign. Not only does the mailing contain overblown price claims, the mailing ignores the fact that price increases have a significant deterrent effect on smoking rates, particularly for younger smokers who have less disposable income. Furthermore, the mailing ignores the real reason Big Tobacco is worried about national legislation. They fear the speical legal protections contained in the McCain Bill, S.1415, will be removed by an amendment on the Senate floor.

You and I are on practically the same wavelength. . . 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.

The following document . . . was prepared by Hogan & Hartson (a Washington, DC law firm) and was sent to each member of Congress by the national office of American Cancer Society. This document advocates congressional action to PREEMPT numerous state consumer health protection laws in order to protect the tobacco industry from legal liability, as well as delineating complex preemption schemes that could survive constitutional challenges.

The summary of the ACS's document "Constitutional Issues In Proposed Tobacco Settlement" . . totally mischaracterizes the American Cancer Society's position on the issue of preemption
"The American Cancer Society believes that the Act must not set a ceiling on state and local tobacco control -- it need set only a floor."
The ACS's position on preemption is consistent and well-settled: although the federal government should enact broad-based measures to effectively protect the public health from the harms of tobacco use, states and localities should be permitted and encouraged to enact measures that are more stringent than the federal standards.

The fate of the proposed tobacco settlement and, in turn, the health and longevity of generations of Americans now lie in the hands of the Congress. . . If we accept the proposed settlement in its current form, it will make some difference. But it will keep the industry booming and profitable at the expense of the nation's health. By focusing on the steps that we know will significantly reduce smoking, we will be protecting future generations from the spread of this addiction. And it can be done, if for once there is the national will to do so, without conceding an inch to the forces that have lied to, addicted, and killed Americans for years.

News Sites

• 12/14/97 Part 1: Big Tobacco and Its Foes Wrestle On Deal Worth Billions
  • What's in the Tobacco Deal?
• 12/15/97 Part 2: In Advertising, A New Battleground
  •  The Deal on Advertising
• 12/16/97 Part 3: Tobacco Wants Broad Immunity From Lawsuits. But At What Price? Focus on Burl Butler case
  
  Today, however, this right is being challenged as the tobacco industry pursues a high-stakes deal on Capitol Hill that would bar folks such as the Butlers from punishing the industry for its past behavior. Curbing lawsuits -- and their potentially ruinous awards -- has been Big Tobacco's goal for years. In 1998, it just might happen. THE AMERICAN CIGARETTE industry is terrified that the dike is breaking and that it soon will be drowning in successful lawsuits brought by dying smokers, bystanders or their estates.
  • The Deal on Litigation
• 12/15/97 Kicking the Habit
• Web Links

News Items

The largest portion of tobacco settlement revenues received by states has gone for Health services, according to a new report from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Released today at a news conference at NCSL's Annual Meeting in San Antonio, State Management and Allocation of Tobacco Settlement Revenue - 1999 to 2001 shows that the largest single beneficiary of the tobacco settlement windfall has been health care. Smoking prevention and cessation, Medicaid, children's health insurance and pharmaceutical assistance programs have all seen increased appropriations over the past three years as a result of the Master Settlement Agreement. "Under the tobacco settlement agreement, states have been given a great deal of flexibility in how they use their revenue," said Lee Dixon, director of NCSL's Health Policy Tracking Service. "Right now, it is clearly obvious that states are committed to improving the quality and access of the healthcare programs that they offer." One of the programs that has seen a large increase in spending has been smoking cessation and prevention programs. [All 5%--gb]

As the economy continues to slow, some states are turning to the billions of dollars they won in a 1998 settlement with the tobacco industry to plug holes in their budgets. The tobacco money is paying for everything from education to flood control while anti-smoking programs, which some envisioned as the best use of the funds, are being trimmed. ON APRIL 15, state treasurers get a timely reminder of how important the tobacco kitty is when the cigarette industry makes its annual payment of approximately $3.5 billion to the 46 states who reached an out-of-court settlement of litigation in 1998. The settlement will produce hundreds of billions of dollars for state treasuries in perpetuity. . .
Click on the map to find out what amount of tobacco settlement money is available to states in fiscal year 2001.
Washington
Tobacco settlement $ available in FY2001: 168 million
FY 2001 general fund spending: 10.6 billion
Tobacco $ as % of state general fund spending: 1.6