Smoking is down in Minnesota, but is the $6.1 billion settlement the main reason?
Jump to full article: Minneapolis (MN) Star Tribune, 2008-01-26
Author: DAVID PHELPS, Star Tribune
Intro: Ten years later, the state's case against the tobacco industry is widely recognized as the most far-reaching case against private industry in Minnesota history.
The $6.1 billion settlement that came four months after the case began in a similarly bitter January 1998 in St. Paul has since been used to help thousands of Minnesota adults quit smoking, to persuade middle school and high school students to not start smoking, and has helped lay the groundwork for a statewide smoking ban and bailed the state out of a budget deficit.
"When you talk to people, there's a different attitude now about smoking. Smoking is more the exception than the rule," said former Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III, whose office began pursuing the tobacco industry in 1994. "That wouldn't have happened at nearly the pace it did without the settlement." . . .
The multibillion-dollar settlement will even be honored in the state's sesquicentennial celebration as one of the 150 most important people, places and events in Minnesota history. But it has not been without hitches in the 10 years since Humphrey told the tobacco industry that Minnesota was drawing "a line in the snow" to prove the industry's responsibility for causing smoking-related illnesses. . . .
"The whole driving force behind this litigation was public health," said Roberta Walburn, one of the central trial attorneys from the Minneapolis firm Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi that was hired by Humphrey to represent the state. "The settlement would have had a bigger impact if it had been used for public health instead of balancing the budget." . . .
MPAAT, which changed its name last year to ClearWay Minnesota to give it a more positive image, has spent $21.4 million over eight years helping Minnesotans quit smoking. . . .
"The industry has been discredited. The public knows the danger of the product. Would that have eventually come out without the lawsuit? Maybe," Humphrey said. "Smoking is the most preventable disease factor in the world, but we have a long way to go."
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