Tobacco.org

• Philip Morris says it won't fund repeal effort 

Tobacco giant Philip Morris put millions into trying to stop Californians from hiking cigarette taxes, but the company says it won't spend a penny trying to repeal the increase.

"Our position is that it has become less of a smokers' rights issue and more of a question over childcare development and that is not something that we think we should be involved in," company spokesman Tom Ryan said Wednesday. . . In ads running in California newspapers this week, Philip Morris sought to squelch that speculation, saying the nature of the Proposition 28 campaign has switched the debate from smokers' rights to the role of the state of California in child care. "This is a matter for Californians to decide; therefore we are not part of the debate," reads the ad. . . he pointed out the ad devotes several paragraphs restating the company's opposition to Proposition 10 as a "grossly unfair" tax.

"I guess it does not come as too much of a surprise that Philip Morris said one thing and did another," Pfeiffer said.

Jump to full article »