Handsel Art
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2 December 2012
contact J.R. Few
or 870-427-1365
Tobacco Companies to Issue Corrective Statements
On November 27, 2012 Judge Gladys Kessler clarified remedies of her 2006 ruling in U.S. v Phillip Morris that found the tobacco industry guilty of racketeering and fraud. Tobacco companies must publish corrective statements that they lied about the dangers of smoking and manipulation of nicotine addiction, the hazards of secondhand smoke, and the misconception of allegedly safer “light” and “low tar” cigarettes. This remedy promises to be the most significant action the government has taken against the tobacco industry in nearly 45 years.
In 1999 the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed suit under RICO statutes for a decades long conspiracy by the tobacco industry to deceive the American people. In 2005 a D.C. appellate court denied the original remedies proposed to disgorge $280 billion from tobacco companies as illegal profit. This prompted the DOJ to reassess remedies and highlight a 25 year $130 billion national tobacco cessation program. This was a significant setback, though not the last in the DOJ’s case.
Begun during the Clinton Administration, many involved were surprised when the Bush administration continued the suit. Yet just days before going to the judge, a Bush political appointee, Robert McCallum, ordered lead counsel and DOJ career lawyer, Sharon Eubanks, to reduce requested remedies for the cessation program to just $10 billion. McCallum was subsequently rewarded for his work in the DOJ with an ambassadorship to Australia. (The litany of political interference in this case has been well documented by Ms. Eubanks in her book, Bad Acts.) Judge Kessler’s final order in favor of the DOJ involved 4 major remedies including: disjunctive remedies designed to prevent future RICO violations, eliminating deceptive “light” and “low tar” brand descriptors, disclosure of documents and marketing data, and corrective statements financed by the industry.
The 2007 Best Practices for Tobacco Control, Health Communications Interventions notes that, “Aggressive state and national counter-marketing campaigns that have more directly confronted the tobacco industry’s marketing tactics have also demonstrated effectiveness but have often become targets for budget cuts.” Requiring tobacco companies to admit criminal deceit, on their own dime, takes prevention to another and hopefully more effective level.
The tobacco industry has a history of manipulating public policy and serious oversight should be given. But these statements have a timely potential. An unfortunate aspect of tobacco prevention seeks a solution in making addicts quit and preventing youth initiation while ignoring the industry. The FDA’s recent introduction of 8 Tips for Talking with Youth about Tobacco and the DHHS’ new site BeTobaccoFree.gov are packed with information about the health effects of tobacco use and nicotine addiction. But both sites behave as if tobacco use were simply an accident of nature and completely omit the culpability of the tobacco industry in promoting a deadly product. This promotion, not coincidentally, resulted in a criminal conviction for which these corrective statements hope to begin to remedy. The terrible pandemic of tobacco related disease will not be resolved on the backs of the victims but on the rogue capitalists who profit from tobacco. This remedy from U.S. v Phillip Morris is a constructive step in that direction.
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