ige 8 • The Battalion
The Battalion
TUESDAY
April 2, 1996
Opinion
Page 9
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lOp.m
The Smoking Gun
Texas is justified in
tobacco lawsuit
M
Dan
Morales
Guest
Columnist
'ost Tex
ans know
that using
tobacco is a dan
gerous practice.
But not all Tex
ans know about
the dangerous
and illegal prac
tices of the tobac
co industry.
The truth is tobacco compa
nies have violated state and fed
eral laws for so many years that
these violations have become
their standard operating proce
dures. The truth is the tobacco
industry has deliberately mar
keted its products to our children.
The truth is that for 40 years, the
industry has consistently and de
liberately lied to its customers
and to the general public.
In the eyes of the law, those
lies are no different than the
lies necessary to conduct any il
legal activity. The state of
Texas has amassed evidence
that the tobacco industry has
engaged in racketeering and
conspiracy for decades.
These illegal activities have
created serious consequences for
Texans, whether they smoke or
not. Each year, more than
25,000 Texans die from tobacco-
related causes. And each year
Texas taxpayers spend hun
dreds of millions of dollars to
care for friends and relatives
who are sick and dying because
they use tobacco.
Each year, the tobacco indus
try must find 25,000 new Texans
to replace those who died from
using their products, and the
overwhelming majority of these
new customers are our children.
For decades the tobacco indus-
1 try has denied responsibility for
the harm its products cause.
They point out that some con
sumers freely choose to use to
bacco. But freedom of choice is
not at issue. The real issue is
that no individual, no company
and no industry is above the law.
If Texas adults choose to
smoke, that’s their business. But
when the tobacco industry bla
tantly violates Texas laws, that’s
our business.
On March 28, Texas filed suit
against the tobacco industry to
recover more than $4 billion in
Medicaid costs used since 1980
to treat tobacco-related illnesses
in Texas. Six states have already
filed similar suits, and more
states will sure
ly follow. Each
year, the Ameri
can people suf
fer more than
$100 billion in
losses because of
rising health
care expenses,
higher insur
ance premiums and premature
deaths caused by smoking.
The tobacco industry por
trays use of its products as a
matter of choice. However, the
evidence now shows that the
industry systematically targets
children with advertisements
and promotions to addict them
to cigarettes before they are old
enough to make adult choices.
It is no accident that Joe Camel
is as widely known to most kids
as Mickey Mouse.
Eighty-two percent of adult
smokers began as children, and
by the time they were able to
make adult choices, it was literal
ly too late. The companies satu
rate stores near public schools
with cigarette promotions, and
they continue to resist efforts to
ban vending machine sales be
cause they know that is how
most kids purchase cigarettes.
The tobacco industry will
deny, as it has for decades, that it
markets its products to children.
The companies will deny they
conspired to defraud. But these
denials are no longer credible.
The purveyors of smoking death
now hold a smoking gun. Literal
ly thousands of pages of previous
ly concealed industry information
have been made public.
Those documents are power
ful evidence. The evidence shows
that tobacco companies sup
pressed research to make safer
cigarettes. They suppressed
knowledge that nicotine is high
ly addictive. And they publicly ]
denied that nicotine is addictive
when their own records show
they know differently.
Tobacco executives swore un
der oath to Congress that they
never manipulated nicotine lev
els. But we know that one com
pany developed strains of tobac
co with double the nicotine yield.
The evidence will show that
the time has come for these big
tobacco companies to pay us
back for their ill-gotten gains.
Dan Morales is the Texas
Attorney General
Tobacco industry should face the truth
I f desperate people do des
perate things, don’t be
surprised by anything the
tobacco industry may do in
the near future. If its recent
actions are representative of
their desperation, we should
all be watching our backs
(and our lungs).
The war between the to
bacco industry and anti-smoking propo
nents has been heating up in recent weeks.
Mounting evidence against the industry
has prompted a federal lawsuit by six
states (and more the way).
Texas A icy neral Dan Morales is
th t rget t. lost recent Tobacco Insti
tute Lihe lob 1 yi*ig firm of the major tobacco
companies) sault. Last Thursday, on be
half of the state of Texas, Morales filed a fed
eral lawsuit against the tobacco industry.
Morales hopes to recover the $4 billion
that Texas taxpayers have spent on Medic
aid for persons with tobacco-related illness
es. Morales has said there is sufficient evi
dence to prove that the tobacco industry has
been lying to citizens since the 1950s about
the harmful effects of abusing tobacco.
Commissioned by the tobacco industry,
Public Opinion Strategies of Alexandria,
Va., conducted a survey of 800 Texans. The
purpose of the poll was to determine how
certain unsubstantiated claims about
Morales would affect a possible re-election
bid. The results were delivered to Morales
in an attempt to remind him of the indus
try’s political clout and to try and convince
him that a well-funded candidate could
pose a serious threat to a re-election bid.
Despite the threat, Morales went ahead
with the lawsuit.
According to Morales, “Thousands of
pages of previously concealed industry infor
mation have been made public.” Contained
in these documents is evidence suggesting
that tobacco companies have kept quiet
about knowledge they have proving that
nicotine is ex
tremely ad
dictive. Also,
tobacco
companies
genetically engineered
strains of tobacco with unnat
urally high nicotine levels,
then smuggled the seeds to
South America, and shipped
the product back to the Unit
ed States for processing.
Most startling of all, compa
nies suppressed their own re
search that would have en
abled them to manufacture safer cigarettes.
Tobacco industry representatives have
always claimed publicly that nicotine is not
addictive and that tobacco companies have
not deliberately manipulated the amount
of nicotine in their cigarettes. America is
not convince i. Perhaps it is the 400,000
people who die from smoking every year
that causes us to mistrust the testimony of
industry executives. According to Morales,
25,000 of those who die are Texans.
As if the number of deaths was not
enough, three former employees of the
largest tobacco company, Phillip Morris,
have submitted testimony and affidavits to
the FDA contradicting industry represen
tatives’ sworn testimony. According to the
Wall Street Journal, the former employees
say that Phillip Morris “not only believes it
is in the nicotine-delivery business, but de
liberately controls nicotine levels in
its brands.” The new
FDA testimony
confirms the
document evidence being used by Texas
and the six other states suing the industry
on behalf of their citizens.
The FDA is set to pass a rule restricting
the tobacco industry’s advertising aimed at
children. Because it is considering the tes
timonies in its decision, it is required to
postpone the rule to hear comments on
them. This could push the passage of the
rule back until this fall, possibly even after
the November elections. President Clinton
plans to use the issue in the campaign re
gardless. The Republican nominee, Bob
Dole, opposes the rule.
It is human nature to believe that peo
ple are inherently good — that they are
“innocent until proven guilty.” Enough evi
dence has been mounted, however, to quit
giving tobacco companies the benefit of the
doubt. They are not in the taste-pleasing
cigarette business; they are in the nicotine-
delivery business and they know it.
Although smokers are not devoid of all
responsibility for their own addictions,
they have been victimized by a group of
powerful citizens intent on getting rich and
staying rich regardless of who suffers.
It is time for Americans to turn the tide
against these victimizing companies.
Smokers should join the fight as well, be
cause they have the most to gain from ciga
rettes with less nicotine and
the most to lose if
they continue not to
have the choice.
Houston we have a problem — no one cares about the shuttle
I came into The Battalion office
to write a column on space
shuttle apathy. See, I had this
theory about how no one cares
about the space shuttle program
anymore. I sat down with The
Dallas Morning News and opened
to a story about the recent mal
functioning of its cargo doors. The
shuttle almost had to make an
emergency landing.
But, sadly, as I contemplated my angle and re
viewed the facts of the story, I decided I didn’t care
at all about what I was writing. It was a labor to
press each key on the keyboard as I struggled
through writing a column about the space shuttle
Atlantis. I really didn’t give a poop about the space
shuttle. My theory was if no one died or got hurt in
the space shuttle, then who cares at all about what
happened to them in space?
And that’s when it hit me; I was
also a victim of space shuttle apathy.
Think about it. Did anyone even
know the space shuttle Atlantis was
in space until the cargo doors mal
functioned? That is one clear sign of
space shuttle apathy.
I remember the days when my
family would huddle around the boob
tube, feeling our American pride well up in our
hearts and burst out of our ears in a spectacle of
glorious light every time the space shuttle launch
was televised. Tears would run down our faces and
my dad would declare the day a holiday. I remem
ber the way he would take me aside on those
launch days and say: “Son, don’t worry about tak
ing out the trash today. Today we should revel in
the fact that we are Americans and that we can
choose whether we want to take out the trash. And
son, the space shuttle is a perfect manifestation of
that freedom.”
Those glory days are over. Today, space shuttle
apathy reigns supreme.
Did anyone even know the space
shuttle Atlantis was in space until the
cargo doors malfunctioned?
A clear sign of space shuttle apathy is the way
the press reports on the shuttle. On the front
page of Sunday’s Dallas Morning News, a story
was run about Russian life expectancy. You see,
Russians are dying younger these days and sci
entists just don’t know why. Now that is one is
sue I really don’t care about. But, after perusing
the paper further, I noticed the story about At
lantis and its cargo doors malfunctioning sitting
happily unnoticed on page four. Do you want to
know the reason why The Dallas Morning News
ran Russian life expectancy on page one and the
U.S. space shuttle program story on page four?
It’s because The Dallas Morning News knows all
about space shuttle apathy. The press knows
that Americans don’t care at all about space
shuttles anymore.
Dear reader, if you’ve even made it to this
point in the column, I’ll bet you care more about
space shuttles than I. I have so much space shut
tle apathy, I can’t even poke a stick at it. I don’t
even care enough about it to give this column a
witty conclusion.
But that’s space shuttle apathy for you.
Chris Miller is a sophomore English major
Mail
,Wf®2r*p mb
Put up or shut up
about candidates
In the past two weeks, I have
heard many people complain
about certain student body pres
idential candidates, implying
that they have proof of severe
(even criminal) misconduct.
To these and others, I would
like to say the following: If you
really believe what you have to
say is important, take a stand.
Don’t just sit around and do noth
ing. That accomplishes little.
If, on the other hand, you are
just blowing hot air, shut up. I
am tired of hearing you complain.
Jimmy Charney
Class of ’96
Columnists should
not bash A&M spirit
I am writing in response to
H.L. Baxter’s column Tuesday.
What is so terrible about having
school spirit? What is it about the
thousands of people who cheer
loudly at football games, mug at
Midnight Yell and lose their voic
es at Fish Camp that makes
them bad people? Baxter, Aja
Henderson and especially Chris
Stidvent seem to have made it
their personal mission to bash
those who love A&M. Part of
their argument may be that they
don’t feel welcome. Well, if you
don’t try to incorporate yourself
into A&M, you are never going to
feel like part of A&M. I also won
der if Stidvent, Baxter or Hender
son have ever been enrolled in
another university? I have, and
as such I can readily justify my
enthusiasm for A&M. Remember,
all of us came here because we
wanted to, and if we wish, we are
free to transfer. If one is honestly
unhappy here at A&M, then he
or she should go somewhere else.
Either way you look at it, life is
too short or too long to have to
deal with a bad situation that can
be changed. I am proud to have
the opportunity to come here, and
I appreciate what this University
is giving me — an education and
a head start into the real world.
Christopher D. Scheer
Class of’97