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OCR Page 1 of 28Tobacco
Lawsuit
Another Tobacco Lawsuit (Yawn)
Contrary to anything you might read,
partment. The pros there said a federal
Notice the suggestion of implied immu-
piling up lawsuits on tobacco companies
fall fostering the biotech industry. That
suit wouldn't fly.
nity?
doesn't do anything to stop smoking. Even
would make some biotech engineers and
Lo and behold, a suit was filed last week
The government presents itself as vic-
driving tobacco companies into bank-
entrepreneurs very grateful. Other states
anyway. Like an unhappy spouse, though,
tim in this case. Yet everybody now agrees
ruptcy wouldn't mean they'd stop produc-
are engaged in similarly delicious deci-
the career staffers got their revenge in the
the government collects more in taxes and
ing cigarettes.
sions. Politicians enjoy hanging around
fine print.
saves more in Social Security payments
Banning their advertising doesn't stop
with people who are grateful.
For one thing, the damages sought
than it pays in medical expenses:
people from smoking cigarettes either.
At the federal level, the Democrats have
aren't the $20 billion the government
Last week's lawsuit was launched to re-
Brand names do not die because they are
Medicare expansion in mind and other en-
claims to spend annually on sick smokers.
vive the tobacco issue for next year's elec-
not advertised. Remember Burma Shave?
titlements for the middle class that, in elec-
The damages are only the portion attribut-
tion. The cigarette industry issued its
Nor would it make smoking any less of a
tions ahead, they will want to accuse the
able to the offenses with which the tobacco
usual statement about how about it would
rite of passage. Nobody advertises "bidi"
Republicans of trying to take away. To-
companies are charged-i.e. obfuscating
fight the case to the death. We've heard
cigarettes from India, packing several
bacco money will help pay for these pro-
the dangers of smoking.
that before.
times the nicotine and tar of a normal ciga-
grams.
The operative assertion that the govern-
Two years ago, the industry agreed to a
rette. Yet these have become the latest
The crypto-nationalization of the Big
ment would have to prove appears on page
financial settlement, plus advertising re-
teenage craze.
Four, perversely, has made the cigarette
54 of the complaint: "Members of the pub-
strictions and other regulations, beyond
Stopping their ads would simply freeze
industry attractive again for private enter-
lic believed in the truth and completeness
anything contemplated in this case or the
the relative positions of the brands in the
prise. Spain's Tabacalera is just one of sev-
of the statements made by defendants and
eral foreign brands taking a new look at
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1999
their co-conspirators. They relied upon the
Business World
The cigarette indus-
the U.S. market. Eventually there will be a
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
statements by defendants and their co-con-
flourishing smuggling trade as well. More
spirators and demonstrated that re-
liance by purchasing and smoking ciga-
try issued its usual state-
than 15% of beer bought in France is now
By Holman W. Jenkins Jr.
consumed in Britain. By the same osmosis,
rettes, and by refraining from trying to
ment about how it would
cartons of cigarettes have begun to flow
quit or reduce their consumption of ciga-
rettes."
fight to the death. We've
back into the U.S. from tax-free Indian
reservations and from Canada.
marketplace SO the Big Four could raise
Somebody at Justice has a sense of hu-
prices without losing sales. The Big Four-
heard that before.
Why do politicians lie? Why is lying vir-
mor. Surveys as far back as 1974 have
Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, BAT and Lo-
tually a bodily function of politicians? We
shown that 99% of seven-year-olds under-
rillard-aren't the only cigarette makers in
take a view of politics here that makes it
stand the dangers of smoking.
lawsuits already settled by the states.
the U.S. There are about 50 others. In fact,
hard to condemn them for being poll-dri-
Second, under Medicare and other
Once the election is over, this case will be
this would be a good time to start a new one.
ven mouthpieces, uttering whatever cant
health-care recovery laws, the government
settled too. The industry has figured out
is currently in demand. This is a democ-
These smaller companies won't pay the
can claim damages going only back six
that its future lies in helping the govern-
lawsuit tax, so they'll be free to make huge
racy. If you can find one thing everybody
years, at most.
ment become more complicit in the tobacco
profits under the umbrella of Big Tobacco's
agrees with-say, teenagers shouldn't
Enter Al Gore, witness for the tobacco
habit. The government has figured out it
price hikes. The states have agreed not to
smoke-cling to it as the rock of salvation.
companies.
needs the industry's private shareholders
sue Little Tobacco as long as they don't in-
The life of a politician isn't all bad. The
From 1966, every pack had a warning
as a figleaf even as government becomes
crease their market share by more than
truth may be a foreign land about which
on it. That warning was revised in 1984 un-
the main beneficiary of tobacco profits.
25%, which would cut too much into the
they know little, but there is the satisfac-
der the auspices of a certain congressman
Already the states involved in the Med-
government's take from the Big Four.
tion of bossing large amounts of money
from Tennessee. "This bill represents a
icaid settlement have fully incorporated to-
So the government war on smoking has
around. Under a deal between the Big Four
progressive and courageous step by the to-
bacco revenues in their spending budget
become pretty much a joke, and that in-
and the private lawyers who represented
bacco industry that caught many by sur-
for the rest of time. Their dirty secret was
cludes the latest lawsuit. Wherever Bill
the states, the lawyers will receive $500
prise," Mr. Gore, himself a former tobacco
their deliberate phasing in of higher
Clinton got the idea of a federal case
million a year in perpetuity from future
farmer, said at the time. "This has been a
prices, so smokers wouldn't quit from
smokers. That's a lot of millionaires who
against the Big Four that he slipped into
bitter pill for them to swallow, but in doing
sticker shock.
his State of the Union speech earlier this
will have to stay grateful to the politicians
SO they have made stiffer punitive legisla-
In Ohio, they're having a fine debate
year, it didn't come from the Justice De-
lest anything interrupt this flow of money.
tion less likely in the years ahead."
about whether to spend the tobacco wind-
Like, say, a real war on smoking.
Relations
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