The victory won last week by 22 states against one tobaccocompany is being hailed as a triumph by anti-smoking crusaders.However, serious flaws in the settlement make it unlikely that anyof the states will get much money, few smokers will quit, and thedecades-old legal battles to hold cigarette makers liable for theirproduct will go on and on.
Sure, the Liggett Group (makers of Chesterfields and Larks) wasforced to admit some truths about tobacco -- it is dangerous andhighly addictive, the company has known it for years anddeliberately targets teen-agers anyway. But we already knew that,despite the lies being told under oath by cigarette companyexecutives. As a 30-year smoker who has quit at least a dozentimes, I didn't need an admission from my pushers to know I'm ashooked as any heroin addict.
Just as the many other revelations about cigarettes dragged outof this greedy, vicious industry in several decades of lawsuits, aswarm of equally greedy lawyers is busily blunting the effect ofthose truths with denials, attacks, obfuscations and confusion.Even Liggett Group president Bennett LeBow, who turned traitoron his much bigger rivals and colleagues, made sure that his formalacknowledgment won't really hurt his company much. It won't evenstop Liggett from continuing to make and sell cigarettes, and mayend up benefiting the corporation greatly.Since Liggett, which has only 2 percent of the cigarettemarket, is hardly making any money now, its agreement to pay thestates that sued it 25 percent of pretax profits for the next 25years means almost nothing. The company's promise to put a moresevere warning label on its product means just as little, sinceexperts say few smokers pay any attention to the labels, least ofall teen-agers.In exchange, Liggett won a degree of immunity from many of thesuits it faces. In fact, it becomes an attractive takeover targetfor other, larger tobacco companies, since that immunity can bepassed on to any corporation that acquires Liggett.Lawyers for the states that agreed to settle with Liggett saythe company's promise to cooperate in testifying against other,larger tobacco companies, including providing documents onindustry-wide meetings and discussions, will make it much easier towin lawsuits against those other companies. But their lawyers arealready on the attack.A judge from the tobacco state of North Carolina immediatelygranted an injunction to prevent Liggett from releasing anydocuments, and it may well stand up in higher court. Since most ofthose industry-wide talks, which anti-tobacco forces believeinvolved a conspiracy to deceive the public about the health risksof tobacco, were held by or included lawyers, they can be keptsecret under the attorney-client privilege.Not that it will make much difference. Thousands of documentshave already been revealed with little effect. While LeBow and hissubordinates will now spend endless hours in court testifying insuits against the other tobacco companies, this settlement makes itnot a whit more likely that any tobacco company executive will goto jail (Liggett company officials, of course, will not be heldliable for previous denials under oath of what they have justadmitted was true). And it will not cause one fewer cigarette to bemade or sold.Some smokers may be motivated to try harder to quit. But healthofficials say 90 percent of those who try fail. Meanwhile, teen-agesmoking increased by 30 percent between 1991 and 1995, andcontinues to grow as the industry uses everything from cartoons tohighly imaginative Internet Web sites to get them hooked.And that, in fact, provides the main bright spot in last week'sdeal. The admission by Liggett of targeting children may make iteasier to attack the other companies, and will certainly make itharder for Congress to cripple the Food & Drug Administration'sefforts to regulate tobacco sales.Still, this settlement is less of a victory than it seems.Billions of dollars in profits, including huge sums filling statetreasuries from tobacco taxes, have so far outweighed even thedeaths of tens of thousands of people clearly linked to tobacco,and the enormous cost to taxpayers from related illnesses. It willcontinue to do so until the chief pushers -- the executives andofficials of the industry -- begin going to jail.King Features Syndicate
No comments:
Post a Comment