by Dan Morales
Most Texans know using tobacco is dangerous. But they don't know the illegal practices of the tobacco industry, which has violated state and federal laws for so many years the violations became standard operating procedure. For 40 years, the industry has consistently and deliberately lied to customers and to the general public.
We have evidence that for decades the tobacco industry engaged in racketeering and conspiracy, illegal activities creating serious consequences for Texans, whether they smoke or not. Each year, more than 25,000 Texans die from tobacco-related causes. Texas taxpayers pay hundreds of millions of dollars yearly to care for people who are sick and dying because of tobacco.
As recently as 1994, the CEOs of America's largest tobacco companies testified in Congress that cigarettes don't cause cancer, nicotine is not addictive and that companies do not manipulate nicotine impact levels to ensure the addiction of customers. Their own internal documents prove they lied. Literally thousands of pages of previously concealed industry information now shows that tobacco companies suppressed research to make safer cigarettes, and suppressed knowledge that nicotine is highly addictive. Tobacco executives swore they never manipulated nicotine. But we now know one company developed strains of tobacco with double the nicotine yield, smuggled genetically engineered seeds into South America and then shipped at least 4 million pounds of the extra-addictive tobacco back into this country to make cigarettes for U.S. consumption, including brands labeled as "light."
Since 1954, the industry promised to inform the public of smoking's effects, promises which were never kept. The industry waged an aggressive campaign of disinformation against respected scientific researchers and public health officials.
Evidence shows the industry systematically targets children with advertisements and promotions to addict them to cigarettes before they are old enough to make adult choices. It's no accident Joe Camel is as widely known to most kids as Mickey Mouse. Of adult smokers, 82 percent began as children. The marketing campaign to children is no Mickey Mouse operation. They saturate stores near public schools with cigarette promotions, and continue to resist all efforts to ban vending-machine cigarette sales because they know that's how most kids purchase cigarettes.
Texas recently filed suit against the tobacco industry to recover more than $4 billion in Medicaid costs since 1980 necessary to treat tobacco-related illnesses in Texas. Six states have filed similar suits; more states will surely follow.
Each year, tobacco companies generate approximately $50 billion in revenue. And each year, Americans suffer more than $100 billion in losses due to rising health-care expenses, higher insurance premiums and premature deaths due to smoking.
In the next months, industry spokesmen will be busy making arguments, but they won't be arguing the evidence. They can't.
Dan Morales is the
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