Pushers Of Lethal Leaf Are Protected

Let’s say that out of nowhere millions of Americans suddenly realize that they have become physically addicted to a newly discovered drug placed in a perfectly legal new product that scientists, doctors and health experts all say will kill more than 400,000 customers each year.

And let’s say that America’s adolescents are becoming increasingly hooked on this new deadly product, which has suddenly driven up the nation’s health care costs by untold billions of dollars.

And let’s go on to say that the brand-new industry that sprang up around this lethal new product was raking in billions of dollars while claiming that its product is legal and that all the scientists, doctors and health experts are wrong.

In that case, what would House Speaker Newt Gingrich and his new Republican majority do about it? Would they spring into action to protect the nation from this deadly new threat? Or would they ridicule efforts to have the federal government declare the newly discovered drug addictive? And would they ridicule attempts to force this new industry to stop preying upon the nation’s children?

Gingrich chose ridicule over public protection.

But the addictive drug and deadly consumer product are not new. All the facts are the same except Americans have been living and dying with this powerfully addictive drug (nicotine) and this product (cigarettes) since tobacco was first introduced to New World settlers by Native Americans.

Few Americans need scientists, doctors and health experts to tell them that smoking is addictive and harmful. It is as obvious as a heart attack. Or emphysema. Or premature aging. Or hypertension. Or lip cancer, throat cancer and lung cancer. Or a long list of other smoking-related diseases.

But when President Clinton decided to declare nicotine an addictive drug and institute measures to curb the growing number of youthful addicts, Gingrich ridiculed the efforts.

Consider that the United States now is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. That long and deadly war claimed fewer than 300,000 battle deaths. More Americans die each year from smoking than all the battle deaths suffered in World War II. Is this worthy of ridicule?

In less than 13 months, smoking kills more Americans than all the battle deaths suffered by U.S. servicemen in World War I, World War II, and the Korean, Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars combined.

And yet the tobacco companies are invincible in court. Individual Americans who have tried to hold tobacco companies responsible for the harm caused by tobacco products have been steamrollered.

Without government opposition, tobacco companies have successfully maintained that nicotine is not addictive and that there is no proof that smoking is harmful.

This is exactly where the power of the federal government can help. Only the federal government has the power to strip away this pretense maintained by the tobacco industry that there is no proof that nicotine is addictive or that either smoking or second-hand smoke harms health.

Once those obvious facts are legally established, the tobacco industry will have no place to hide. And just as good, there will be no place for politicians, parents or self-denying smokers to hide.

With the facts on the table, there then would be no need to repeat the mistakes of Prohibition. And there would be no need to regulate tobacco advertising or institute other bureaucracy-building regulations. It would be a better solution, a market solution.

To my knowledge, no other industry in America, legal or illegal, produces a product that comes close to killing and crippling as many customers as does the tobacco industry. It’s not the sort of problem that can be solved with ridicule.

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