Subject:
        Sklaroff op/ed in Morning Call
   Date:
        Mon, 10 Jan 2000 15:04:40 -0500
   From:
        smokefree <SMOKEFREE@compuserve.com>
     To:
        Bill Godshall <bill@smokescreen.org>
 
 
 

Tobacco Settlement Designed To Ensure People Keep Smoking

by Robert B. Sklaroff / (A free-lance story for The Morning Call).
The Morning Call, Friday, 1/7/00, Page: A17

Allentown has prematurely buried an icon, and this doctor is
ordering you to lament this loss and to visualize why you must
stop others from suffering a similar fate. Then you will
appreciate why the public health is endangered by the
Master Settlement Agreement between the state government
and Big Tobacco. You will then see that Pennsylvanians must
beware of this `gift` -- just as the Trojans should have feared
the Greeks' horse -- for it threatens to give this killer industry
immunity from regulatory oversight.

Donald Hunt, age 53, died from lung cancer on New Year's
Eve. His industrious wife, local newswoman Kathy Craine,
celebrated his accomplishments (a cable TV pioneer with
Service Electric, and an army veteran) by lining three walls of
a ballroom (in which his wake was held) with a sampling of
his community accomplishments and awards. This was a
bittersweet experience, to the extreme.

During a unique funeral mass, mourners were invited to add
to remarks from family and friends. Most noted Don's humor
and energy, while wondering aloud what we're missing
because he died so young. As his doctor, I worked closely
with Kathy as he quietly fought --for nine months -- a virulent
lung cancer exclusively caused by cigarettes. Inevitably and
repeatedly, I was exposed to excerpts of how Allentown
adored him, such as when 10,000 citizens gave him a
standing ovation at the opening of this year's Musikfest.

Essentially, the pathos of his passing was shared with dignity,
but my pain was amplified by knowing this event -- repeated
400,000 times annually in America -- was avoidable. At Don's
wake, I treated the dozen-or-so smokers hovering at the bar
to an impromptu smoking-cessation class, and I consciously
integrated the "social pressure" to quit that Don would have
been too polite to cite. Kathy, charming as ever, tolerated my
excess.

All this unnecessary anguish, including that suffered by the
patient, is slated to be integrated into society, courtesy of the
deal between Big Tobacco and Big Government. I've sued
repeatedly because the state Attorney General is running
interference for murderers, while politicians (and editorialists)
act mesmerized by millions of pay-off dollars.

My arguments against the settlement are based on the denial
of due process that it would foist upon the public, allowing
blood money to buy legal immunity against enforcement of
future misconduct. Already during this past year, the tobacco
industry has repeatedly violated the Agreement, but the
Attorney General has been indecisive and ineffective when
pressured to enforce it. Billboard advertising, youth-oriented
marketing, and indiscriminate mail-order distribution --
supposedly ended -- are rampant under his watch.

A Morning Call editorial of Dec. 27 mistakenly reported the
courts have rejected these pleas. Instead, the courts have
denied me (and presumably, anyone but the Attorney
General) the "standing" to challenge this private deal -- the
largest settlement of civil litigation in our nation's history.
That's why I'm hoping to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court,
while pursuing direct challenges against both Big Tobacco
(for violating the Agreement) and the Attorney General (for
tolerating such behavior).

The editorial correctly restated my fear that the money
generated by the Agreement will be diverted from funding
Medicaid and tobacco control. Do not forget that the federal
lawsuit was filed, ostensibly, to recoup the fiscal impact of
tobacco-related illnesses, and do not forget that the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention calls for 25 percent of
these monies to be directed at treating the cause of this
epidemic: prevention and cessation programs.

The Attorney General considers me "dangerous" because I
have been sounding an alarm that my public health colleagues
have failed to amplify; everyone wants the money. Privately,
they rationalize their deafness by recalling how they have
been chronically under-funded by both political parties. They
know how "dangerous" this precedent-setting Agreement
threatens to become -- indeed, has become -- yet they
remain silent.

That's why I'm pursuing this work. Visit my Web Site for
further information, and you can hyperlink directly into the
primary documents. Make your own decision, and allow
the anguish of avoidable disease, disability and death to
strike you in the heart.

Then, ask yourself how many more Don Hunts can we lose
before we transform our anger into constructive action
against the true culprit and those who would serve as its
apologists.

Big Tobacco will only be able to fund this agreement if
people keep smoking. Therefore, this pact with the
Commonwealth creates an incestuous relationship, one
that ensures no one can force the government to force
tobacco manufacturers to comply with it.

Memo:(Robert B. Sklaroff, MD, is a Montgomery County
medical oncologist. His Web site is
http://members.home.net/rsklaroff/homepage.html)