John Whitehead's Commentary

We need to cut smoking in this country and around the world. Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and disease, costing us too many lives, too many dollars and too many tears. We must prevent our youth from taking up this dangerous habit.--Tommy G. Thompson, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary

Every day, the U.S. government spends millions of dollars in its efforts to prevent illegal drugs from entering this country. The Bush Administration even has a spirited campaign against marijuana, going so far as to fight medicinal marijuana use and any product that may have a trace of hemp in it. However, while the most frightful and dangerous drug on the planet rages in the bodies of millions of Americans, including a large segment of our young people, our government is doing virtually nothing to stop it.

Indeed, the U.S. Surgeon General has recently released a comprehensive report on smoking and health. It reveals for the first time that smoking causes diseases in nearly every organ of the human body. Published 40 years after the Surgeon General's first report on smoking--which concluded that smoking was a definite cause of three serious diseases (lung and larynx cancer and chronic bronchitis)--this newest report finds that cigarette smoking is conclusively linked to diseases such as leukemia, cataracts, pneumonia and cancers of the cervix, kidney, pancreas and stomach.

According to this new report, smoking kills an estimated 440,000 Americans each year. On average, men who smoke cut their lives short by 13.2 years, and female smokers lose 14.5 years. The economic toll exceeds $157 billion each year in the United States--$75 billion in direct medical costs and $82 billion in lost productivity.

Statistics indicate that more than 12 million Americans have died from smoking since the 1964 report of the Surgeon General. Moreover, another 25 million Americans alive today will most likely die of smoking-related illnesses. And it doesn't matter what type of cigarette is smoked. In fact, another major conclusion from the latest report, consistent with recent findings of other scientific studies, is that smoking so-called low-tar or low-nicotine cigarettes does not offer any health benefits over smoking regular or "full-flavor" cigarettes. "There is no safe cigarette, whether it is called 'light,' 'ultra-light' or any other name," the Surgeon General has said. "The science is clear: the only way to avoid the health hazards of smoking is to quit completely or to never start smoking."

The obvious question is: If tobacco is the most lethal and dangerous drug in the United States, why is it not greatly curtailed or even made illegal? To find the answer, one need look no further than political contributions.

The tobacco industry has made more than $1.8 million in political contributions to federal candidates, political parties and political committees so far in 2003-2004. And, according to a quarterly report issued by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund and Common Cause, since 1997, the tobacco industry has contributed more than $27.7 million to various political action committees. And since 1999, tobacco companies have also spent more than $101 million on lobbying the U.S. Congress. Indeed, the tobacco industry spent more than $21.2 million to lobby Congress in 2003. That amounts to approximately $127,000 spent on lobbying for every day that Congress was in session.

The report from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund demonstrates how the tobacco industry's contributions are used to thwart public health policy. The report details contributions to the sponsors and co-sponsors of legislation that would provide for regulation of tobacco products by the Food and Drug Administration. In fact, the 17 House members who sponsored legislation opposed by the public health industry received, on average, more than 20 times as much money from the tobacco industry than the 127 sponsors of public health conscious legislation.

One is tempted to argue that the lobbying process as used by the tobacco companies is democracy in action. However, at base it is the rawest form of political corruption when big money buys the loyalty of members of Congress and forces a nefarious silence from our president and other political leaders. As William V. Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund, said when releasing his study, "Today's report tells us why there has been so little action on tobacco in Congress, despite the fact that more than 2,000 kids become addicted smokers every day and more than 400,000 Americans die every year from tobacco use."

Sadly, nearly 90 percent of smokers begin at or before age 18. Those who peddle the death that is tobacco target young smokers in the hopes of hooking human beings on tobacco for the rest of their lives. And as we're finding, the only outcome is sickness and death.

So, what should be done? Smoking tobacco should be outlawed, clear and simple. Why would we settle for anything less?

ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.

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