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U.S. Won't Ask Firms to Help Current Smokers Quit
By
Carol D. Leonni, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, June 10,
2005; Page A01
The
government announced yesterday that it will further scale back its
demands for penalties on the tobacco industry in a landmark civil
racketeering case, saying it is no longer seeking to help 45 million
American smokers quit their habit.
In
the surprising final day of an eight-month trial, the Justice
Department's lead attorney said the government now wants tobacco
companies to pay only for smoking cessation programs for an
unspecified number of future smokers who may become addicted to
cigarettes in the first year after the trial concludes.
Justice Department officials refused to say how many people that may
be, but the Department of Health and Human Services estimates that
each year about 1.3 million people become daily smokers.
On
Tuesday, the government stunned anti-smoking activists and some
industry lawyers by requesting that tobacco companies pay $10
billion for a smoking cessation program, rather than the $130
billion a government expert had testified was necessary to aid all
current smokers. Yesterday, Associate Attorney General Robert D.
McCallum Jr. said the government's last-minute penalty reduction
came after it concluded it could seek funds to cover cessation
programs only for people who become addicted to tobacco in the near
future.
Anti-smoking activists and industry lawyers ridiculed the
government's description of its new cessation proposal. They said
Justice officials seemed unable to answer basic questions about how
many people it would cover, how the government would verify which
smokers became addicted in the first year and who would be barred
from getting help.
"In
48 hours we've heard three different plans from the government about
its proposed cessation program," said Philip Morris attorney Ted
Wells. "And it's almost comical to listen to the government try to
explain it."
William V. Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free
Kids, said the last-minute changes suggest political interference by
the Bush administration to soften the blow for the tobacco
companies.
"It
appears senior Justice officials decided on an amount of money and
are now trying to justify that amount by describing a cessation
program that doesn't make sense and won't work," Corr said. "They
are changing the cessation program to protect the financial
interests of the industry rather than 45 million addicted adults."
During six years of litigation, the government has argued that the
six largest American tobacco companies conspired for 50 years to
conceal the dangers and addictiveness of smoking from the public and
lied about efforts to lure young people to tobacco use. When the
trial opened in September, it was the largest civil racketeering
case in U.S. history.
But
in February, an appeals court ruled that the government could not
legally force the tobacco industry to pay $280 billion for allegedly
ill-gotten past profits from tobacco sales, leaving the cessation
program as the most expensive penalty facing the industry.
McCallum said in an interview yesterday that the government is
trying to comply with the February appellate court ruling. He said
the government now believes, based on the ruling, that it can demand
money only for remedies that prevent future wrongdoing by the
industry and can seek money only for people who become addicted in
the future.
Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and Martin T. Meehan (D-Mass.), who
asked the Justice Department's inspector general on Wednesday to
investigate possible political interference in the case, asked
yesterday that he expand that investigation to include the
government's request that two witnesses alter their testimony, as
reported in The Washington Post yesterday. They also asked Inspector
General Glenn A. Fine to look into the changes announced by the
government yesterday.
McCallum said he was not backing away from government expert Michael
Fiore's estimate that it would cost $130 billion over 25 years to
help 45 million Americans quit smoking.
"We
do think Dr. Fiore's estimates are accurate. We disagree with the
Court of Appeals," McCallum said. "We definitely care about helping
American smokers quit . . . but the judges ruled against us."
McCallum said current smokers could apply for cessation benefits,
but there would clearly be limits on how many.
Several legal experts said the government's new theory is too
generous to the industry, because it concedes legal points that
might be successfully argued. Some sources involved in the case
think the government is trying to settle it by proposing lower
penalties that it hopes the tobacco industry might accept.
Government spokesmen have declined to comment on whether it is
trying to settle the case.
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler, who will decide the case and
whether to order penalties against the tobacco industry, has the
power to reject government sanction recommendations and select
measures she considers appropriate. The two sides could settle
anytime before Kessler issues a ruling.
Dan
Webb, lead tobacco attorney in the case, complained to Kessler that
the government is recommending changes in penalties for the industry
"too late in the game."
"The government keeps changing its remedies on a day-to-day basis,"
Webb said. "It's a moving target."
The
defendants in the case are Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.,
Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., Loews Corp.'s Lorillard Tobacco
Co., British American Tobacco and Vector Group Ltd.'s Liggett Group.
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