Barry Meier of The New York Times today reports on a 1998 case by a chain of St. Louis hospitals against the tobacco industry and finds a dog not barking: after decades of losing these cases, the tobacco industry is as rich and powerful as ever.
That settlement, legal specialists said, helped reshape how tobacco companies did business, like leading to an end to cigarette advertising in the United States. But more broadly, they said, the tidal wave of tobacco cases brought by smokers and others has failed to significantly weaken the industry, which continues to generate large revenues, remains a potent political force and has shifted its aggressive promotional activities overseas.
The settlement with the massive government lawsuit against the tobacco industry that established a long-term link between legal smoking and state government revenues made the tobacco industry a duly appointed subsidiary of the Treasury Department, and like the death its products hasten with such efficiency, the tobacco industry is now as certain as taxes as well.
The spokesperson for the tobacco control industry quoted in the article says it differently but it means the same thing:
Looking back on the long tobacco battles, Matthew L. Myers, the president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C., said he believed the cases brought by the state attorneys general had the most enduring impact. But he said even the intention of that deal had been watered-down because settlement-related money intended for antismoking activities was quickly diverted by financially hard-pressed states into unrelated programs like road building.
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