WORD COUNT
625
JUNE 24, 2009
TOBACCO INDUSTRY TAKES ON OVERPOPULATION – by William A. Collins
Global
warming,
It’s no
joke;
Want to
cure it?
Let ‘em
smoke.
Funeral
futures are not booming these days, what with the crusade against
smoking in the Western world. But Nevada is doing its best to rescue
the industry. It may soon restore smoking rights in taverns.
Apparently the ban on puffing in such places has cut into the bars’ slot
machine revenue, as miffed patrons move over to real casinos instead
where they can drink, gamble, and smoke all at the same time. What a
treat. Somehow the casinos had been left out of the state’s general
smoking prohibition. Thank goodness someone is finally thinking
straight.
Altria(Phillip Morris) certainly is. Understandably sensitive to the
steady decline in smoking nationally, Altria is buying up UST (formerly
United States Tobacco), America’s premium snuff maker. You’re no doubt
aware that even though cigarettes are gradually sinking beneath the
waves, snuff is ascendant. Its use is growing at seven percent a year,
particularly among young macho men. Altria is paying $10 billion to get
on that band wagon and soon all those unemployed cancer doctors may be
able to avoid the unemployment line.
Meanwhile
heavy economic factors are further roiling the tobacco scene. The
recession is the biggest. Who can afford cigarettes anymore? Many
folks can scarcely afford to eat, let alone puff. For others though,
smoking comes first and eating, at least decent food, second.
And now
the President has gotten into the act. At his urging the Congress has
just raised the tax per pack another 62 cents, and has finally given
regulatory authority over tobacco to the FDA. At this point only true
addicts can arrange their finances to buy tobacco. There’s getting to
be as much profit in smuggling smokes as in smuggling dope.
Luckily
for the industry, the other government shoe has not yet dropped. You
remember that the outcome of America’s largest lawsuit ever was for the
tobacco companies to pay the states $246 billion in penance for being
naughty. A healthy chunk of that money was supposed to go toward
anti-smoking programs. Fat chance! With free money on the table and no
rules, the states have largely spent it for their own budgetary purposes
with barely a pittance for prevention. Ideologically we’re not much
into state government meddling in people’s private lives.
Unfortunately the federal bureaucrats aren’t helping either. Neither
Medicare nor Medicaid will pay for cessation programs for their
patients. Of course if one continues puffing and comes down with cancer
or emphysema, then they’ll pay. Plenty. But prevention is not our
government’s long suit.
Still,
overall, the U.S. does lead the world in stamping out tobacco. Smokers
are seriously ostracized. Europe is coming along too, though it’s no
doubt hard for them to admit that America is right about something. The
real problem is Asia. Big Tobacco has licked its wounds in this country
and reorganized over there.
According
to those who keep track, there are about 1.3 billion smokers in the
world today, headed for 1.6 billion by 2025. Undertakers of the World,
Rejoice!! In Africa few folks can afford the habit, and in Latin
America some of the U.S. admonitions seem to have taken hold. But in
Asia smoking is a cultural frenzy. The industry is spending plenty,
using many of the same techniques that were so successful here for so
long.
Indeed
tobacco may be our only prayer in slowing the globe’s unsustainable
population growth and subsequent climate crisis. China can’t do it
alone. Perhaps we could persuade the industry to focus its efforts on
those lands like Bangladesh that are due to be flooded by Global
Warming. Kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. Meanwhile cancer
is still a zooming worldwide growth industry.
--
Columnist
William A. Collins is a former state representative and a former mayor
of Norwalk, Connecticut. A photo of Bill Collins is available
CLICK HERE
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