ourtrooms and the court of public opinion were the major battlegrounds in 2000 as the tobacco wars showed no signs of cooling down.

The legal battle went all the way to the highest court in America when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in March that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not, under current law, have the power to regulate tobacco. The tobacco industry had little time to celebrate as, just four months later, a Florida jury handed down the largest punitive damage award in history when it ordered the industry to pay $145 billion in a class action lawsuit filed by sick smokers.

Outside the courtroom, the tobacco industry stepped up its massive public relations campaign aimed at polishing its tarnished image. But new studies showed that the tobacco companies continue to target children and mislead the public about their products.

Legislative battles also continued as Congress debated whether to support the federal government’s lawsuit against the tobacco industry and state lawmakers debated how to use funds from the $246 billion tobacco settlement.

Legal Developments

Supreme Court Ruling

The tobacco industry won at least a temporary victory in March when the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that the FDA does not have the authority to regulate tobacco products under current law. The ruling overturned the FDA’s 1996 rule restricting the marketing and sale of tobacco products to children.

But the Supreme Court also gave public health advocates ammunition to pressure Congress to give the FDA authority over tobacco. In her majority opinion, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor found the FDA had shown that “tobacco use, particularly among children and adolescents, poses perhaps the single most significant threat to public health in the United States.”

Bipartisan bills to grant the FDA authority over tobacco were quickly introduced in both the House and Senate and secured significant numbers of co-sponsors. While tobacco giant Philip Morris said it could support FDA regulation of tobacco, its version of regulation would do little to protect public health.

Florida Trial

The year’s second landmark legal decision on tobacco was handed down in July by a Florida jury in a civil case brought by 500,000 sick smokers. After two years of listening to testimony about industry deception and wrongdoing, the six-member jury ordered the tobacco industry to pay $145 billion in punitive damages. Industry appeals are expected to last for years.

“The Florida jury rightly recognized that the tobacco industry has caused more harm to more people over a longer period of time than any other industry in history,” said Matthew L. Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

Department of Justice Suit

In a third major legal ruling, a U.S. District Judge in September rejected the tobacco industry’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the industry by the U.S. Department of Justice. The lawsuit seeks to hold the industry accountable for the cost of its wrongdoing to U.S. taxpayers. While dismissing two of the federal government’s claims, the judge allowed the case to proceed under racketeering claims that, if successful, would force the industry to give up illegally obtained profits and change its unlawful practices.

The same lawsuit produced an extended battle in Congress, where Big Tobacco’s allies tried to block litigation funding and kill the lawsuit. The House voted, 215 to 183, on June 23 to fund the lawsuit, handing the tobacco industry one of its biggest legislative defeats in years. The fate of the lawsuit rests with the next Congress and President-elect Bush, who has publicly expressed opposition to the lawsuit.

Court of Public Opinion

Marketing to Kids: New Evidence

Surrounding the Florida trial, Philip Morris stepped up its advertising campaign aimed at convincing the public, policy makers and future jurors that it has changed since the November 1998 legal settlement between the states and the tobacco industry. However, these claims were undermined by new research showing that, since the settlement, the tobacco companies have actually increased advertising and marketing that reaches kids.

One study, released in May by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, showed tobacco advertising in magazines with high youth readership increased by 33 percent after the settlement. Public health advocates charged the industry was violating the settlement’s prohibition on targeting youth, and state attorneys general launched an investigation. Philip Morris subsequently announced that it was suspending advertising in youth-oriented magazines, but the other tobacco companies refused to follow suit.

A second study, conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago, found that, since the settlement-mandated ban on tobacco billboard advertising took effect on April 24, 1999, the tobacco companies have increased their advertising in convenience stores and other retail outlets.

“These studies show that the tobacco companies have not stopped targeting our kids and in fact may be doing so more effectively than ever,” said M. Cass Wheeler, CEO of the American Heart Association. “Rather than embracing the changes that would reduce youth tobacco use, the tobacco companies are exploiting loopholes in the settlement to achieve maximum exposure of tobacco products to young people.”

New Product, Old Lies

The industry’s PR campaign was further undermined by new evidence of continued industry deception about the health consequences of its products.

Just weeks after the Supreme Court stripped the FDA of its authority over tobacco, R.J. Reynolds began test marketing its new Eclipse cigarette with the claim that it “may present smokers with less risk of cancer” and other diseases. But a Massachusetts Department of Public Health study released in October refuted these claims, showing that Eclipse produced as much or more of several potent carcinogens as other brands.

State Settlement

Legislatures Debate Use of Funds

Tobacco occupied the spotlight in state capitols across the country as legislatures continued to debate how to spend each state’s share of the $246 billion settlement with the industry.

In October, the CAMPAIGN FOR TOBACCO-FREE KIDS and other public health groups released a new report showing that, while more states are allocating settlement dollars for tobacco prevention, most states are not doing enough to protect kids from tobacco. The study found that 15 states have made substantial commitments to fund tobacco prevention and cessation, but only five of those states are spending more than the minimum amounts recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The settlement debate occurred amidst growing evidence that comprehensive tobacco prevention programs are significantly reducing youth tobacco use and saving lives in the few states that have implemented them. Florida’s program has reduced smoking rates by 40 percent among middle school students and 18 percent among high school students in its first two years. Massachusetts has cut high school smoking rates by 15 percent since 1995. And new studies showed that California’s pioneering program is saving lives by helping to reduce rates of heart disease and lung and bronchus cancer.

National Anti-Smoking Ad Campaign Launched

This year also saw the launch of a national youth anti-smoking advertising campaign by the American Legacy Foundation, which was created and financed as part of the 1998 settlement.

The new organization made headlines in February with a hard-hitting ad in which 1,200 body bags – representing the 1,200 people who die of tobacco-related disease each day – are stacked outside Philip Morris’ New York headquarters. Facing pressure from Philip Morris and the major television networks, the Foundation pulled two of its initial ads. But a series of body bag ads were back on the air beginning during the Olympics in September, delivering powerful messages about the dangers of smoking and the duplicity of tobacco marketing.

International

The battle over tobacco opened a new international front in 2000 as the 191 member nations of the World Health Organization began negotiations in October on the world’s first tobacco treaty, called the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

The WHO initiated the treaty effort to curb a global tobacco epidemic that already kills four million people each year. That figure is projected to rise to 10 million deaths a year by 2030, 70 percent of them in the developing world.

Global cigarette smuggling made headlines in 2000 as investigative reports detailed cigarette company complicity in smuggling schemes. The European Union and the governments of Canada and Colombia were among those filing smuggling-related lawsuits in U.S. courts against the cigarette companies, including Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, and British American Tobacco.

The chasm between public relations and reality was never clearer than in the testimony of Philip Morris executive David Davies before the World Health Organization in Geneva. While admitting for the first time that “we agree that smoking is addictive and causes disease in smokers,” Davies also said, “We are proud of our products.”