[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 44 (Tuesday, April 21, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H2079-H2080]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    ANTISMOKING ZEALOTS SHOULD FIGHT ILLEGAL DRUGS WITH EQUAL FERVOR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hulshof). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Whitfield) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot of discussion 
recently about efforts to reduce teenage smoking in America, and all of 
us in the Congress recently returned from our Easter recess in which we 
went back home to work and talk to constituents about problems facing 
them.
  In my district I met with a lot of young people, a lot of educators, 
and it

[[Page H2080]]

became quite obvious to me that, yes, teenage smoking is a problem. But 
it is not nearly the problem in America that is caused by the use of 
illegal drugs and alcohol among young people today. As a matter of 
fact, if we visit any juvenile facility around the United States, on 
the average 63 percent of juveniles in every juvenile facility were 
using drugs on a regular basis before going to that facility.
  I firmly believe that while teenage smoking is a problem, the major 
problem facing teenagers today is the use of illegal drugs and alcohol. 
Yet despite that, the mobilization against a single legal industry, the 
tobacco industry, by a President, a Vice President, a former FDA 
commissioner, Surgeon General, trial lawyers, 40 State attorneys 
general, and other organized groups may be a first in America.

  The wartime fervor with which the antitobacco movement pursues its 
aims, its deployment of extreme measures, including punitive 
legislation and coordinated lawsuits, is unprecedented in our country. 
The issue is much more than simply teenage smoking and the reduction of 
teenage smoking. These groups want to punish this industry.
  Now, last July representatives of the tobacco companies sat down with 
40 State attorneys general and various trial lawyers and various health 
care groups and under the auspices of the White House to see if they 
could reach an agreement to reduce teenage smoking in America. And they 
did reach an agreement, and it was a historic agreement in many ways. 
And yet I would say that I doubt that 1 percent of the American people 
know what the tobacco industry agreed to do in those negotiations. I 
want like to review that for the American people this evening.
  First of all, the tobacco industry agreed that they would pay $368 
billion every 25 years forever. And from that money, some would go to 
the States to reimburse them for Medicaid costs, but a lot of the money 
would go for programs to help teenagers be educated about tobacco, to 
help teenagers stop smoking this product and maybe not even begin to 
smoke it.
  Second of all, the industry agreed that the FDA, the Food and Drug 
Administration, would be able to regulate tobacco, going far beyond the 
FDA rules to regulate tobacco initiated by former Commissioner Kessler. 
The agreement went far beyond that.
  In addition, the industry agreed that a third-party entity, a health 
care entity, would be able to set goals to reduce teenage smoking each 
year by a certain percentage point. And if the industry were not able 
to reach that goal, if the goal was not reached, the industry would pay 
$80 million per 1 percentage point that that target was missed. That is 
even considering that the industry does not necessarily control teenage 
smoking. Yes, we live in a country that even teenagers have some 
responsibility and can make a decision of are they going to use the 
product or not, knowing full well that it is not healthful to use. But 
the industry agreed they would pay $80 million for every percentage 
point missed.
  In addition, they agreed to pay $5 billion a year into a trust fund 
for payments to pay off court judgments. In addition, they said that 
they would voluntarily sign consent decrees waiving their 
constitutional right to advertise their product.
  In addition, they said they would sign consent decrees to voluntarily 
waive their right to lobby the Congress. Every constituent, every 
citizen in America has a right to lobby the Congress, to petition 
government, and they agreed to give that up too.
  But despite all of those things, the antitobacco groups now are going 
forward and saying ``We want more out of this industry.'' I want to 
urge them to focus more on helping us reduce teenage smoking and the 
use of illegal drugs and stop trying to punish an industry.

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