    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [August 23, 1996]
    [Pages 1332-1334]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Announcing the Final Rule To Protect Youth From Tobacco
    August 23, 1996

        Thank you very much. Thank you, Linda, for your courage and your
    commitment to carry on Victor's legacy and your own crusade. Thank you,
    Mr. Vice President, Secretary Shalala, General McCaffrey. I'd like to
    say a special word of thanks to Commissioner Kessler and to Phil Lee,
    the Assistant Secretary of HHS. In different ways they have a great
    triumph today. Thank you, Dick Durbin, for being the first Member of
    Congress ever to talk to me about this issue. Thank you, Marty Meehan.
    Thank you to my former colleagues, the attorneys general. Mr. Kelley, I
    know you're retiring this year as the senior attorney general of
    America. And we served together back in the dark ages, and I can't
    imagine a more fitting capstone to your career than the fact that you've
    been a part of this, and we thank you. Thank you, Mark Green.
        I thank all the medical professionals who are here. I thank all the
    young people who are here, including Anna Santiago and Neal Stewart
    McSpadden, who came out here with us. I want to say a special word of
    thanks to three Members of Congress who are not here but who deserve to
    be because of their work on this issue, Senator Lautenberg of New
    Jersey, Senator Wellstone of Minnesota, and Congressman Henry Waxman of
    California. Thank you, Joe Califano, for beating on me about these
    issues all these years we've been friends and long before I ever became
    President. Thank you, sir. [Laughter]
        Thank you, Dr. Koop, for everything you have done to try to bring
    some sanity into the health policy of this country. This has been a
    great week for you; we had the Kassebaum-Kennedy bill a couple of days
    ago and this today. Maybe you can design an encore for us over the next
    month or two. [Laughter] But you have been a great force for good in
    this country, and we're grateful to you.
        If I might, I'd like to say just a couple of personal words to some
    people who really deserve an enormous amount of credit for this
    decision. The Vice President was altogether too modest and too
    restrained, but the first time we began to discuss this was about the
    time the FDA opened their inquiry. And he looked at me and I looked at
    him, and I said, ``Well, you know what this might lead to?'' And he
    said, ``I certainly hope so.'' [Laughter] And I said, ``Well, you
    know''--I shouldn't say this, this is our private conversation--I said,
    ``You know, it really isn't an accident that nobody else has ever tried
    to do this. It's not an accident. This is not going to be one of those
    freebies, you know.'' [Laughter] And he began to talk about his sister
    who died of lung cancer and how much he loved his sister. We've had so
    many conversations about his sister that--not just about this, but about
    her life, the fact that she was one of the very first Peace Corps
    volunteers--that I feel almost that I know her personally. And I could
    see in his eyes this determination to redeem the promise of her
    wonderful life.
        And I would also like to thank Nancy Gore Hunger's husband, Frank
    Hunger, who now serves as our Assistant Attorney General for the civil
    division. Thank you for being here, Frank. I know this is a great day
    for you.
        I'd like to thank my wife, who has been talking to me about this
    issue for 20 years, and my wonderful daughter, who convinced my mother
    to quit smoking on her 8th birthday, something I was never able to do.
        So each of us has a personal journey here that has brought us to
    this point. But today we are here as a nation to try to help our parents
    do a better job in raising their children

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    to be strong and healthy and good citizens and to do our duty in that
    regard. We've tried to do a lot of things to help our kids over the last
    4 years and to help parents raise their children. We've worked hard on
    cultural issues, supporting things like the V-chip and educational
    television. We had a big increase in support for antidrug programs in
    our schools and for drug treatment, and we vetoed efforts to reduce
    those, although we should be investing more. We have a zero tolerance
    policy to keep guns out of school. We're requiring our States to enforce
    antidrinking and driving laws. We defended drug testing cases involving
    student athletes. We've worked to bring order and discipline into our
    children's lives by encouraging and giving support to communities that
    try things like community-based curfews and school uniforms and tougher
    enforcement of truancy laws.
        We know, however, that in spite of all the things that are going
    right in this country--with the economy up and more jobs, with the crime
    rate down, with fewer people on welfare and food stamps, dramatically
    higher percentage of our young children immunized--that we have
    continued to see substantial rises in tobacco and drug use among our
    young people. We know that while the scientific evidence is clearly
    unclear, children who do smoke cigarettes are much more likely to engage
    in other risky behavior, including the use of marijuana and cocaine.
        So we have to keep pressing forward to deal with these challenges,
    every one of them. And I want to thank General McCaffrey for being
    willing to give up his four stars and magnificent campaign to take on
    the drug fight for America's children and America's future. I thank you,
    sir.
        Today we are taking direct action to protect our children from
    tobacco and especially the advertising that hooks children on a product.
    I hear from time to time politicians say that they don't really think
    advertising has much to do with it. And whenever I hear one say that I
    say, well, how come we're all spending so much money advertising when we
    run for office then? [Laughter] If it's immaterial, let's just pull it
    all off and see what happens to us. [Laughter]
        Cigarette smoking is the most significant public health problem
    facing our people. More Americans die every year from smoking-related
    diseases than from AIDS, car accidents, murders, suicides, and fires
    combined. The human cost doesn't begin to calculate the economic costs--
    the thing that galvanized the legal claims of the attorneys general, the
    absolutely staggering burdens on the American health care system and on
    our economy in general.
        But make no mistake about it, the human cost is by far the most
    important issue, for every day, even though it's illegal, 3,000 of our
    young people start smoking, and 1,000 of them will die earlier than they
    would otherwise die as a result. The vast majority of people who smoke
    in America today started when they were teenagers. If they don't start
    smoking when they're on a schoolyard, it's very likely they never will.
        This epidemic is no accident. Children are bombarded daily by
    massive marketing campaigns that play on their vulnerabilities, their
    insecurities, their longings to be something in the world. Joe Camel
    promises that smoking will make you cool. Virginia Slims' models whisper
    that smoking will help you stay thin. T-shirts and sports sponsorships
    sends the message that healthy and vigorous people smoke and that
    smoking is fun.
        A year ago this month, we launched a comprehensive strategy to kick
    tobacco out of the lives of our children. We proposed strong
    restrictions on advertising, marketing, and sales of cigarettes to
    children. In the year that followed, the FDA received a torrent of
    comments from the public, more than 700,000, by far the largest
    outpouring of public response in the FDA's history. The FDA has heard
    from doctors, scientists, tobacco companies, and tens of thousands of
    children. We have carefully considered the evidence. It is clear that
    the action being taken today is the right thing to do, scientifically,
    legally, and morally.
        So today we are acting. First, young people will have to prove their
    age with an ID to buy cigarettes. Second, cigarette vending machines
    will be banned from anywhere children and teenagers can go. Third,
    children will be free of tobacco advertising on billboards near their
    schools and playgrounds, and billboards in other locations will be
    restricted to black and white, text only messages. Fourth, if a tobacco
    ad is in a publication children and teenagers are likely to read, it
    also has to be black and white with no pictures. Fifth, companies will
    no longer be permitted to target young people with marketing gimmicks
    like T-shirts and gym bags. Sixth, cigarette companies may no longer use
    brand names to sponsor tennis tournaments, auto races, and

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    other sporting events. Finally, the FDA will soon take steps to require
    the tobacco industry to educate our children about the real dangers of
    smoking. There is abundant evidence of both these troubling trends that
    a lot of young people simply don't believe there is any risk to their
    health. With this historic action we are taking today, Joe Camel and the
    Marlboro Man will be out of our children's reach forever.
        I want to be clear--we've said it before, let's say it again--
    cigarettes are a legal product for adults. They have a perfect right to
    decide whether to smoke. There are many, many good people who have been
    farming, growing tobacco for generations in their families. They have a
    right to make a living for themselves and their families, and they will
    continue to do so. But let's be honest: We hope that over the long run,
    if we can dramatically reduce rates of smoking among children, the
    overall consumption of cigarettes will decline. If that happens, these
    good people who farm the land and work hard should not be left behind.
    And all of us who have sought this course have a responsibility to help
    them if they face difficulties.
        The cigarette companies still have a right to market their products
    to adults. But today we are drawing the line on children, fulfilling our
    obligation as adults to protect them from influences that too often are
    stronger than they are.
        As I said before, I want to say again, this action is a tribute to
    so many of you who are here today, to the parents, the teachers, the
    doctors, the public officials. Dr. Bristow, I particularly want to
    commend the AMA for its writings in its journal, its relentless efforts
    to educate the American people through the physicians of this country.
    But I'd like to pay special tribute to the children of America who have
    joined this crusade, who have organized and led a massive grassroots
    movement throughout America to educate and inform people about the
    dangers of tobacco smoking for children. They've staged teach-ins and
    ``Kick Butts'' days all across the country. They have used positive peer
    pressure on people who could care less what a lot of us old fogies think
    to teach their fellow students that smoking is not cool. So I want to
    thank these children for the work they have done to save their
    generation.
        A lot of the work we do around here we know will only be fully
    manifest in people's lives in the future. We know we can't guarantee the
    success of any individual or family, but we have to guarantee them the
    tools and the conditions that will enable them to make the most of their
    own lives. Today we take a real step to make sure that they have those
    lives in full measure. We have today met our responsibility to help our
    country protect its values, protect its children, and ensure its future.
        Thank you all for what you've done.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:52 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Linda Crawford, widow of Victor
    Crawford, a former tobacco lobbyist turned antismoking advocate;
    Representatives Richard J. Durbin and Martin T. Meehan; Frank J. Kelley,
    Michigan attorney general; Mark Green, New York City public advocate;
    Anna Santiago, recipient of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids Advocate
    of Year Award; Neal Stewart McSpadden, antismoking advocate; Joseph A.
    Califano, Jr., president, National Center on Addiction and Substance
    Abuse at Columbia University; C. Everett Koop, former Surgeon General;
    and Lonnie R. Bristow, former president, American Medical Association.
    The Food and Drug Administration final rule on children and tobacco was
    published in the Federal Register on August 28.