Big Tobacco: Legality Vs. Morality

4 Pages 997 Words

For over half a century now the tobacco industry has gone to great lengths in concealing the negative effects associated with the use of nicotine and smoking cigarettes. According to TRUTH (anti-tobacco group), the industry spends about 11 billion dollars a year creating a gigantic “smoke” screen. Advertisement and promotions imply that cigarettes will make you independent and glamorous. They hint that instant popularity and good looks are a puff away. Anybody with a sound mind should know that all of this is false. The fact is that both tobacco industry officials and public relations firms have done a brilliant job in promoting their product, but that does not necessarily mean that they are morally right to do so.
In his recently published book, A Question of Intent, former FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler describes in fascinating detail how the FDA’s tobacco team uncovered piece after piece of incriminating evidence of big tobacco’s decades of lies. Kessler was able to obtain information from many current and former tobacco industry employees who acknowledged that nicotine was a deadly and addictive drug. In Ch. 30 of his book, Kessler tells us about William Dunn, a clinical psychologist who conducted product testing at Phillip Morris in the 1960’s:
Although we did not have a full picture of his work, I knew that he had hinted long ago that nicotine was a pharmaceutical product. “Think of the cigarette pack as a storage container for a days supply of nicotine,” Dunn wrote. “Think of the cigarette as a dispenser for a dose unit of nicotine.” (229)
In the August of 1995, with the backing of then-president Bill Clinton, Dr. Kessler and the FDA announced that they would regulate, but not ban tobacco products. Nearly five years later the Supreme Court ruled five to four that the FDA did not have the authority to regulate the tobacco industry. The reason I believe the FDA was unable to gain control over the industry...