Psychful

It should come as no surprise that American tobacco companies have lied to the public for decades. They denied that cigarette smoking was addictive, that they manipulated the amount of nicotine in cigarettes to hook smokers, and they lied about the lethal consequences of cigarette smoking. The truth: Smoking kills 1,200 Americans. Every day.

Now the Justice Department wants the tobacco industry to advertise these facts about tobacco as part of a legal settlement. Unable to win financial penalties in the billions, the Justice Department seeks a court order to force the tobacco industry to advertise their sins, just as Hester Prynne wore her scarlet letter in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic. The Justice Department has submitted 14 proposed statements for U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler to approve. Among them:

A federal court is requiring tobacco companies to tell the truth about cigarette smoking. Here’s the truth:…Smoking kills 1,200 Americans. Every day.

For decades, we denied that we controlled the level of nicotine delivered in cigarettes. Here’s the truth: …We control nicotine delivery to create and sustain smokers’ addiction, because that’s how we keep customers coming back.

We told Congress under oath that we believed nicotine is not addictive. We told you that smoking is not an addiction and all it takes to quit is willpower. Here’s the truth: Smoking is very addictive. And it’s not easy to quit.

The Surgeon General has concluded that children exposed to secondhand smoke are at an increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome, acute respiratory infections, ear problems and more severe asthma.

The story reported by Pete Yost of the Associated Press includes several other proposed statements to be used in the advertising campaign. Of course, through legal wrangling, the enforced penitence of the tobacco industry may never see the light of day.

What this legal matter does reflect is the massive decades-long campaign of lies to the public by an enormous private industry. Government estimates are that 435,000 people die each year due to the effects of tobacco smoking. We spend billions of dollars a year to finance wars against other countries who may, or may not, have attacked us on 911 causing 3,000 deaths. But every day we lose 1,200 people to the effects of smoking tobacco.

As Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway detail in their excellent book, Merchants of Doubt, it took only a few well-paid scientists to assist the tobacco companies in their massive campaign of distortion and lies about the real science behind tobacco. When big companies want to distort the truth for profit, they will find the few professionals needed to report distorted evidence to make their case to the unsuspecting public.  It was done for decades by the tobacco industry, and it is being done today by other multi-national corporations.

Few citizens have the time, persistence or desire to cull through scientific research and accurately assess the veracity of claims made by corporations who have a profit to make. As a result, reporters and other critically thinking individuals need to tediously discover the truth and make those truths known to whoever is listening. Are you listening?

Aftermath of St Valentine's Day massacre 1929, courtesy Wikipedia

Sadly we will always have people who decide to do dangerous or unhealthy things. Emphasis here is on the word “always”. No amount of prohibitionist legislation will free society from the thrill of temptation, or the quest for variety.  Even now as several states contemplate referenda about decriminalizing marijuana, a new cry is heard for outlawing the recent fad among drug users, herbal incense. The herbal concoction laced with synthetic cannabinoid is simply the next in a litany of products that will forever be pursued by those who wish to alter their mental state by ingesting chemicals. Because there is a rise of emergency room admissions from smokers of the incense, the prohibitionists in the US and several other countries are now clamoring for criminal penalties to prevent the possession and use of this potentially dangerous substance. Last century we prohibited alcohol by the 18^th Amendment to the US Constitution and fourteen years later passed the 21^st Amendment to repeal our failed attempt at Prohibition. This was our nation’s only repeal of a constitutional amendment.

We have regulatory agencies that, if properly funded, could do a better job of insuring that products sold in our country did not contain truly dangerous chemicals in their composition. By regulating the production of commercial products designed to alter one’s state, the most dangerous aspect of drug abuse could be prevented, that being the consumption of poison. Prohibitionists want to skip that step and go straight to criminalization so that unwary drug users can then be arrested and sent to overcrowded courts and prisons to make an example to others who would consume these products.  That worked so well in the 1920s it’s worth repeating.  Criminalization is the quick fix to social problems, and like most other quick fixes, it doesn’t work and creates even bigger problems.

Politicians and the simple-minded are the proponents of prohibition.  For politicians it is an easy sell to those who simplistically think using drugs is bad and should then be outlawed.  This is, unfortunately, a sizable portion of our electorate. Politicians are then perceived as protecting society and they can move on to other pressing issues.  Complex issues can be dangerous for politicians as evidenced by our recent foray into healthcare reform.  Politicians and the simple-minded just want to say “no” to the would-be drug users and allow legal consequences to guide the decisions of the citizenry. They continue their linear thinking by later funding more police to enforce the expanding criminal drug problem, more courts to prosecute the abusers, and more prisons to house the easily convicted. And the electorate is later outraged by the need to raise taxes to pay for this prohibition.

Every night on the evening news we are reminded of politicians’ contribution to protecting society with graphic stories of arrests, shootings among drug dealers, and human interest stories of the innocent being killed in collateral damage.  And none of this news would exist each night if they had not first criminalized possession and distribution of the chemicals. The St. Valentine’s Day massacre of 1929 affected the public’s perception that Prohibition might not be working. Perhaps this is what will be needed to bring 21^st century America to its senses.