Our national focus on guns and opioids has kept cigarettes out of the news and yet more people die from the effects of smoking.

Big Tobacco is in a league of its own in terms of the sheer numbers and varieties of ways it kills and maims people. Tobacco may be legal and accessible but it is no less lethal.

Because of the disease and damage smoking caused, and the industry's all-out efforts to deny it, Big Tobacco was sued, leading to a Master Settlement Agreement with the states in 1998.

A stipulation was that the industry advertise the fact that it "deliberately deceived the American public;" that it "intentionally designed cigarettes to make them more addictive," and, further, that the industry admit it knows that "the nicotine actually changes the brain -- that's why quitting is so hard."

Public announcements containing these messages -- and others -- are appearing in full-page advertisements in the press these days. The industry calls the statements "forced confessions." Seriously.

These "forced confessions" include a boldface preface that lays the blame NOT on Big Tobacco but on the court overseeing the settlement:

"A Federal Court has ordered Lorillard, Altria, Philip Morris USA, and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco to make this statement about designing cigarettes to enhance the delivery of nicotine."

In other words, don't blame us for the poison we produce, lie about, and sell. Blame the court.

It won't fly.

In fact, more than 500,000 Americans still die prematurely due to smoking every year, 1,300 people every day. Second hand smoke kills over 41,000 Americans a year. Smokers, on average, live 10 fewer years than those who never smoked.

In addition to lung disease, emphysema and cancer, and heart disease, research connects smoking to vision loss, tuberculosis, rheumatoid arthritis, impaired immune function and cleft palates in children of women who smoke. Connections have also become clear between smoking and bladder cancer, diabetes, and liver cancer. There are links to breast cancer as well. So much for "You've come a long way, baby."

And yet, the tobacco industry presses on; it spends more than $24 million a day, yes, a day, to keep smokers smoking and to attract others.

So, what are we doing to thwart the appeal, and, to help smokers stop? What have we done, for example, with that tobacco settlement money?

As of 2013, tobacco companies had paid more than $100 billion to state governments as part of the 25-year, $246 billion settlement and, with few exceptions, states have made choices not to spend the money on public health and tobacco prevention.

Many don't come close to the 14 percent that was supposed to go for this purpose, New Jersey among them.

New Jersey was entitled to $7.5 billion over 25 years from the federal tobacco settlement in 1998, but it opted for a quick $3 billion in 2003, and the money intended for smoking cessation efforts was mostly used to plug budget holes instead.

The need for tobacco cessation and prevention remains as Big Tobacco's reign is hardly challenged, given its new products and markets and its ample treasury. New Jersey, for example, counts some 1,100,000 smokers in its population -- 17 percent of adults; and 14 percent of kids from 12 to 18 -- but virtually no funds are committed to help these smokers cease smoking, and none committed to prevent new smokers from joining their ranks.

Maybe this has something to do with the close to $800 million the state brings in annually in cigarette taxes?

Given its declining domestic sales, Big Tobacco developed new fronts abroad and, as a result, smoking rates have risen around the world, particularly in Asia and Africa. The industry has sued governments to protect its interests by using trade agreements to challenge and intimidate them. It undermines legitimate public health regulations and thwarts requirements to include warnings on its packaging, limits on advertising and sale of its products.

Big Tobacco has come roaring back, domestically, with its campaign to attract younger people to its new sphere of influence: electronic cigarettes. In an if you can't beat 'em, join 'em' move, Big Tobacco turned the e-cigarette market to its own advantage and has the nerve to spin its entry as providing smokers a healthy alternative to smoking!

The president of Reynolds Vapor, for example, said his company is"going down a new path with e-cigarettes, with an eye to public health." In a national marketing campaign, including television, Reynolds Vapor boldly announced:

"We're here to make sure we can put this industry on the right side of history....We're trying to redefine tobacco enjoyment and give smokers an alternative, one that potentially reduces harm."

E-cigarettes may have less deadly qualities than tobacco products, and may provide a "transition" out of cigarette smoking -- the results are mixed -- but they are certainly not healthy. Exposure to nicotine impairs brain development and predisposes teenagers, particularly, to addiction to other drugs. And, it can't be lost on the industry that the use of e-cigarettes may "normalize" smoking once again.

So, Joe Camel didn't disappear at all. But, now, he is inhaling the vapors.

Big Tobacco will not go away. This is an industry that has declared war on those trying to save lives and protect public health. Every progressive step we can take against it, here and abroad, no matter what form the product takes, needs to be supported, publicized, and, even, celebrated. The health of citizens everywhere demands it.

Linda Stamato, a regular contributor to NJ.Com and the Star Ledger, is co-director of the Center for Negotiation and Conflict Resolution and a Faculty Fellow at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

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