RJ Reynolds CEO Steven Goldstone told the National Press Club on April 8, 1998, that Joe Camel had been officially deemed dangerous for the American public. *

Photo: AP / Marquette * 1998: A tobacco company executive admits for the first time, under oath, that nicotine is addictive and poses a health risk. He stops short of saying it can kill you.

Testifying before the House Commerce Committee, Steven Goldstone, then the CEO of RJR Nabisco ("RJR" originating with longtime cigarette-maker RJ Reynolds), agreed that nicotine is addictive, "under the way that people use the term today."

Goldstone's testimony came before the same committee where, only four years earlier, seven tobacco industry execs denied, with straight faces, that nicotine was addictive.

What changed in four years?

A slew of lawsuits, resulting in a $368 billion judgment against the tobacco industry, is what changed in four years. In June 1997, as a result of several states filing suit against the "big six" tobacco companies, a group of state attorneys general drafted a comprehensive national tobacco plan. Among its settlement provisions was the fine, to be leveled against the industry as a whole, intended to resolve the claims for smoking-related health costs made by the 40 plaintiff states.

Although $368 billion is a lot of money, the industry was potentially facing the loss of a lot more as lawsuits mounted. Tobacco execs were inclined to accept the deal, which called for a one-time payout, over 25 years, in exchange for future immunity.

The proposed settlement was endorsed by both the American Medical Association and, eventually, the Clinton administration. It was sent to Congress for approval.

With intransigence no longer an option, the tobacco boys began some serious backpedaling. Within days of the announcement of the plan, RJR dropped its controversial Joe Camel ad campaign. Philip Morris was pressured into killing off the Marlboro Man (altogether fitting, seeing as how two of the actors who portrayed the Marlboro Man died of lung cancer).

So the mood in Washington was tense when Goldstone appeared before the Commerce Committee to try and convince Congress to approve the deal, and perhaps reduce the penalty award. It was there, under oath, that Goldstone finally admitted what only small children and the retarded didn't already know: Nicotine is addictive and poses a serious health threat in a variety of ways.

Of course, he also took the opportunity to posit a doomsday scenario of collapsing corporations and rampant unemployment, should immunity be withheld and the industry inundated with lawsuits.

Congress deadlocked, and the national tobacco plan eventually withered and died. In fact, sensing that an even tougher anti-smoking bill drafted by Sen. John McCain was going nowhere, the tobacco companies, now emboldened, stopped negotiating altogether. RJR Nabisco, with Goldstone leading the charge, even resurrected its aggressive advertising campaign.

In the end, Big Tobacco coughed up only $200 billion to ride off into the sunset.

(Source: N.Y. Times, PBS.org)

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