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Editor: C. Calvin Warriner
Profession: Cigarette & Tobacco Attorney

Category: Tobacco News

A breath of fresh air recently blew accross the tobacco litigation landscape when United States District Court Judge Gladys Kessler commented in a recent opinion, "As the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates, cigarette manufacturers fraudulent conduct has permeated all aspects of their operations--from how they design, manufacture, and market their products to how they communicate with the public about them-- and continues to this day."

The experienced jurist didn't mince words in stating what is obvious to millions of tobacco addicted victims yet has been vehemently denied by the tobacco industry. What is even more shocking is the tobacco fat cats, having made billions of dollars peddling lethal products now cry that they have been punished enough. Tell that to the millions upon millions of smokers who can't quit despite obvious risks.

The truth is that tobacco has been forced to repay only states whose legal muscle was big enough to make them fess up. The question becomes, is it fair to stop punishing people who knowingly lie, cheat and kill before every person they have harmed has had their day in court? Can it be considered fair when having made hundreds of billions tobacco is allowed to pay only a few billion for absolution? Tobacco surely doesn't believe its own words or it would not be spending over twenty million dollars per year lobbying against tobacco unfriendly legislation.

In this person's opinion big tobacco's protestations about punishment will ring hollow before any rational, fair arbiter.

And then, what of the millions of new smokers, my children, my friend's children who they target as new addicts daily? That is a subject for another day.