Articles from Smokers Fighting Discrimination
THE TOBACCO SETTLEMENTLegal LarcenyAn editorial by Dave Pickerell, president of "Smokers Fighting Discrimination" on the Deal of ShameOver the years the tobacco companies never paid out one dime in damages to smokers because juries concluded that individuals were responsible for their own actions and the harms of smoking have been know for centuries. When the state of Florida amended its Medicaid Third-Party Act in 1995, it stated that if you were a Medicaid recipient and were injured by a tobacco product, then the state had the right to retroactively step in and become an agent on your behalf and collect damages for that injury. Since thousands upon thousands of individuals were involved in this action, how do you prove damages and for how much? General statistical analysis is used to determine harm and thus payment. If it can be said that 6% of smokers get lung cancer nationwide, for example, then this is the figure used for the number of people harmed and payment. Based on the "Old Rules of Law", the state would have to prove in all cases that smoking was the cause of all the injuries before damages could be awarded. Based on the "New Rules of Law" guilt by statistical association is all that is needed to declare harm and justification for damages. The states that sued big tobacco and won in this settlement used the Florida Medicaid Third-Party Act of 1995 as the basis for doing so. The beauty of this, at least from the states attorney generals point of view, is there is no way a target of attack can survive this perversion of law because real people and the actions of real life are meaningless. The tobacco settlement is simply the theft of smokers money by the government. They know that smokers as a general rule don't complain that much and the tobacco companies are some of the most loathed people on earth. Most people will not be bothered by this act of government and they know it. Most if not all of the cost increase on tobacco because of this action will be passed on to the consumer, smokers, and big tobacco survives another day. Smokers are left with what amounts to a tax increase brought on by state action without the right to vote on it through their elected state representatives. Setting public policy through private negotiations is not what our founding fathers had in mind for this nation nor would they like laws that strip individuals and corporations of their ability to defend themselves in courts of law. If you are employed in or have an interest in any business that might soon be one of the next targets of "The New Rules of Law", smokers have some advice for you. Be afraid, be very afraid.
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