QUOTE FROM ARTICLE: "Some of the best lawyering this Court has ever experienced took place during the presentation of this case," Cohen wrote. "Counsel are unquestionably entitled to handsome fees for their representation of the plaintiffs in this case." (Palm Beach Circuit Court Judge Harold Cohen. "Tobacco Fees Are Disputed," by Karen Testa. AP 12-Nov-1997 19:57 EST REF5794; 23:45 EST REF5669.)

COMMENT: The Florida Medicaid lawsuit was founded on the blatantly fraudulent claim that smokers are an economic burden to the State of Florida, when in fact smokers have saved the State of Florida enormous amounts of money, at least as much as those lawyers for the state pretend to have been "damaged."

"In May of 1993, the Office of Technology Assessment advised the United States Congress that in 1990 smoking-related illnesses cost United States taxpayers a total of approximately $68 Billion, broken down as follows: $20.8 Billion in direct costs; $6.9 Billion in indirect costs for morbidity; $40.3 Billion indirect cost for mortality," the lawyers for the State claimed. (The State of Florida, et al., v. The American Tobacco Company, et al., 56 p. 17.)

Their fraudulent claim was specifically exposed in the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, in the Report, "Cigarette Taxes to Fund Health Care Reform: An Economic Analysis," by Jane Gravelle and Dennis Zimmerman, March 8, 1994, pp 51-53. The OTA ignored the savings from earlier deaths, where the savings are particularly great to Medicaid, because nursing home costs primarily going to non-smokers make up at least 43% of the budget; and falsely pretended that costs paid by smokers themselves were paid by non-smokers (so-called "indirect costs").

Even the original project director of the OTA report, Karl Kronebusch, has openly admitted on Wisconsin Public Radio that its methodology is fraudulent. Thus, the State's claim is literally founded on nothing but an unpunished act of perjury to Congress. But the lawyers for the tobacco industry didn't even question it.

This was a trial in which the evidence for the defense was never presented. And not, as the tobacco lawyers pretended, because the Florida legislature passed a law depriving them of their rights to do so (although this was clearly the lawmakers' intent), or because of Judge Cohen's rulings based on that law, but because the tobacco lawyers themselves withheld the truth.

The industry knows about the CRS report, and about the Manning (RAND) report as well. They even got a written deposition from Harvard economist Viscusi - and never used it. Nothing prevented the tobacco lawyers from demolishing the fraudulent methodology of the State's smoking cost claims with the ironclad evidence of these other, better statistical analyses.

The legislature deprived the tobacco lawyers of nothing but the most frivolous, specious, and useless defense strategies, such as bringing up that the state once manufactured cigarettes in prisons; hauling every single Florida Medicaid recipient into court, one by one, to inquisition them for fraud; or that they shouldn't have to pay because smokers share the blame [sic] for their health problems. Over and over, these off-target irrelevancies were pretended, by the media and the tobacco lawyers themselves, to be the tobacco industry's "best legal defenses."

It is exactly as if the tobacco lawyers conspired with the anti-smokers, and agreed not to present the evidence in their own defense. They concocted those bogus defenses only to present a sham of defending the industry. And finally, just to make sure that the tobacco industry couldn't win despite such feeble defenses, they went to the state legislature and demanded, and got, legislation prohibiting them from using those defenses. Whereupon, the tobacco lawyers abjectly surrendered without a fight, and spouted phony indignation over the law.

Gregory G. Little, senior assistant general counsel for Philip Morris, whined: "The basic tenet of the American judicial system is that when you're accused of doing something wrong, you have the right to defend yourself," said Little. "This court has had numerous opportunities to provide the tobacco industry the same rights that anybody has when it comes to defending a lawsuit, yet it continues to strip the tobacco industry of its constitutional right to a fair trial." (PR Newswire 07/31 [1997] 1805, statement issued by Philip Morris).

So, why didn't you defend yourselves, you incompetent, traitorous worm? We smokers are not fooled by your crocodile tears! We know the evidence on our side that you didn't use! You had your "numerous opportunities" to challenge the anti-smokers' smoking cost methodology. You and you alone passed them up, and don't blame the Florida legislature, the Supreme Court, Judge Cohen, or anyone else for your failure to act! Not even in your despicable press release do you use your uncensored opportunity to make this point! Furthermore, your histrionics are a slap in the face of smokers, in light of the genuine violations of our Constitutional rights that we have suffered from the anti-smokers!

Furthermore, some of us realized ten years ago that the anti-smokers fully intended to file these lawsuits, and that the smoking cost libel was the keystone of this plot. We began fighting this lie way back then, with no help from you. You had ten years to take the anti-smokers to court for libel, to lobby Congress to punish the CDC and OTA, or even just get tobacco state Congressmen to speak out. You could have used your vast advertising resources to spread the truth instead of mere fluff. But you thought it wasn't important. Now, thanks to your own stupidity, you are near the end of your road to disaster, and dragging us down with you.

Mere weeks after the surrender, the truth came out in the New England Journal of Medicine, confirming that smokers are not an economic burden and in fact save medical costs. It got minimal press coverage, and was greeted with the utmost apathy by the almighty pundits, who didn't deem it worthy of comment that the tobacco industry had surrendered to a Big Lie, and smokers got screwed.

The very premise of this lawsuit, that smokers are an economic burden, was put over on the American people, legislators, and judges, by means of a deliberate, willfull, and knowing media conspiracy, extending over a period of more than ten years, with the openly expressed intent to incite these malicious lawsuits, by spreading libelous propaganda. The media are the real gangsters and racketeers.

The media also know about the CRS report and everything else, and they have deliberately concealed the truth to further their own vendetta to destroy the tobacco industry. In every single story about the Medicaid lawsuits, without a solitary exception, the media have lied through their teeth. Every time, they have purposely misled the public with phrases intended to convey the exact opposite of the truth. At no time have they ever let on that smoking has saved the states money, that the states have only benefited from it, and have suffered no economic damages at all.

They lied, and they continue to lie, that the state sued the tobacco companies:

• "to recover the Medicaid costs of treating sick smokers;"
• "recover funds spent on tobacco-related illnesses;"
• "recover Medicaid money spent on smoking-related illnesses;"
• "to recover Medicaid money spent treating smoking-related illnesses;"
• "to recover Medicaid money spent on sick smokers;"
• "to recover costs;"
• "to recover the cost of treating sick smokers;"
• "to recover some $1 billion used to treat Medicaid recipients suffering from smoking-related illnesses;"
• "to recover public money used to treat people with smoking-related illnesses;"
• "to recover Medicaid money it spent treating sick smokers;"
• "to recoup $2.4 billion in taxes spent on people who get sick from smoking;"
• "to recover the cost of Medicaid treatment of people with smoking-related illness;"
• "to recover the Medicaid funds;"
• "recover medical costs;"
• "to recoup an estimated $800 million in annual expenses for treating sick smokers;"
• "to recoup Medicaid losses;"
• "to recoup Medicaid money spent on sick smokers;"
• "recoup costs of treating smoking-related illnesses;"
• "to recoup the Medicaid funds taxpayers have spent to treat tobacco-related illnesses;"
• "to recoup the public health costs of cigarette smoking."

• Laura Asseo
• Eddie Dominguez
• Tracy Fields
• Jackie Hallifax
• Karen Testa,
• of the Associated Press;

  Jim Loney

  Stephen Rothman

  Patricia Zengerle,

  of Reuters;

  and Taran Provost, of Time.

QUOTE FROM ARTICLE: "No cocaine cartel, gambling empire or white-collar scheme has even approached the damage allegedly done to the state as alleged in the plaintiff's case," Palm Beach Circuit Judge Harold Cohen wrote in allowing the state to use its Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization law. ("Tobacco Biz: Racketeering?" by Jackie Hallifax, AP 13-Dec-1996 12:49 EST REF5431.)

COMMENT: In Judge Cohen's courtroom, the truth never came out. The racketeers got away with their racketeering, and innocent people were smeared, libeled, betrayed, stabbed in the back, and sold down the river. The cost to the innocent citizens who have saved their state money is $11.3 billion dollars.

"No cocaine cartel, gambling empire or white-collar scheme has even approached the damage" caused by the anti-smokers in his own courtroom! And Judge Cohen gushes that it is "Some of the best lawyering this Court has ever experienced." Well, lawyering is easy if your opponents simply roll over and give up without trying, allowing you to get away with a junk lawsuit founded on nothing but an act of perjury, and nobody is looking out for the people. So what they are truly entitled to is not "handsome fees," but their own prosecutions for conspiracy, fraud, and racketeering.

Counterpoint by

Carol Thompson
Smokers' Rights Action Group
P.O. Box 259575
Madison, WI 53725-9575
Phone: 608-249-4568