Norman E. Kjono March 7, 2001 Dear Rep. Waxman, Please find enclosed the following:
The enclosed supplement my letter of January 29, 2001 addressed to Washington State Representatives Lambert and Ruderman, copies of which were forwarded to you. Please note my statements to Representatives Lambert and Ruderman in my correspondence of January 29:
Selling addiction to kids -- which demonstrably stabilizes tobacco revenues and assures more new youth source consumers for tobacco control activists' pharmaceutical sponsors -- is a theme created by and unique to tobacco control activists. Please note that bottom support levels for youth persistence accelerate during the period of most aggressive tobacco control intervention, to where the greatest increase in youth smoking persistence occurs during the period of Project ASSIST. The above graphic was developed as part of an extensive analysis of smoking rate data in context of allegedly anti-tobacco programs. As part of that analysis adult smoking persistence was also examined. The results of that analysis are equally disconcerting and startling:
Selling addiction to adults -- which demonstrably stabilizes tobacco revenues and assures continuing source consumers for tobacco control activists' pharmaceutical sponsors' nicotine products -- is a theme created by and unique to tobacco control activists. Please note that the turning point for both adult quit smoking rates and residual values corresponds in time to Dr. Koop's Surgeon General report that declared nicotine to be addictive, and that the residual for 18-24 year old adults accelerates coincident with Project ASSIST. The above described youth and adult smoking rate phenomenon now place we parents,taxpayers, and consumers in a difficult and alarming position:
The above phenomenon are causally related as to both timing and content of tobacco-control programs. Notably, in paragraph 4 of his February 27, 2001 letter to me Washington Assistant Secretary of Health Williams characterizes my description of youth smoking persistence and youth smoking trends as "previous effects of anti-smoking campaigns." As set forth at center of page 2 in "Puff, The Magic Camel," California anti-tobacco activist Stanton Glantz publicly connected the failure to reduce adult smoking and the increase in youth smoking to tobacco control program focus five years ago:
While Joe Camel reflects today on the 1990s as the most aggressive turnaround of his cigarette sales in three decades, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publishes information that tells us pharmaceutical distributors participated in nicotine product sales success:
Things couldn't have turned out better for tobacco control activists and their pharmaceutical nicotine sponsors: There is now a stabilized and expanding robust consumer market for nicotine products, despite an aggressive decade of price hikes on tobacco. That' s quite a system. While I have little doubt Joe Camel is puffed up about those results, and SmithKline Beecham and Johnson & Johnson have much to thank tobacco control activists for, the above-described facts about tobacco new youth source nicotine consumer rates leave we parents in a bit of a lurch: We were lead to believe by tobacco control and it' s aggressive political promoters like you that anti-tobacco pro-grams were going to reduce youth and adult smoking. Turns out you've simply created a nicotine money machine that is dependent on more children starting to smoke to sustain itself. No, Mr. Waxman, kids on SmithKline Beecham's Nicorette or Johnson & Johnson's Nicotrol nicotine products is not a superior alternative, what about "Nicotine Free," not just "Tobacco Free." That product choice becomes particularly reprehensible when we parents realize that allegedly anti- tobacco activists who are paid millions by pharmaceutical nicotine distributors have presided over the largest increase in youth smoking that we have seen in decades. Thanks, Henry. We parents needed that. Fortunately for our children and consumers, statistical trends and causal relationships such as the above place an interesting damage model in the laps of those who presume to regard other people's children and consumers as their private "social influences" revenue experiment. Sincerely, Norman E. Kjono Via U.S. Mail, Certified No. 7000-1670-0005-7105-5934 cc: Via U.S. Mail, Certified No. 7000-1670-0005-7105-5910 Christine O. Gregoire, Esq., To obtain a printable copy of this document with clear graphics, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer. Download Adobe Acrobat Reader (It's Free) |
