Christmas 1998 - Dear friends,

Yet another year has gone by in the fight for smoking and liberty. This has been a year rich in events. The first version of the tobacco "deal" was canned, so was the second one. The WHO was found in possession of scientific data that apparently it did not want to release because it failed to prove that secondhand smoke is a carcinogen. The decision of Judge Osteen on secondhand smoke exposed the EPA as a liar. The "mysterious" lack of connection between smoking and heart disease in another WHO study was yet another example of the desperate attempt of political science to link smoking with disease at any cost. Not enlightened, and ignoring the self-evident, the political scientists who failed to link smoking with disease in this latest effort asked themselves: "What have we done wrong?" And once again, WHO was found to suppress yet another study exonerating marijuana from many accusations.

The evidence that smoking is not the "epidemic" the political fanfare says that it is keep mounting, and so is the logical conclusion that the anti-tobacco cartel keeps defrauding the public with false information.

Yet, the prohibition has been accelerated, the tobacco industry has signed the Deal of Shame, and the smokers have been even more marginalized, and taxed.

There is something fundamentally wrong with this equation -- something that dictates a radical change of attitude and direction by the Smokers' Rights Groups everywhere in the world.

It has been FORCES' contention for years now that the tobacco prohibition is a great exercise in social control, a probe launched to test the limits of tolerance that people have for prohibition and control, a preview of things to come -- and things are coming! ^{(1) (2)} Finally, this probe is to test how deeply propaganda can influence public opinion. We must admit that the results of this experiment have been astonishing even for the control freaks. Many of them have even expressed their gloating enthusiasm in public, stating that "this was simply inconceivable just ten years ago."

The Smokers Rights Groups have been traditionally fragmented, under-financed, and widely dispersed. Many, especially the European ones, have chosen the soft-pedaling, almost low-key path of preaching Tolerance and Courtesy, and being moderate enough that their opposition would appear the more extreme in comparison. While I find nothing wrong with this civilized approach, time and facts are proving that the "soft touch" is becoming more and more insufficient in a number of respects.

Unless we are prepared to graciously disappear as smokers and as a political force, radical changes in the perception of the fight and tactics for the defense of choice are needed immediately.

Many SRGs have so far failed to acknowledge some very hard-to-swallow facts. These facts are becoming increasingly evident, and I hope that I will be forgiven for the strong and clear-cut words that follow. My clarity has built me a reputation that I strive to maintain!

Above and beyond the rhetoric of the fight, we have to seriously accept that we are dealing with a kind of corruption that has few equals in history.

Originated in the USA, the following model is quickly spreading throughout the world.

The anti-tobacco cartel has become a totally self-sufficient machine. False or distorted evidence is quickly mass-produced by universities and other "researchers" who are usually paid by state agencies, "non-profits", and the pharmaceutical industry. This evidence is then passed on to the activists who, being well-financed with tax money (usually from tobacco taxation itself, as in the case of California), "whip it up" even further, and give it the right political "spin." The "evidence" is then passed on to press agencies, most of them completely sold out to the ideology (or the purse) of the anti-tobacco cartel.

Media are then "pumping" the false information to the public, while withholding information favorable to us, or reporting it with a negative spin. The public then feels threatened by smokers, whose "deadly exhausts," fabricated "short lives", "lack of productivity", inclination to "disease" and so on make them undesirable social elements.

Smokers in turn tend to develop a sense of guilt towards their peers and the omnipresent "children", because of the lack of truthful and balanced information from the media. Consequently, many turn against the tobacco industry, tend to quit out of intimidation, accept super-taxation on cigarettes, and/or -- worse yet -- they become "closet smokers".

Therefore anti-tobacco is always in a win-win position: if smokers quit, it claims political victory. If they keep smoking, smokers finance their own persecution. In the meantime, anti-tobacco is going global, using the World Health Organization as a host to spread the infection.

Most of us in the SRGs are familiar with this infernal mechanism, yet many of us seem to still believe, or hope, that this situation will turn around in the course of things:

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"The legal systems will stop anti-tobacco." "It has happened before ... it is just a fad... it will pass." "The tobacco industry is no fool ... they have an ace up their sleeves!" "They are pushing the envelope too far. The people will rebel, eventually." "I believe that we have to fight through due process." "The tobacco industry will wake up eventually, and start financing all the SRGs." "We have a 'different' plan here... it's gonna work." "In this country? You've got to be joking! It will never happen here!" "Let them do it, let them make tobacco illegal... it will end up like the [first] prohibition!"

These, and many other similar sentences, are what I have heard myself in conversations, conventions, or read in pieces written by SRGs.

I mean no offence to anyone when I say that these sentiments sound to me much like convenient justifications to rationalize lack of cooperation, personal "exposure", lack of initiative and/or planning, complacency, and fear of the enemy.

Let me boldly submit to all of you that none of the above hopes is going to materialize.

Since I have accepted long ago that anti-tobacco is a new form of organized crime, I have no problem in believing that in countries like United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and several others this form of very lucrative felony has permeated state and institutions to the very core.

For the heavy pressure and harassment of the anti-tobacco cartel, today it is inconceivable for any politician in many countries to take a position in defense of smokers even if he/she feels so inclined. Also, it is inconceivable for most scientists still looking forward to a career, to speak against the junk science fabricated and marketed daily by the cartel all over the world, in order to create the impression of multiple independent sources agreeing in damning tobacco.

For these two reasons, the legal system will change to accommodate the political pressures exerted on it. A notorious example is Florida, whose Medicaid Recovery Act (the "special" law enacted so that Florida could sue the tobacco industry and virtually rob the industry of its defense) was repealed by the legislature a few months after the tobacco settlement. It is no longer on the books. Laws will be made for the single purpose of raping smokers and the tobacco industry, and then revoked. When a government has fallen so low as to change its laws to loot its citizens and its own industries, there are no longer limits to what it can do. Hoping for fairness and legal integrity from such a government is simply ridiculous. Lady Justice is no longer just blind. She is deaf and dumb. Poor Lady Justice, she's incapacitated.

The tobacco industry has no "ace" up its sleeve, but just something quite indecent up an even more indecent place. Like the alcohol industry during the First Prohibition, it has been reduced to subjugation, and virtual silence. The industry will not seriously oppose anything that anti-tobacco wants to do. There are multiple examples. I would even dare say that what has happened in the US with the Deal of Shame is a form of nationalization.

Yes, tobacco prohibition has happened before (smoking in public was illegal in twenty US States in the 1880s), but never before were there such powerful forces behind lies and extortion, one of them being the pharmaceutical industry, eager to gobble up tobacco's market share with its nicotine delivery devices.

Moreover, we have to accept that the United States has turned into an extortion machine, with the poles of power shifting from the industrialists to the legal and medical professions, as well as "non-profits" and lobby groups. These entities in turn loot the economically disadvantaged classes through tax hikes based on fabricated arguments that are brought to the attention of greedy politicians by a well-financed lobbying effort. An unprecedented transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich is taking place in the US, with unpredictable consequences.

In the meantime, a population that has chosen to delegate all responsibility to the state, sinking more and more into ignorance and apathy, no longer has the motivation or the nerve to fight beyond whining on the shoulder of the nearest neighbour. A typical example is British Columbia, Canada. When in 1996 the Vancouver Canucks lost the Stanley Cup to the New York Rangers, the people rioted in the streets of the city. But when the criminal government of BC slanders and demonizes smokers, forbids smoking in public places, LIES to children and adults about the consequences of smoking, and even deliberately lies about the provincial balance book to manipulate an election (a lawsuit for fraud followed), British Columbians do nothing to fight this sad state of affairs. Totally bamboozled by the propaganda, the media and many of the people even applaud the unconstitutional lawsuit launched by the government against the tobacco industry.

In such a corrupted system, hoping for justice and due process is naive to say the least, as it is naive to hope that a defeated tobacco industry will finance SRGs.

Those who live in non-Anglo-Saxon countries find comfort and hope in their cultural difference and diversity, and complacently, are happy to maintain good public relations, counting on their cultures not being "as hysterical as the Americans". But these people are forgetting the long reach of the United States, and the power of organizations such as the American Cancer Society. It is no coincidence that Israel launched a lawsuit against the tobacco industry, and Ireland did the same right after its President had been made a member of an ACS committee. It is no coincidence that most of the European airlines are now non-smoking, nor is a coincidence that the European Parliament has taken the falsifications of the WHO and the cartel at face value.

In the meantime, the WHO meets in Vancouver (officially chosen for the rabid anti-smoking stance of the BC government) and advocates a "global plan" to eliminate the "epidemic" of smoking in the entire planet -- an epidemic that exists only on their computers' crooked mathematical models. And the final "bang" of the conference is given by the BC Ministry of Propaganda (...sorry, "Health"), trumpeting that "the WHO will make tobacco take the way of smallpox."

Anti-tobacco is going global because of the WHO, which has departed from its original laudable origins, and turned into an instrument of politics and propaganda. SRGs seem to be afraid to officially attack this organization because of its worldwide clout. They are afraid to look like "weirdoes", and to lose "credibility". By the same token, many SRGs do not take junk science on. They even seem to be fearful to call the anti-tobacco cartel (and the WHO itself) to task on science, either because they are not scientifically prepared, or because they are intimidated by the magnitude of this task.

FORCES has been among the few SRGs in the world to take on the cartel on science, and certainly the only one to continuously publish evidence on line on the Internet for everyone to see. But FORCES alone does not have enough power. Yet, this year there has been a tremendous increase in the number of visits to our websites, in excess of 100,000 a month in average. It is refreshing that many young people are interested in the unpublished side of the story. It is also interesting that nearly 40% of the hits are by the anti-tobacco cartel and US government; a clear indication that puny FORCES makes anti-tobacco very nervous by exposing its frauds.

We have to put it through our heads that we must expose the frauds of universities, the WHO, anti-tobacco "scientists", anti-smoking statisticians, as well as anti-smoking organizations and governments, as the injured party. The impressive titles in front of the names of the signatories of anti-tobacco junk science do not have to intimidate us. Corruption is not peculiar to the uneducated -- quite the opposite is often true.

For as long as the public has the perception that there is credible scientific solidity behind the prohibitionist actions of governments, matters are only going to get worse. We have to understand that unless we explain and prove to everybody -- INCLUDING THE YOUTH -- that they are cheated by a financially motivated criminal enterprise of unprecedented size, the game is over.

It is necessary for all SRGs to immediately conglomerate globally into one super-organization representing all the smokers in the world. This organization must become a political force, representing the interest and the power of billions of CONSUMERS.

It is necessary to stop looking at and waiting for the tobacco industry in the hope of some support. It will not come. The industry has been defeated in the US, and it has let down its "one and only" customers. Organizations such as the NSA get heavy money from the industry and we are delighted, and we thank God they exist. But the "super-organization" would rely on a huge number of diversified tax-deductible donations from private individuals, businesses, and other organizations. It would develop many diversified and profitable activities, and the proceedings would exclusively go to the support of the fight. The funds so collected would go for administration to a section of the organization that is accountable to all donors.

Such a super-organization can hire spokespersons, lawyers, scientists, lobbyists, private investigators, and even create its own press agency. Active members must be assigned the duty to write to their legislators today, tomorrow, next year until smokers are treated fairly. Political alliances with other target industries and/or groups have to be made. The scope of our fight must be widened. The WHO and the rest of the anti-tobacco cartel must be taken to task with great fanfare through media and public meetings. We have to become so noisy that the anti-tobacco cartel will not be able to ignore us any longer. And when the cartel's operatives are confronted with their frauds in front of cameras and microphones, the public will begin to realize it has been taken, especially when -- as it often happens -- the "antis" decline to appear when challenged on specifics. The same need for publicity applies to arguments of civil liberties, job discrimination, and so on.

Lawsuits against anti-tobacco organizations would be started, and politically exploited. The WHO, anti-tobacco governments, as well as the EPA would be sued, and charged with a barrage of crimes ranging from fraud to discrimination, constitutional violations, falsification/concealment of evidence, and so on.

Let's face it: most people in most countries do not even know that Smokers Rights Groups EXIST. At FORCES, we have ample evidence of it from our huge correspondence. We have to turn from being reactive to being pro-active, and take the initiative. Where and when necessary, we have to use the same brutally aggressive, ruthless methods that anti-tobacco uses. But there is a fundamental difference between our enemies and us: contrary to the public perception, the "mountain of evidence" is behind us. Anti-tobacco's goal is to destroy personal choice and us. Our goal must be to destroy anti-tobacco. This is not a fight for the timid, or for the kind. In fact, it is no longer a civilized fight at all.

The anti-tobacco cartel is now global, and it is infiltrating more governments every day. China, much of the United Europe, even East-European countries such as Hungary have already fallen for the fraudulent mathematical models of SAMMEC portraying a theoretical "epidemic". They have fallen for the false "smoking-related diseases", as well as the fraudulent "costs to society" model, based on ridiculous associations with diseases such as hemorrhoids, schizophrenia and broken bones -- among so many others -- which offers justification for the greed of more revenues from super-taxation on tobacco.

We must decide to fight at the same level, and put aside our differences and our limited agendas. We have to snap out of our torpor and despondency, unify and structure our fight, and stop perceiving (even unconsciously) that the end of smokers is "unavoidable," and that it can only be "delayed". If we do so, we play the game of our enemy.

Unless that is done -- and fast -- we may as well all quit smoking, go home, and join the Invasion of the Body Snatchers. And forget about preserving honesty, freedom and integrity for us, and for our children.

Think about it this season, while decorating the Christmas tree and having a smoke.

Gian Turci,
President and CEO,
FORCES INTERNATIONAL