-Caveat Lector- When has it ever been clearer? The tobacco industry has killed more people than all the dictators of the 20th century combined. Yet under law, they were permitted, AND STILL ARE PERMITTED, to produce a product that kills and maims MILLIONS. The Supreme Court, and the Senate are charged with the task of protecting the elite rulers they work for, and especially the capitalist system which which keeps them rich and in control of all the important aspects of our lives. The solution? More democracy. No institution should EVER be beyond the reach of the society it is meant to serve. If the Supreme Court is populated by elite corrupt bastards, they should be able to be " retired " without perks and pensions by a public referendum , and their rulings should too. In the article below David Kessler says that the Supremes ' did not get it.' They got it. They were doing their job. Joshua2 for Nurev ========================================= By LAURAN NEERGAARD, Associated Press WASHINGTON (January 6, 2001 2:57 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Dr. David Kessler sat in the Supreme Court chamber and wanted to shout at the justices: Facing a landmark public health case -- a chance to curb addictive nicotine, they just did not get it, recalls the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner. His agency had uncovered proof tobacco companies manipulated nicotine to hook smokers and targeted minors to take up the habit. Yet the justices wondered aloud why the FDA should regulate tobacco by prohibiting marketing to teenagers, and asked if regulating adrenaline-pumping horror movies would be next. "'The evidence, that's what's different,' I wanted to shout," Kessler recalls. "Why didn't they understand that?" To the Supreme Court, "it was as if our investigation had never happened." Almost a year after the high court ruled that Congress never gave the FDA authority to regulate tobacco, Kessler has written a book chronicling the five-year investigation that uncovered some of industry's deepest secrets. It's a detective story, showing how a group of bureaucrats quietly crisscrossed the country piecing together evidence -- even discovering specially bred high-nicotine tobacco secreted from Brazil into U.S. cigarettes -- that forever changed how society views tobacco. The book, "A Question of Intent: A Great American Battle with a Deadly Industry," makes clear that the story is not over. Although the FDA's investigation helped spur state lawsuits that cost cigarette makers billions of dollars, millions of Americans remain hooked. "I had underestimated the enormous power of the industry," Kessler said in an interview, explaining why he wrote the book. "I don't think people know the extent to which their tentacles really reached." While Kessler still insists tobacco cannot be banned -- that would throw too many people into withdrawal -- he now advocates dismantling the industry. He envisions a special corporation to sell cigarettes without advertising or making any profit, thus removing the incentive to hook new smokers. "It has become apparent that nothing else will work," he writes. "Ultimately, cigarettes should be sold in brown paper wrappers, with only a brand name and a warning label." Tobacco companies had not seen Kessler's book, which is being published this week. But industry leader Philip Morris, which once bitterly fought the FDA's regulations, says today, "Tough and sensible FDA regulation of the industry is needed and should focus on such things as preventing kids from smoking." Kessler, now Yale University's dean of medicine, did not come to the FDA in 1990 even considering battling tobacco. Arriving admittedly naive, the bespectacled pediatrician led the nation's biggest consumer-protection agency through a series of crises, including drug tampering, food frauds, and how to speed approval of AIDS drugs. So at first, he said an employee's suggestion to take on tobacco was "crazy." But anti-smoking groups were pressuring the FDA. Then an agency lawyer noted, "Cigarette manufacturers can take the nicotine out, but they leave it in. That goes to the question of intent." The answer seemed plain: deliberately control or manipulate nicotine, and it is a drug the FDA could regulate. The investigation was on. A former Secret Service agent and an Army criminal investigator schmoozed skittish informants with code-names like "Deep Cough" into sharing industry secrets. Lawyers pored over internal industry documents that stated, "We are then in the business of selling nicotine, an addictive drug." They culled evidence from newspapers, lawsuits, and dusty U.S. Customs records that showed when that secret high-nicotine tobacco entered the country. Kessler, who left the agency in 1997, recalls when he knew President Clinton would back the FDA's effort. In a White House meeting, Clinton read some of those internal documents. Kessler quotes him as exclaiming, "I want to kill them. I just read all those documents and I want to kill them." The Clinton administration sued the industry in 1999, accusing it of putting profits before health by concealing data that showed nicotine is addictive and smoking causes disease. Government lawyers also contended the industry targeted its advertising toward children as potential new smokers. A federal judge ruled in September that the government could not invoke two federal laws to recover Medicare payments and other costs of treating ill smokers. However, the judge said the government still could try to force the industry to pay billions of dollars for allegedly concealing the dangers of smoking. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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