But that’s irrelevant to Parrish’s claim. He claims Big Tobacco is now a partner of health groups.

Parrish’s attempt to paint Big Tobacco as the good guy, part of the solution, is a great PR ploy. And I’d say Parrish sells it as well as anyone can.

But the facts are otherwise. Big Tobacco is not a partner with health groups. The health groups make that clear. And Big Tobacco has not changed. The evidence makes that clear.

Big Tobacco has not become part of the solution. It is still very much part of the problem.

Now, if Big Tobacco wanted to become part of the solution, nothing stops it. It could drop its marketing that appeals to kids, tomorrow. It could stop engineering product for addiction, right now. It could stop fighting smokefree policies that help smokers who want to quit, any time it wants. It could stop downplaying what its product does to its customer, right now. It could stop putting its profits above public health, any time.

And it could stop denying that it does all these things, any time it wants. It could tell the truth.

If it wanted to be part of the solution, it could do all these things any time.

But it has no intention of being part of the solution. It wants to be part of the problem. It makes its money by being part of the problem. It only wants to look like it’s part of the solution, to push an image of ever-helpful Philip Morris. That’s why it tries to wrap itself in the legitimacy of health groups.

The health groups say: no, Philip Morris, you’re not a partner with us. You’re not a partner with the public. You’re not a partner for health. You’re a partner with disease and death. Please don’t pretend otherwise.

For example, the various State gov’ts currently receive up to $5 in tax revenues from the sale of cigarettes for every $1 profit that the tobacco companies earn. So in every legtimate sense, the State gov’ts are currently majority partners in the American cigarette business.

In a similar vein, the Federal gov’t enjoys an equal partnership in cigarette sales with tobacco taking in excise taxes nearly dollar for dollar with the profits earned by the cigarette companies per pack sold.

Unfortunately, the gov’t is so unhappy with its current partnership arrangement with Tobacco that it seeking to renegotiate it by trying to capture an additional $280 billion in cigarette cash with this farcical lawsuit.

Since the Federal gov’t seems to believe that the profits earned from sales of cigarettes to the “youth addicted” population of legal adult smokers between the ages of 18 and 21 represent “ill gotten” proceeds of an ongoing criminal enterprise, perhaps it ought to “disgorge” $280 billion in ill-gotten excise taxes from its beneficial partnership with organized crime.

October 19, 2004

Louis C. Camilleri
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Altria Group, Inc.
120 Park Avenue
New York, New York 10017-5592

Dear Mr. Camilleri:

It has come to our attention that several executives of Altria/Philip Morris have recently given speeches suggesting that your company is in some way partnering with the public health community, specifically citing our four organizations. This is a completely false characterization.

Philip Morris should stop trying to borrow legitimacy from our reputations and decades of work in tobacco control and public health. As the world’s largest multinational tobacco company, Philip Morris remains a primary contributor to the death and disease caused by tobacco use in the United States and around the world. In addition, more kids in the U.S. – 49.2 percent of smokers aged 12-17 – smoke Philip Morris’ Marlboros than nearly all other cigarette brands combined, according to the federal government’s National Survey on Drug Abuse and Health. Philip Morris also remains an opponent of such proven tobacco control measures as cigarette tax increases and smoke-free workplace laws.

Philip Morris’ support of federal legislation our organizations endorsed to grant the Food and Drug Administration authority over tobacco products does not make us “partners.” We call on Altria/Philip Morris to immediately cease such claims.

Sincerely,

John R. Seffrin, Ph.D.
CEO
American Cancer Society

M. Cass Wheeler
CEO
American Heart Association

John L. Kirkwood
President and CEO
American Lung Association

Matthew L. Myers
President
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

But has Philip Morris really changed?

The evidence says no.

For instance, in the 1950’s Philip Morris’s would fight scientific findings on smoking and health. A specific strategy: it would generate “controversy” where there was none. To accomplish that, it would fund, often secretly, projects aimed at undermining science that was finding its product causes disease. Has that changed?

It has not. Years after Parrish’s “change of heart”, Philip Morris is still secretly fighting science that finds its products cause disease:

http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/01/14/hscout523415.html

I don’t know what’s in Parrish’s heart.

I do know that Philip Morris hasn’t changed.
That’s what the evidence says.

Philip Morris is still in the business of getting its customers addicted to slow poison. Philip Morris is still bashing
science it doesn’t like. The only thing that’s changed is its litigation and PR
strategy.