Although the industry has dramatically shifted its financial support to the GOP Congress, many key Democrats are still in tobacco's pouch. For example, a leading Democratic recipient, Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, has secretly lobbied the White House to rein in Dr. Kessler. As of this writing, despite almost daily expos s of the industry's malfeasance, this Congress has not held a single hearing concerning tobacco. Dr. Kessler's imminent ruling that nicotine is a drug will up the ante for tobacco. But we're not calling for prohibition.
Adults have a choice whether to smoke.
Yet even most adult smokers want curbs on tobacco marketing so that it won't hook a new generation. The tobacco industry knows which curbs work and which don't. The most effective anti-smoking campaigns expose Big Tobacco's cynical manipulation of a public it deems gullible. Such ads had a considerable effect in California until they were yanked from the airwaves by one of tobacco's stealth allies, Gov. Pete Wilson. He and the industry prefer finger-wagging ads that encourage adults to call an 800 number if they see youngsters buying cigarettes.