Commentary—

Smoking —

The Curse Continues

By William A. Collins

Smoking may be,

On the run;

But it’s a battle,

Far from won.

Lord knows, smoking is on the defensive. Public places almost universally ban it, along with a big majority of private homes. Male deaths from its poisons have already peaked and women should soon follow. But when a single cause still brings on 440,000 deaths a year, you might expect government to pay a little greater heed.

Had Katrina produced numbers like that you would have seen dramatic relief. Or in Iraq, peace would have broken out. Or with handguns, tight controls would have been slapped on. In fact that annual number of deaths even now approximates all the troops we lost in World War II. So how could our glorious victory in the tobacco war still be so costly and yet remain so generally ignored.

Well, tobacco kills slowly of course, so there’s a long lag time. And each death is humanely private. But ominously, 4,000 new kids start smoking every day. Even if most eventually conclude that the inconvenience of slipping off to the garage, hallway, fire escape, car, or great outdoors is no longer worth it, armies of others will remain hooked. That’s bad for society because demise by lung cancer or emphysema is terribly expensive. Much more so than heart attacks or car crashes. This drives up health premiums for the whole nation. Cold, but real.

Luckily there are alternatives. One such would place tobacco under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration. The Supreme Court once struck down that idea, and so far Congress has not yet been able to reclaim it with legislation. But with the 2008 election being viewed by progressive groups as something akin to the Second Coming, smoking critics, too, are lining up their ducks. Plainly 2009 portends to be a busy year for us all.

But even today the 50 states, if they choose, are not powerless. They’re still rolling in dough from the famous Tobacco Settlement. Successful persuasive media ads, chemical cessation aids, and skilled counselors have all grown out of that that giant windfall. They’ve helped millions finally scramble over the hump and quit the habit.

Lawmakers, however, have other priorities. Mostly holding down taxes. Take Connecticut. We receive about $100 million each year in that blood money from the tobacco companies, paying retribution for their age-old sins. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention project that a state our size needs to spend about $21 million of that award to fund necessary services to help addicts quit. Unfortunately we actually only spend about $3 million. The rest goes into the general fund, as does $270 million from the cigarette tax. And since we didn’t spend anything at all this year, Connecticut now ranks as the least responsible state of all! Nice going, guys.

Nor are the companies taking their big customer loss lying down. They do what all corporations do when caught being naughty. They advertise! They’re up to about $13 billion a year now in ads and promotion. And you’ll never guess who are their main targets. Well yes, you probably would guess. Kids! Gotta get ‘em young. Sin in haste; repent at leisure.

But for most of us average self-righteous nonsmokers, there is no longer a visible problem. We’ve driven the smoking subculture underground. We don’t see them. And besides, don’t they deserve their fate? Well, yes, but selfishly, their illness costs us all dearly too. Sometimes it does pay to be our brother’s keeper.

And then there’s Asia. No cessation programs there. Just advertising. Of course American tobacco companies are in the lead, urging Asians to enjoy flavor, good feeling, sophistication, and being all that they can be. The profits are so great that we might want to add their stocks to our personal portfolio. After all, they’re no worse than arms makers.

(Columnist William A. Collins is a former state representative and a former mayor of Norwalk. )