[Intl-tobacco] [Fwd: Curing the Addiction to Profits: A Supply-Side Approach to Phasing out Tobacco]

[Robert Weissman]

Book purchase information below story --

The Ottawa Citizen

Government told to buy up big tobacco to cut smoking
Making cigarettes less addictive would help Canada kick habit: book

Mark Kennedy
Citizen Special


Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Canada's governments should buy out the country's tobacco companies and
hand them over to a new "public interest" agency that manufactures and
sells cigarettes so they are less addictive and appealing, says a new book.

Under the proposal, the new agency's fundamental purpose would be to
gradually sell fewer cigarettes -- thereby providing the country untold
savings in reduced costs to the health care system, according to Cynthia
Callard, Neil Collishaw and Dave Thompson, authors of Curing the
Addiction to Profits.

A variety of models -- from Crown corporations, to non-profit companies,
to public utilities -- could be considered as the best way to take over
the tobacco industry, says the book.

The tobacco companies would be given the chance to voluntarily sell
their firms as part of a negotiation, or they could be forced to comply
and be paid fair market value as part of the expropriation.

The book says implementing its plan could cost practically nothing to as
much as $15 billion.

The price tag could be virtually nil, the book claims, if the companies
-- already faced with lawsuits from governments seeking money from
alleged tax evasion and the health costs of treating smokers -- decide
they're better off to get out of the business now. Otherwise, the value
of the Canadian tobacco market could be $15 billion.

The varying predictions reflect just how difficult it is to estimate the
cost to buy the companies, and what factors should be used in any
estimation.

"If buying tobacco companies seems expensive, the cost of allowing them
to continue to serve private interests is no less costly," say the
authors. "Since society pays the health costs associated with smoking,
the cost to Canadians of buying tobacco companies is much lower than the
cost of leaving them in place to keep smoking rates high."

In an interview, Ms. Callard -- who works with Mr. Collishaw at
Physicians For a Smoke-Free Canada, a leading anti-tobacco group based
in Ottawa -- said the authors want to kickstart a debate about
innovative "long-term strategies" designed to reduce smoking rates.

She said that while federal and provincial governments could
collectively purchase the tobacco companies, the simpler approach would
likely be to have the federal government make the move on its own.

The book notes that for nearly 50 years, governments have battled the
consequences of high rates of smoking by encouraging individual smokers
to recognize the dangers. "The policies deployed to reduce smoking --
high tobacco taxes, bans on cigarette promotions, health warning labels,
public education, etc. -- try to modify the mindset and actions of
smokers or potential smokers, which is why they are considered to be
'demand-side' interventions."

But from the start, says the book, tobacco companies have stood in the
way. The authors say people should not expect companies to behave
contrary to their "fiduciary responsibilities."

"The corporation has no moral responsibilities, and is incapable of
feeling guilty about this selfish tendency. It does, however, have a
legal responsibility to act in the best interests of its shareholders.
Tobacco corporations, like all business corporations, are not evil, and
they are not good; they are incapable of any moral judgment or
culpability. Like other rule-driven systems, their behaviour is
programmed and predictable. In striving to sell more cigarettes and
recruit new smokers, they are doing exactly what they were created to do
and what they are required to do (i.e. make money)."

Thus, says the book, as long as the profit-driven companies control the
market, they will continue to weaken, bypass and violate tobacco control
measures put in place by governments.

After the purchase, workers and retailers would not stop manufacturing
and selling cigarettes, but they would be directed to "focus their
energies" on new ways to get people to stop smoking. Under the new
system, the companies would: work with public health agencies to devise
and implement smoking cessation initiatives; cease all advertising and
promotion aimed at increasing demand; adjust the design of cigarettes to
make them less addictive and less attractive; and change the retail
system so that store owners are not paid for promotional counter-top
displays.

Christina Dona, manager of media relations for Imperial Tobacco Canada,
said in an interview that buying out the industry is not necessary.

"We think that a lot of the health care objectives the government wants
to accomplish can be done through a regulatory regime."

Moreover, she expressed doubt that even if there was an expropriation,
federal and provincial governments would want to eradicate an industry
that last year provided them with $8.7 billion in taxes.

=A9 The Ottawa Citizen 2005

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*Curing the Addiction to Profits*
*A Supply-Side Approach to Phasing out Tobacco*

------------------------------------------------------------------------
*By: Cynthia Callard, Dave Thompson, and Neil Collishaw

*
*Publication Year* =09*ISBN/Stock #* =09*Language* =09*Format* =09* US Pric=
e*
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* 2005 * =09* ISBN 0886274362 / * =09* English* =09* Paperback* =09* $16.00=
 * =09*
154 pages*


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/

/Curing the Addiction to Profits: A Supply-Side Approach to Phasing out
Tobacco/ offers a fresh approach to one of the world=92s most challenging
health problems.

The authors explore the shortcomings of tobacco control strategies that
focus exclusively on trying to reduce the demand for cigarettes.
Although this approach has reduced smoking rates, it has not
sufficiently slowed the repeated cycle of addiction and death which
continues to claim one in five Canadian lives.

One source of the tobacco problem, the authors suggest, lies in the
decision to entrust the supply of cigarettes to business corporations.
These corporations are legally obliged to serve the =93best interests=94 of
their shareholders, a responsibility that compels tobacco corporations
to strive to maximize profits by increasing cigarette sales, even though
doing so causes the deaths of millions.

This profit seeking drive also pushes tobacco corporations to defeat and
undermine public measures to reduce smoking. This book proposes
transferring responsibility for the making and selling of cigarettes to
public-interest agencies that have a clear health mandate, and offers
financially sustainable options for how this can be done.

The authors explain why those who demonize Big Tobacco as a
morally-flawed rogue industry are wrong to expect corporations to act
against their fiduciary imperatives. They show why those responsible for
granting business corporations control over the tobacco market should
ensure that healthier options are taken, and they explain how this could
be done.