ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 24, 1997 TAG: 9703240127
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
That tobacco is addictive and causes cancer should come as news to no one. Liggett's acknowledgment, though, should spur Virginia leaders to break the state's dependence on it.
ONE OF the nation's major cigarette manufacturers, albeit the smallest of them, acknowledges that tobacco is addictive and causes cancer. That tobacco does so is not exactly news.
Further, the Liggett Group Inc. has conceded, the tobacco industry markets cigarettes to children as young as 14. Such marketing is appalling - but, again, not exactly news.
Attorneys general for 22 states seeking to recover Medicaid costs incurred for treating smoking-related illnesses claim these admissions as a landmark victory that will aid their cause. The four other major cigarette manufacturers scoff - but move to block Liggett's release of documents about confidential discussions involving them. Nothing much surprising in either development.
A spokesman for Virginia Attorney General Jim Gilmore makes it clear that this state will not be suing any tobacco companies. Tobacco is too important to its economy.
And, sadly, there's no surprise here, either.
The addictiveness and dangers of tobacco are such truisms that open acknowledgment of them by one manufacturer is news only as a legal development. Yet this legal product does, indeed, have such a large role in the economies of some states - it is Virginia's largest export - that the Republican Party's likely nominee for governor is quick to reassure growers and cigarette makers and shippers that they won't be challenged here.
Politically, there are risks in taking a pro- or an anti-tobacco stance. Smoking foes are capable of raising quite a stink, themselves, if they sniff any hint of accommodation in the air for what they correctly regard as a killer.
Still, Virginia politicians usually judge that on balance, fears of job losses now outweigh fears of illness in the indefinite future - at least among the significant number of voters whose livelihoods depend on tobacco.
More courageous leadership would recognize that, in the long run, the state's work force should be weaned from continued dependence on a product that does so much harm, especially one that counts on addicting children to ensure its future market. That should be insupportable, no matter how many jobs depend on it.
Other manufacturers continue to deny that such a strategy exists, of course, or that they have conspired to mislead the public about the health effects of smoking. If Liggett releases documents showing otherwise, they will blow completely a political cover that already is threadbare.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 linesby CNB