THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 24, 1996 TAG: 9608260284
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TODD JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 140 lines
President Clinton blew smoke in the face of Southside Virginia tobacco growers Friday.
The growers and the region's politicians didn't like it.
Over the past few years, their industry has taken hit after hit: Individuals and states have sued cigarette makers to recover costs from smoking-related illnesses, tobacco taxes have risen, and restrictions have continued to tighten on where smokers can light up.
But to farmers such as Steve Jefferson of Franklin County, Clinton went too far.
``Everybody down here is in an uproar,'' he said. ``The restrictions are going to hurt the small farm families. Right now, the welfare program looks better than tobacco farming.''
Reactions like Jefferson's spread across the Southside.
Harry Lea runs the Piedmont Big Sale tobacco warehouse in Danville, which sells about $20 million worth of the crop each year during the 14-week growing season.
Lea helped organize a news conference at another Danville warehouse late Friday so farmers and politicians could sound off about Clinton's announcement.
``This is a Bill Clinton political football,'' Lea said earlier in the day. ``I just hope to God that somebody intercepts it.''
Lea, a member of a third-generation tobacco-farming family, said he doesn't smoke, dip or chew. But, he said, he supports a person's right to do so.
``No one makes you use the products,'' he said. ``Tobacco has been put out there as a very popular whipping post.''
As Lea sees it, Clinton should be spending more time fighting ``the real drug problem with teen-agers'' - marijuana and cocaine - than worrying about regulating tobacco.
``It's a ruse and guise,'' he said of Clinton's position.
Southside politicians took up tobacco country's cause, too.
The two candidates for the 5th District congressional seat that covers most of the state's big tobacco counties - state Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount, and Republican George Landrith of Albemarle County - lashed out at Clinton's announced regulations, which would be a responsibility of the Food and Drug Administration.
``If it regulates tobacco, is the FDA going to regulate sunshine next?'' Goode asked. ``People get skin cancer from too much sun.''
Landrith said he's against any FDA funding that would harm tobacco farmers.
``This is an obvious campaign ploy on the part of the president, and it is an attack on the personal and constitutional freedoms of every American,'' he said. ``The president has decided to hide his failure in curtailing the use of illegal drugs by supporting restrictive government regulation on tobacco products.''
The regulations, which will begin to take effect early next year, will affect more than just tobacco farmers.
According to Clinton's proposal, cigarette vending machines will be prohibited in places frequented by minors, cutting out a chunk of sales for vendors.
``I think Clinton is trying to do something to look good,'' said Claude Smith, president of State Amusement Co., which operates about 100 cigarette machines around the Roanoke Valley.
But ``it's not rational,'' Smith said. ``If he thinks he can legislate everything to all people - OK, just go back to Prohibition and do away with all alcohol and tobacco products.''
Stock-car racing could also be adversely affected by the tobacco regulations.
NASCAR, one of the country's fastest-growing sports series and a tradition in the South, could lose millions of dollars in tobacco sponsorship money.
Some fear that the losses could trickle down to the places where the races are held. Races each year in Martinsville and Bristol bring millions of dollars in revenue to the region.
But Blake Brown, a leading tobacco economist at North Carolina State University, says that while the regulations add more uncertainty to the future of tobacco farming, it might take years to measure their impact.
For this year and next, the outlook for the tobacco industry is a good one. Prices are up, and the foreign demand for tobacco products continues to rise, he said.
And, the impact on growers will be minimal if the restrictions are imposed on minors only, and not extended to adults, Brown said.
Steve Jefferson, the Franklin County farmer, says he'll try to hold on, but he realizes he might not be raising tobacco into the next century.
``Nobody knows where we'll be next year,'' he said. ``All a farmer can do is put his crop out there and let it go. But politics is really playing a big role in our future now. I used to be a Democrat until Bill Clinton came along.'' ILLUSTRATION: LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
Pablo Herrera unloads tobacco Friday in Danville, an area incensed
by Clinton's announcement.
GRAPHIC
Highlights
What's going to be different about how cigarettes are sold?
Selling cigarettes or smokeless tobacco to those under 18 will be
a violation of federal law. All 50 states already ban teen smoking.
Vending machines will be removed from grocery stores, gasoline
stations, restaurants, work places - everywhere except places like
bars or casinos that only adults can enter. Free samples and
self-service displays will stop. Photo IDs will be required, in the
same way people are carded to buy liquor. People will still be able
to buy cigarettes by mail.
Cigarettes can be sold in packaging with no fewer than 20
cigarettes.
Will the cost go up?
Nothing in the regulations directly raise prices.
How about advertising?
This is one of the areas of biggest change. No more Marlboro Man
or happy people on billboards: They'll have to be black and white,
words only. No billboards at all within 1,000 feet of schools and
playgrounds.
The black-and-white rules apply also to newspapers and direct
mail.
Tobacco advertising in magazines read by a large number of teens
also will have to be words only, black and white. Rolling Stone and
Sports Illustrated would be affected; Time and Newsweek would not.
T-shirts and hats with Joe Camel or other brand names will be
illegal. So will brand-name sponsorship of sporting events, cultural
events, teams and race cars. They can still be sponsored under the
company name.
The tobacco industry also will have to start health warnings and
other educational ads aimed at keeping young people from smoking.
When will all this happen?
Photo IDs will be needed after six months. It's a year for most
other rules; two years for sporting events, since many of them are
planned that far in advance.
Of course, legal challenges - and there will be a number from the
tobacco industry - could change all this.
Why is the government doing this?
Tobacco use, the FDA says, is the nation's biggest public health
problem, and kills more than 400,000 Americans each year. Most
people start smoking as children or adolescents, and, the FDA says,
quickly become addicted, meaning they can't stop even if they want
to.
The government argues the best way to fight smoking is to stop
children and adolescents from becoming addicted in the first place.
Will this lead to outlawing tobacco completely?
President Clinton said no, that tobacco would remain legal for
adults. David Kessler, head of the FDA, also has said that he does
not favor prohibition, although it's something the tobacco industry
is worried about.
KEYWORDS: TOBACCO by CNB