The Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA) hailed yesterday's court decision in United States v. Philip Morris USA, Inc. After a lengthy trial, a federal court in Washington, DC observed that major tobacco companies engaged in racketeering and conspiracy for decades in a massive scheme to addict people to smoking "without regard for the human tragedy or social costs" that resulted.

Laurie Fenton, president of Lung Cancer Alliance, hailed the court's decision as, "An important step toward correcting decades of stigmatization of lung cancer patients as not worthy of compassion, and the deliberate underfunding of the disease of lung cancer as not deserving of public health research dollars".

"For years, the public health establishment has justified its underfunding of lung cancer research and early detection on the willful behavior of smokers," continued Fenton. "Now we have the DC District Court recognizing that, for 50 years, the tobacco companies lied, misrepresented and deceived the American public, including smokers, and the young people they avidly sought as 'replacement smokers.'".

While the court's ruling placed new marketing restrictions on tobacco companies, the court read a prior appellate court decision to rule out stiff monetary remedies.

Said Fenton: "We urge the federal government to appeal on the scope of remedies available under the RICO statute, all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary, to make these companies accountable for the tragic results of their deliberate, decades-long conspiracy to deceive the public about these lethal products".



Posted by: Andria    Source

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