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Excerpts from HEALTH GROUPS BACK TOBACCO PROGRAM

by Curt Anderson, AP [03/14/98]

They have fought for years to stamp out smoking and expose tobacco's sins, but some health groups now are joining forces with farmers to ensure survival of the government's 60-year-old tobacco-support program.

There's nothing odd about the alliance to Scott Ballin, spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids: ``What you want to do is control the production of tobacco as much as possible.''

The goal of Ballin's group, other health advocates including the American Public Health Association and some growers' organizations is to keep alive the program that controls tobacco supply and prices as Congress wrestles with the proposed $368.5 billion settlement of state health-related lawsuits.

Some leading lawmakers want to use the opportunity provided by the settlement to buy out holders of licenses to grow tobacco -- known as quotas -- and scrap the support program. They also want to set aside millions of dollars to help communities in tobacco regions deal with economic fallout from reduced smoking.

They say it makes no sense for the federal government to discourage smoking and to spend billions of dollars on smoking-related health care and cancer research while still operating a system of growing and marketing tobacco.

``I believe it is simply wrong for the federal government to support tobacco farming, marketing and warehousing,'' said Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind. ``We should stop.''

Lugar, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, introduced legislation offering quota holders a buyout of $8 a pound, while tenant farmers and those who lease the quotas would get 40 cents a pound for three years. Price supports and production controls would end, and tobacco could be grown anywhere, by anybody.

In return for their support, the health groups want tobacco growers to back some form of voluntary buyout and agree that the Food and Drug Administration should be allowed to establish regulations over the manufacture, sale, distribution and labeling of tobacco products.

In addition, a set of ``core principles'' adopted by the two sides expresses support for tough laws to prevent people under 18 from smoking but promising that health advocates won't try to prohibit smoking by ``informed adults.''

Al Glass, director of commodities and marketing at the Virginia Farm Bureau, said support for the tobacco program by health advocates will give farmers a boost in Congress.

``In any type of settlement, they are a major player,'' he said. ``I think they've learned a lot about tobacco farming. They always saw Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man -- they never saw an economic community scattered through 10 states.''
 
 

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