ST. PAUL -- The tobacco agreement signed recently by the nation's attorneys general does not drive a stake through the heart of the big tobacco companies. It does not even change the status quo dramatically. Still, it is a victory for the states and their attorneys general.
The states win because the settlement will compensate them, at least in part, for the costs of providing medical treatment to residents harmed by tobacco. The attorneys general come out ahead too.Until now, if they tried difficult cases and won, they had to pay huge fees to the plaintiffs' outside lawyers. If they lost, they looked like failures for having passed up billions in settlement dollars. From now on, they will be spared having to decide whether to try more cases.
On the other hand, the new agreement will prevent states from achieving full justice against tobacco manufacturers. The tobacco companies are winners because they no longer will face the most immediate threat of catastrophic judgments. The lump sum the industry has agreed to pay can easily be met by raising the price of cigarettes so gradually that demand will not fall off.
And since potential competitors will be required to assume some of the burden of the settlement, the big tobacco companies need not fear the advent of new companies that might cut into their market shares by producing less harmful tobacco.
What is good news for the tobacco industry has never been good news for public health. The settlement imposes only minor new restrictions on the industry's continuing effort to hook new nicotine users. The use of cartoon figures in advertising is now prohibited. But judging from the experience of those countries where all advertising is banned but teenagers still light up in droves, limits on advertising may not make much difference.
The settlement, in sum, demon- strates how far we have to go. If we are to reduce smoking among the young, several changes must take place.
The medical community has now reached a consensus that nicotine use should be severely reduced or even eliminated. Most people who use tobacco wish they could quit. The industry knows this and will fight to keep their customers addicted. Thus, Congress must grant regulatory authority over nicotine to the Food and Drug Administration.
Tobacco companies pay lip service to reducing underage use but have never policed retailers to make sure they keep cigarettes out of the hands of underage smokers. Congress must pass a meaningful "youth look-back" provision that would keep track of tobacco use by minors and penalize the industry if use does not decline.
Congress and the states must also increase taxes on tobacco products. This is a bitter pill for many adult smokers. But study after study has shown that sharp price increases suppress demand, especially among minors.
State legislatures also have a part to play. They must reinvest their tobacco dollars in developing and administering effective tobacco-control programs. In Minnesota, polls show overwhelming public support for spending most or even all of the money won in the settlement on public health programs.
If the $206 billion the states are scheduled to receive over the next 25 years is wisely invested by legislatures in public health, particularly in anti-tobacco efforts, future generations may be saved from becoming addicted to this deadly drug.
Although the tobacco industry has not been struck a crippling blow, the states have made advances that would have seemed unattainable four years ago. It is now up to Congress to show the same aggressiveness and creativity that the attorneys general have showed in tackling on the greatest public health problem of our time.
Hubert H. Humphrey III is the attorney general of Minnesota.