Ciggyfree Blog

Statement of William V. Corr, Executive Director, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — By telling $12 million
worth of lies, the Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds tobacco companies have
again protected their profits at the expense of children by defeating a
ballot initiative to increase Oregon’s cigarette tax and fund health care
for children. The tobacco companies will profit by selling more cigarettes,
while Oregonians will pay a terrible price with more kids addicted to
tobacco, more lives lost and more kids without health care.

Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds opposed this initiative because they
know that increasing the cigarette tax is one of the most effective ways to
reduce smoking, especially among children, and they also know that the
public strongly supports increasing the cigarette tax. These tobacco
companies knew they couldn’t win by arguing against the cigarette tax
increase, so they spent a record $12 million to change the subject and
deceive the voters of Oregon. In fact, the tobacco companies made this
election about anything but the cigarette tax increase, which is the one
issue they truly cared about.

Throughout the campaign, media reports regularly exposed the industry’s
deceptive tactics, including the creation of an industry-funded front group
– Oregonians Against the Blank Check; RJR’s distribution of a mass-mailed
letter that appeared to come from a first-grade teacher but was mailed from
the office of the company’s lobbyist; and false claims in TV ads. The
tobacco companies’ ads falsely claimed that the money raised would not be
spent on children’s health care and manufactured controversy about amending
the Oregon Constitution despite the fact it has similarly been amended many
times (and the tobacco companies themselves have proposed constitutional
amendments in other states). The $12 million spent by Philip Morris and
R.J. Reynolds more than doubled the previous record for an Oregon ballot
initiative and was nearly four times what proponents of the initiative
spent.

Measure 50 would have raised the tax on a pack of cigarettes by 85 cents to pay for children’s health care and other programs in Oregon.

Don’t let this small failure for the health of Oregon’s children lead you to believe that BIG TOBBACO will always win — there will always be sites like Ciggyfree to point out how BIG TOBACCO poisons our beings, our land, our air, rewires our brains,  and reduces the quality of all human life on our planet — all for the sake of padding the selfish coffers of THEIR corporate greed.

Shame on YOU BIG TOBACCO and shame on those who support BIG TOBACCO.

You are all a bunch of MURDERERS…

~robbster