Feds: Cigarette Makers Lied for 50 Years

[yardwork]

Why a Free Market uncontrolled by regulation is a bad idea: Exhibit A

Feds: Cigarette Makers Lied for 50 Years

Tue Sep 21, 5:50 PM ET By Peter Kaplan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cigarette makers lied and tried to confuse the public about the dangers of smoking for 50 years, the U.S. government said on Tuesday as its $280 billion case against the industry went to trial.

In opening arguments in the biggest and most ambitious racketeering case in history, the government said a 1953 meeting of tobacco industry executives at New York's Plaza Hotel was the starting point for a conspiracy designed to cast doubt on links between cancer and cigarettes.

"This case is about a 50-year pattern of misrepresentation, half-truths and lies by the defendants that continues to this day," U.S. Justice Department attorney Frank Marine told a federal court.

The 1999 lawsuit launched under President Bill Clinton (targets Altria Group Inc. (NYSE:MO - news) and its Philip Morris USA unit; Loews Corp.'s (NYSE:LTR - news) Lorillard Tobacco unit, which has a tracking stock, Carolina Group (NYSE:CG - news); Vector Group Ltd.'s (NYSE:VGR - news) Liggett Group; Reynolds American Inc.'s (NYSE:RAI - news) R.J. Reynolds Tobacco unit and British American Tobacco Plc (BATS.L) unit British American Tobacco Investments Ltd.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&ncid=568&e=9&u=/nm/20040921/bs_nm/tobacco_racketeering_dc

[librechik]

1. Great news! Maybe we can expect the Bush Gang to come to trial

in 2054.

[mongo]

2. This isn't going to hurt the tobacco companies

or the executives that made these decisions in the 50's, 60's and 70's.

The cost of this suit will just be passed on to consumers, of whom a large percentage is poor people. It is a back door tax on the poor.

It will increase black market sales, which will decrease state tax revenues.

The government's treatment of the tobacco companies is as ridiculous as the Prohibition on marijuana.