State legislators attending this week’s American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) meeting in Salt Lake City will be told they can advance ALEC’s mission of “limited government and free enterprise” by letting “the free market reduce smoking-related diseases,” according to an agenda obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy.
“Can Tobacco Cure Smoking?” is the title of a workshop this morning led by the tobacco industry-backed Dr. Brad Rodu, who is trained as a dentist but has the title “Chair of Tobacco Harm Reduction Research” at the University of Louisville, a program primarily funded by U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co., an ALEC member and manufacturer of smokeless tobacco brands like Copenhagen and Skoal. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Heartland Institute, the Illinois-based think tank that attracted attention earlier this year for making billboards that likened those who believe in man-made climate change to mass murderers and terrorists.
Rodu’s research supports the idea that smokers should replace cigarettes with smokeless chewing tobacco or “snus” moist tobacco packets — a “free market” solution to reducing smoking that would allow tobacco companies to continue profiting off of addiction.
The Food & Drug Administration and health advocates have strongly opposed substituting cigarettes for smokeless tobacco because “chew” and “snus” still cause cancer and other serious diseases, and suggesting that smokeless tobacco is a safe alternative would likely lead to a rise in overall tobacco use. The risk is even more significant because tobacco companies market the product to young people with “winter chill” flavors and bright candy-colored packaging. Additionally, because of the low salt content, snus users don’t need to spit, making it nearly impossible to tell if a high schooler is chewing snus or Bazooka Joe bubble gum.
As CMD has reported, in May of 2011 Wisconsin Sen. Alberta Darling quietly inserted an amendment into the state budget that was virtually identical to the tobacco industry-supported ALEC model bill “Resolution on the Enhancement of Economic Neutrality, Commercial Efficiency, and Fairness in the Taxation of Moist Smokeless Tobacco (MST) Products.” The provision would change the way tobacco is taxed from a per-unit basis or a percentage of cost to a weight-based tax, which would effectively lower the price of snus and smokeless tobacco products manufactured by the big tobacco companies. The provision successfully passed after ALEC sent a letter to Wisconsin legislators supporting the amendment, but Governor Scott Walker vetoed it.
Though ALEC has been shedding corporate members in recent months as the organization has come under increasing public scrutiny (at least 28 members have dropped so far this year), the tobacco industry has remained faithful. Reynolds American is a “President” level sponsor of ALEC’s 2012 conference (which in 2010 cost $100,000) and Altria/Philip Morris is a “Chairman” level sponsor (which in 2010 cost $50,000). Additionally, former tobacco industry lobbyist W. Preston Baldwin III is the Chairman of ALEC’s governing Private Enterprise Board, Reynolds America lobbyist David Powers is the Board’s treasurer, and Altria lobbyist Daniel Smith is part of the Board’s Executive Committee. Additionally, Philip Morris lobbyist Brandie Davis, the Private Sector Co-Chair of the ALEC International Relations Task Force, has been named a “Private Sector Member of the Year” for 2012.
Health Care Companies in Bed with Big Tobacco?
Also paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to sponsor the ALEC meeting — including the “Can Tobacco Make You Healthier?” panel — are companies that claim to be in business to make sick people well, such as pharmaceutical companies Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline and Alkermes, and pharmaceutical trade group PhRMA, each of which are “Chairman” level sponsors of this year’s meeting. The “Chairman” level cost $50,000 in 2010, meaning these companies may have spent $200,000 or more cumulatively to sponsor the meeting. Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline also have representatives on the ALEC Private Enterprise Board, where they sit alongside representatives from the tobacco industry. Other health-related companies sponsoring this year’s meeting are insurance company State Farm at the $25,000 “Vice-Chairman” level, and at the $10,000 “Director” level, pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim and hospital operator Intermountain Healthcare. Despite public pressure, these groups have stood by ALEC and the tobacco industry.
Other Workshops
The “Can Tobacco Cure Smoking?” workshop is one of around a dozen that state legislators can attend at ALEC’s 39th Annual Meeting, which runs July 25th through 28th at Salt Lake’s swank Grand America Hotel, the only AAA Five Diamond hotel in the city. Other workshops include “Municipal Pension Reform” and “Using Non-Addictive Medication in Alternatives to Incarceration,” and one titled “Regulation Without Representation” warning of how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “has taken on an ardent regulatory agenda that threatens the representative nature of our government.”
Legislators will also sit alongside corporate lobbyists on ALEC’s task forces to amend and vote on “model” legislation. The Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development Task Force, for example, will discuss topics like “the resurgence of ‘right to work,'” getting rid of licensing restrictions for certain professions, and eliminating federal restrictions on states charging toll fees on roads. The Communications and Information Technology Task Force will discuss “the high cost to taxpayers from municipal broadband” and the Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Task Force “will cover the EPA’s regulation of carbon dioxide” as well as consider model bills like the Animal Property Protection Act and the Intrastate Coal and Use Act.
As CMD has reported, legislators will also attend corporate-sponsored parties and receptions, including an “invitation only” cigar reception, from 9 p.m. to midnight, hosted by one of ALEC’s major tobacco firms.
It is not yet known if “snus” will be on the menu.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.