The Nicotine War (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

Once invincible the mighty tobacco industry is  on the defensive. It's fighting dozens of major   lawsuits and on April 25th its biggest foe the  FDA received the go-ahead from a federal court to   regulate cigarettes as drugs. No longer can these companies credibly stand up and say smoking is a matter of free choice. I believe nicotine is not a dictator Now the tobacco Giants want to negotiate a settlement to pay for the costs of smoking  related illnesses in return for future immunity. Tonight, in an updated program FRONTLINE looks back at the events that ignited "The Nicotine War." If not uh and those four for the first  time as well the chief Executives of the seven U.S tobacco companies appeared before Congress if  you raise your right hand do you swear that the   testimony you're about to give is watched as  the CEOs who represented a 54 billion dollars to defend themselves against a barrage of attacks  preponderance of medical experts in our country   say nicotine is addicting and that there is solid  indisputable proof that smoking causes lung cancer   well we we have looked at the data  and the data that we have been able to   see has all been statistical data that has  not convinced me that smoking causes death   it's my understanding of how that number  is if you don't agree with the number then   give us your number how many smokers die each  year from smoking cigarettes I will explain no   I want you answered we have a limited time I  do not know how this tense melodrama together would you not agree with the surgeon  general's estimate of over 400   000 smokers dying I do not agree okay and it  all hinged on a single substance a natural   chemical present in the tobacco plant Johnson  called nicotine do you believe nicotine is not   addictive I believe nicotine is not addictive yes  Mr Johnston uh congressman cigarettes and nicotine   clearly do not meet the classic definitions  of addiction there is no intoxication we'll   take that as a note I don't believe that  nicotine for our products are addictive   all right I believe nicotine is not addictive  I believe that nicotine is not predicted   I believe if nicotine it's not addictive and I  too believe that nicotine is not a difference the story had begun more than two years  before inside the Food and Drug Administration when commissioner Dr David  Kessler had discreetly begun   to examine the possibility of regulating tobacco a former pediatrician Kessler felt passionately  that a way had to be found to stop the next   generation of kids from taking up smoking the  more Kessler and his FDA colleagues studied   the tobacco industry the more convinced they  became that cigarettes were not a habit like   coffee according to many scientists the nicotine  and cigarettes was a powerful addicting drug   drugs were what the FDA regulated on February  25th 1994 Kessler decided to act he released a   letter in which he wrote evidence brought to  our attention is accumulating that suggests   that cigarette manufacturers May intend that their  products contain nicotine to satisfy an addiction   on the part of some of their customers while  polite in tone the Letter's message was shocking   Kessler was implying that the FDA might have  the authority to treat the tobacco industry   as being in the drug business and in principle  shut them down Congress immediately wanted to   hear more the cigarette industry has attempted  to frame the debate on smoking as the right of   each American to choose the question we must  ask is whether smokers really have that choice consider these facts two-thirds of adults who  smoke say they wish they could quit after surgery   for lung cancer almost half of smokers resume  smoking even when a smoker has his or her larynx   removed 40 percent try smoking again the nicotine  delivered by tobacco products is highly addictive   what Kessler had done was unprecedented simply  stated if nicotine was legally a drug he had a   duty to regulate products that contained it like  cigarettes the FDA regulates the substances and   devices we consume from the safety and efficacy  of drugs to the purity of the food we eat it assures the safety and reliability of  everything from the strength of condoms   to the durability of breast implants  the FDA had not regulated tobacco   because traditionally it had been  defined as an Agricultural Product that tobacco starts out as an agricultural  plant that is grown harvested cured and   sold in much the same way it  has been for hundreds of years   but this Rustic Image disguises the technology  that now goes into manufacturing cigarettes when   cigarettes originally were made from dried  tobacco leaves chopped and rolled in paper   today the manufacturer of cigarettes is a highly  sophisticated process involving the removal and   addition of hundreds of ingredients in  highly controlled ways if the tobacco   companies were controlling nicotine content in  cigarettes with the intention of keeping their   customers hooked then Kessler reasoned he had a  legal basis for regulating cigarettes as drugs cigarette companies would not be selling  an Agricultural Product but on drug   nicotine and should be subject like all drug  manufacturers to the food drug and cosmetic Act   the FDA was compelled by law to enforce there's a Kessler's letter an ABC day one  report brought the industry more bad news   it claimed to have hard evidence the industry  was manipulating nicotine levels in cigarettes   there's something tobacco companies  don't want you to know why are you   artificially spiking your cigarettes with  nicotine we are not in any way doing that   cigarettes they'll hook you fast and  it's not just an accident of nature Philip Morris hit back with a 10 billion lawsuit  against ABC these allegations are not true   and ABC knows that they are not true Philip  Morris does not in any way shape or form Spike   at cigarettes with nicotine nicotine and the  industry's public relations organization and   the tobacco Institute so there is no process  that adds nicotine to the cigarette nicotine   is not added during the manufacturing process  it is that simple scene was set for a showdown   in Washington while traditionally the tobacco  industry had great influence in Congress in the   spring of 1994 there was a powerful group of  anti-tobacco congressmen including Democrats   Henry Waxman of California the chairman of  the key subcommittee overseeing to Chicago my name is Ed hardigan the tobacco Industries  too had many strong supporters as Republicans   Thomas bliley of Virginia Alex McMillan  from North Carolina and Dennis hastert of   Illinois we're an evidently and it's open on  April 14 1994 the seven CEOs appeared before   waxman's committee they realized it was vital they  challenged Kessler's contention that nicotine was   a highly addictive Problem by heroin or cocaine  in the tobacco commissioner Kessler and members   of the subcommittee contended that nicotine  is an addictive drug and therefore smokers   are drug addicts I strenuously object to that  premise I strenuously object to that conclusion   smoking is not intoxicating no one gets drunk  from cigarettes no one is likely to be arrested   for driving under the influence of cigarettes  our consumers smoke for many reasons smokers   are not drug users or drug addicts and we do not  appreciate or accept being characterized as such   because yes Mr chairman I am one of the 50 million  smokers in this country would you rather board a   plane with a pilot who just smoked a cigarette or  one with a pilot who just had a couple of beers   or snorted cocaine or shot heroin or popped some  pills Dr Kessler's definition of addiction would   classify most coffee Cola and tea drinkers as  addicts if cigarettes were addictive could almost   43 million Americans have quit smoking almost all  of them on their own without any outside help I'm   struck but what I think is a calculated attempt to  trivialize the devastating Health among the people   watching the hearings were Mrs Eleanor Ross and  her family Eleanor Ross has smoked for almost 60   years she has inoperable lung cancer emphysema  has suffered two heart attacks and a stroke   still she hasn't been able to stop smoking  I've quit a thousand times you quit one time   definitely doing your chemo during your chemo  you stopped which was good for about two years no one time I did stop yeah I come to think  of it I did stop and I gained 12 pounds I   couldn't get out of my own way he went  to the mad rush no no no I would think   if anyone would be motivated to quit  smoking it would be Mrs Eleanor Ross 100 odd everywhere my husband smoked three to  four packages of cigarettes a day for a great   many years and he did die of lung cancer John had  to go and get it and last year I was very ill I   was there for a whole month with I believe it was  double pneumonia and congestive heart failure and   they didn't have much hope they thought that  I would have to go into uh Rehabilitation home   looked like I was going to come home  with some oxygen and so forth but I   I uh persevered fortunately I didn't have to I've gone to Patches route uh three times I  believe and I've been to hypnotists and and   I have been to that bio energy person and I've  been to non-smoking things in no way can I stop   smoking I would try very hard why then does she  continue to smoke is she addicted to nicotine or   simply too weak willed to quit I don't know  I don't know just no self-control perhaps   maybe that's where I don't have self-control on Dr Neil benowitz has seen many cases like Eleanor  Ross he has studied the effects of nicotine on   humans for more than 15 years the issue for  addiction is to what degree does the drug   control your behavior the drug meaning a substance  that is not food and is not required for life   because obviously air controls your behavior yet  we don't think of air as an addiction people need   air to live they need food to live no one needs  nicotine to live but once they become regular   smokers they don't function very well without  nicotine about 6 to 12 milligrams of nicotine are   contained within most commercial cigarettes when  the cigarette is burned the nicotine is boiled off those droplets are breathed into the lung  and then rapidly gets uh transported in   the bloodstream to the heart and then  to the brain and other body tissues   when you're smoking cigarettes throughout  the day levels of nicotine build up over   six to eight hours of smoking and then they  persist at a constant level throughout most   of the day while you're smoking and then they  fall overnight some smokers are so addicted   that they wake up at night they can't even  sleep through the whole night without smoking scientists at the National Institute on drug abuse  have long argued that nicotine was a powerful   addictive drug pharmacologist Jack henningfield a  lot of times when people say that nicotine isn't   like drugs like cocaine they're talking about  social consequences and issues that have to do   with availability and whether or not the drug  is illegal or not they're not talking about the   basic biology when you take a hit of nicotine  it sets up a biological chain reaction in the   brain in much the same way that taking a hit  of cocaine sets up a biological chain reaction   a lot of this pleasure of smoking is due  to the receptors in the brain not just the   taste in the mouth and we know this because  we can give drugs that block The receptors   in the brain and then we ask people how their  cigarettes are they say they don't taste as   good I don't get any taste from them well  they're they're getting all the taste that   they use used to get from the tobacco they're  just not affecting The receptors in the brain   the tobacco industry however argues that smokers  like Mrs Eleanor Ross are not nicotine addicts   they have a bad habit Frontline invited  the tobacco companies and the tobacco   Institute to participate in this program but they  declined to be interviewed saying their position   was already on record so we have drawn their  arguments about nicotine from different sources   of addiction they're two different ones we talk  about people being news junkies we talk about   chocoholics we talk about being hooked on exercise  that's a very loose jargony word that we've all   somehow seemed to adopt it into our lexicon then  there's a classical definition of addiction which   talks about withdrawal symptoms that puts you in  the hospital that talks about intoxication that   talks about ruining your lifestyle resorting to  crime in order to get a drug none of those things   fit nicotine or smoking that's why you can smoke  a cigarette and drive a car that's why people who   quit smoking and there are as many people in  the United States who have quit smoking is now   currently smoke that's why people who've quit  smoking are walking down the street they're not   in rehab centers for goodness sakes when you look  at the features of Addicting drugs you can look   at a different feature and put different drugs at  the top of the list if all you're looking at is   reinforcement in animals then you put cocaine  at the top of the list if you're looking for   severity of the withdrawal from a life-threatening  perspective well then you've got alcohol at the   top and the short-acting barbiturates if you're  talking about tolerance well you put nicotine   right up there with Heroin as far as remarkable  level of Tolerance that the body develops   if you're looking at intoxication you put  alcohol back up at the top as the drug that   produces the most pronounced intoxication  even in people that have used it for years   when you look at the constellation of features of  Addicting drugs you see that nicotine is right in   the top tier with cocaine heroin and alcohol the  tobacco industry likes to focus on intoxication   because that is about the only consequence that  is sometimes associated with addicting drugs on   which nicotine comes out very low but if smoking  were addictive how could so many people have quit   we know that with help people can beat addictions  and we know that many people beat their Addictions   on their own over the last 30 years more than  40 million people have quit smoking that amounts   to lots of lives saved the bad news is that that  only amounts to about two and a half percent two   and one half percent only that have been able to  quit smoking per year on average that is a lousy   rate of quitting by oneself when we compare that  to what we know about heroin addiction cocaine   addiction and alcoholism does any of that hurt you  back here at all when I tap yeah Mrs Ross's doctor   Dr Silvestri of Boston's Deaconess Hospital like  the vast majority of the Physicians wishes his   patients wouldn't smoke there are more than 50  000 studies linking smoking and disease and a   virtual consensus among doctors and scientists  that nicotine is a highly addictive drug building on this consensus Kessler now  needed to prove that the tobacco industry   was deliberately manipulating nicotine with the  intention of keeping smokers like Mrs Ross hook   so if this machine's down that one can keep   on running cigarettes have been  down seven six and seven times they are ready to fight for the future of  their industry as long as you like thanks very   much despite warning labels and advertising  restrictions the tobacco industry has been   very successful at repelling attempts to fully  regulate cigarettes gaining exemptions from all   key consumer legislation the consumer product  safety act the term consumer product does not   include tobacco and tobacco products the fair  packaging and labeling Act consumer commodity   does not include any tobacco or tobacco product  the federal hazardous Substances Act the term   hazardous substance shall not apply to tobacco and  tobacco products the toxic substances Control Act   the term chemical substance does not  include tobacco or any tobacco product if you want to look at how they've been able  to pull back the tide of Public Health opinion   for so many decades you begin with a very  strong and rather traditional political   base of support the tobacco farmers in in  a very concentrated part of the country   Michael perchuk former commissioner of the  Federal Trade Commission has made a career   of studying the politics of tobacco and analyzing  where its political power lies one of the gauges   of political power and or or of power in the  legislative process is not just numbers I mean   the poll results have always shown a majority of  Americans large majorities for example for Banning   cigarette advertising and other restrictions but  intensity the intensity with which a group focuses   on an issue uh and the intensity with which the  members of Congress who represent that group uh   focus on that issue is critical in terms of  uh the political power when they're willing   to say on health care we don't give a damn if  the citizens of Kentucky go without Health Care   we're not going to give an inch on and we're not  going to support any health care plan unless you   keep that cigarette excise tax down that's the  kind of intensity of commitment that creates   political power inside Congress it also creates it  outside with constituents I am proud to represent   thousands of honest hard-working men and women  who earned that livelihood producing This legal   product and I'll be damned if they ought to be  sacrificed on the altar of political correctness   Mr Johnson I want to be absolutely certain of this  because there have been a lot of interest in this   subject and at least one of your competitors  has sued ABC over it once and for all does   your company Spike its cigarettes with nicotine  no Mr Congressman we do not Spike our products   with nicotine Mr Campbell Mr bliley we do not  Spike our cigarettes and we have sued the ABC   company for accusing of us of doing so Mr Tisch no  sir we do not Spike our cigarettes with nicotine   Mr Harrigan at Leggett we do not Spike our  cigarettes with nicotine Mr Sandifer we do   not add nicotine to our cigarettes no so Mr  Johnson we do not Spike our cigarettes at all   thank you thank you Mr chairman for your induct  the industry protested that far from adding   nicotine up to a quarter of the nicotine present  in the leaf was lost during manufacture and others   they said had misunderstood the manufacturing  process tobacco processing it is indeed and mixed with ammonium hydroxide and water  to release the pectin a naturally occurring   carbohydrate in plants when heated pectin  forms a gel-like material that binds the   particles together flavorings and preservatives  are added and the mixture is cast onto a moving   belt never at any point in the processing of any  of these components has any additional nicotine   been added but Kessler maintained that adding  nicotine wasn't the issue he had not spoken of   nicotine spiking but of nicotine manipulation  it made little difference to Kessler whether   the industry was adding additional nicotine to  cigarettes or manipulating the naturally occurring   nicotine in the leaf the issue was whether they  were intentionally delivering precisely control   of addictive doses of nicotine to smokers before  Congress the CEOs denied they manipulated nicotine   claiming they didn't even measure it during  manufacture much of the amount of nicotine in   any cigarette they argued was a side effect of  the level of tar the key ingredient for Taste we   designed cigarettes according to Tar and that's  why it's very difficult for all of us to express   it as nicotine we design we design in the early  stages for tar excuse me if you would join us   like the FDA experts did you would find that we  actually only ever measure nicotine in two places   one before the tobacco enters the Factory and  then 18 months later after it's a finished product   and in those finished products they went on  to claim the nicotine delivered to smokers   has gone down dramatically over the years as  the companies offered low tar and nicotine   Brands to health-conscious smokers according  to the figures written on many cigarette packs   some Brands delivered tiny amounts of nicotine  to smokers as little as a tenth of a milligram   but critics say these  numbers aren't what they seem   what you need to know about these cigarettes is  the tobacco and the lowest yield cigarettes and   the highest yield cigarettes are the same tobacco  with the same amount of nicotine or even more   in the low yield cigarettes so so it's only the  machine testing which makes the yields differently   for several decades nicotine and tar yields have  been generated by a special test monitored by the   Federal Trade Commission in this test measured  machine pops of smoke are analyzed to get the   official FTC nicotine yields but critics say  many cigarettes have been specially designed   to beat the machines ventilation holes in the  filter are specially positioned to suck in air   some cigarettes even have long channels running  along the length of the filter all designed   critics charge to dilute the smoke going into  the machines the machine Puffs in the very cap   doesn't block any of the holes and um therefore  you can get as much as 90 percent mixture of   fresh air plus tobacco smoke however smoker when  they smoke the sort of a cigarette finds that it's   like smoking air the drug characteristics are  not good The Taste is not good and what they   learn is one that if they hold the cigarette  a certain way say they hold it like this   then without even knowing they're doing it they're  blocking the ventilation holes and the draw   characteristics and taste gets better or they can  take it and put it in their mouth a little further   like this if they put it in the mouth  like this then their lips are blocking   the ventilation holes the draw and taste  is better and it's been well shown even on   smoking machines if you tape up these  holes it becomes a regular cigarette   the tobacco industry disagrees think of  an FTC number as an EPA gas mileage number   if I drive my car fast I get guests less gas  mileage than what the sticker says I drive   it easy I get more so it is with the with the  FTC tar numbers if I may smoke one cigarette   differently from another within a cigarette I will  get different tire nicotine per puff depending on   how are you saying you could get different levels  of nicotine from two cigarettes from the same pack   depending on how I smoke it if I'm under stress  where do you see the cigarette I light up after   this hearing it's probably Agricultural Product or  drug delivery device depended on the intent of the   cigarette manufacturers and that in turn depended  on what they knew about the addictive properties   of nicotine and when they knew it to answer these  questions Kessler and his FDA staff began to look   for ex-industry employees willing to talk about  the tobacco company's highly secretive practices one man they were interested in was Dr Victor  denobile recruited to work at Philip Morris   in 1979 he set up a lab to find a substitute for  nicotine that was equally reinforcing but avoided   its cardiovascular side effects nicotine  wasn't studied very heavily at that time   it was only just be coming under investigation  by the National Institute of drug abuse so it   became a real challenge I saw it  as a real positive way to to make   something come back to the from the  scientific Community to the public working with his colleague Paul Mele  de Noble set out to model nicotine's   reinforcing properties in animals using  techniques developed at the National   Institute on drug abuse he showed that  a rat could be made to self-administer   intravenous nicotine by pushing a lever in much  the same way as happens with heroin and cocaine   while this doesn't by itself prove a substance is  addictive in humans it is a Hallmark of addiction   he then used this model to test nicotine  substitutes to see if the rats found   them equally reinforcing after getting Philip  Morris's permission he wrote up the research for   publication but before the article made it into  print he got a visit from the company's lawyers   they had told us that there was some  litigation against the tobacco industry   they didn't specifically say Philip Morris  we didn't find out that until much later and   that they wanted to look through our files  because the data that we were generating May   in fact be involved in that litigation and they  proceeded to spend several weeks understanding   uh what we did in the laboratory actually  coming in the lab and viewing the animals   one of the Phil Morris attorneys told us  that the work we were doing looked made   them look like a drug company and they  just couldn't afford to do that work   after a series of meetings including a visit  from the CEO of Philip Morris de Noble was   told that he could not publish the research  or talk about it publicly for the time being   disappointed de Noble continued  quietly with other work then on April 5th 1984 his supervisor Jim Charles  asked to see him Jim went to a dialogue of how   how wonderful a job I had done for the company  and with the reinforcing effects and the analog   programs and quite frankly I thought I was being  promoted I had just been promoted the year before   Paul was promoted the year before that and I said  Gee this is great I'm getting another promotion   and about 10 minutes into the conversation he  said but as of three o'clock today and it's ten   after three we're no longer doing any behavioral  pharmacology shut off your experiments kill your   animals turn over your files that was it about a  week after this happened they brought me back into   the building to open up the safe and literally  the lab was gone I mean the computers were gone   the cages were gone the animals were gone the  wires were gone the benches were gone the surgery   tables were gone everything was gone it was like  there was a vacant room told they had no future at   Philip Morris de Noble and melee left the company  De Noble made one more attempt in 1986 to publish   but after Philip Morris's legal counsel threatened  action he gave it up and got on with his life their thing stood until one day in April 1994 he  got a call from an FDA investigator asking him if   he'd be willing to talk about 6 30 or so it took  the powers of congress to free de Noble from his   confidentiality agreement with Philip Morris but  his story raised the question of whether some of   the tobacco Executives had been completely open  with Congress and if not what had been the cost to   the American people if your studies had gotten out  at the time that they were written at a minimum   at a bare minimum other scientists would have  followed up on the research that you had done and   then clearly the American people could have made a  more informed choice about smoking would you agree   with that Dr de Noble uh yes I do agree with that  it was the reason that that Paul and I took the   risk in 86 to try to publish this material and  present it the scientific Community had the the   right to look at this research and to confirm what  this confirming Philip Morris was quick to respond   the American people deserve better than innuendo  leaked documents conveniently changed opinions   and scientific sensationalism sorry about the  suppression of the findings of the work now they   said that they said that it was suppressed and  they said it had nothing to do with proprietary   reasons and they found that unusual well that's  one of the things that the subcommittee has   asked us to investigate and provide them for  documents we're going to do that as soon as   we have all the documents and we know what the  facts are we'll we'll tell you what they are   for Kessler and his team the Noble's story showed  that Philip Morris had clear knowledge of the   reinforcing properties of nicotine in 1983 and had  synthesized and tested drugs as possible nicotine   substitutes but to build a solid case against all  the tobacco companies Kessler needed more evidence   in May 1994 a series of internal memos and letters  purported to be tobacco industry Communications   began appearing in the media these documents  indicated that high-ranking employees in brown   and Williamson and other tobacco companies had  knowledge of nicotine Addiction in the early 1960s we are then in the business of selling nicotine  an addictive drug effective in the release of   stress mechanisms Addison yeaman general counsel  July 1963. nicotine is not only a very fine drug   but the techniques of administration by smoking  has distinct psychological advantages smoking is   a habit of addiction Sir Charles Ellis Scientific  Advisor to British American Tobacco Company 1962.   think of the cigarette pack as a storage  container for a day's supply of nicotine think   of the cigarette as a dispenser for a dose unit  of nicotine tobacco industry internal memo 1972.   the industry argued that these statements if  genuine did not prove the tobacco company's   new nicotine was addictive only that some of  their employees held these views meanwhile   Kessler and his team at the FDA were methodically  continuing their investigation yeah Mitch Zeller   Special Assistant to Kessler was interested  in the possibility that some companies might   be breeding tobacco plants high in nicotine as a  way of manipulating nicotine levels in cigarettes   one day Zeller got a tip that if he checked  the patents he might find something interesting he instigated an extensive search of  national and international patents   looking for anything about  high nicotine tobacco plants   and finally he came up with this a Brazilian  patent written in Portuguese the patent spoke of   a type of tobacco with a six percent concentration  of nicotine more than twice the usual amount and the owner of the patent was the  brown and Williamson tobacco Corporation we saw that brown and Williamson had at least  patented a variety of flucured tobacco that   was double the nicotine content of the  average flu cured tobacco and that they   had done this overseas in Brazil well that  peaked our interest we wanted to know a lot   more about this and so we simply tried to  track down the names of the people who were   identified as the patent holders and and took  the investigation from there why Zeller wondered   would Brown and Williamson be involved in  developing a high nicotine tobacco plant bit by bit Zeller pieced together the   story of a specially bred High  nicotine tobacco plant called y1 Brown and Williamson had developed y1 and  tested it on an experimental Farm in Wilson   North Carolina the tobacco was shipped to  New Jersey where the seeds were processed by   a biotechnology company and exported to Southern  Brazil to the farming region of Rio Grande do Sol   there Zeller learned Brown and Williamson  had grown quantities of y1 tobacco   Brewing why one abroad was one thing  but had they re-imported the y-1 into   the United States for use in commercial  cigarettes Zeller dispatched investigators   to Ports like Charleston South Carolina  where tobacco is imported to find out   we had somebody painstakingly go through millions  of invoices to see if there were any references   to this thing called y1 tobacco and it really  was like looking for a needle in a haystack but eventually they found a brown  and Williamson invoice referring   to a shipment of a half million pounds of tobacco variety why one within days Brown and Williamson admitted  to Zeller that they had in fact imported   four million pounds of y1 and put it in  these brands of cigarettes why one they   told Zeller enabled them to produce a low-tar  cigarette with a moderate level of nicotine   for Zeller this was hard evidence that brown and  Williamson was independently manipulating nicotine   publicly the cigarette companies have said that  they do not design for nicotine when they design   and manufacture cigarettes that if they decide  for anything they design for tar the significance   of the y1 story is it shows that in fact they are  manipulating and controlling nicotine levels Brown   Williamson admitted to us they wanted to lower  the tar content of cigarettes and maintain the   nicotine content if that's not a perfect example  of manipulation and control of nicotine and   cigarettes I don't know what is the established  procedures Kessler and Zeller's aggressive   investigation had made them extremely unpopular  with the tobacco industry and its political   supporters when they appeared before Congress  to give details of the y-1 story they faced   tough questioning from Republican congressmen  who wanted them to reveal the private sources   that had helped them break the y-1 affair I am not  prepared at this point to make uh investigative   files uh uh why I mean I'm not prepared to make  those investigative obviously could jeopardize   either an investigation or jeopardize certain  confidential uh informants that's why we have   Congressman established procedures and I'm willing  to follow those established procedures uh Chris   Dr Kessler I I'm listening to this and I  it's kind of surreal here are you saying   that you don't I mean you think that Congress  members of Congress this subcommittee the whole   committee have to make Intelligent Decisions  right but you're going to give us your spoon   feeders only that information that you want to  spoon feed us that you're not going to give us   all the information that's available to you but  you don't think we should have that information   because you don't trust us that's contempt  I think that's contempt of congress sir   Congressman there are established procedures and  we will follow what are those tell me what those   established procedures are I'd be happy tell them  right now here's members of Congress what are the artists what are they you're telling Mumbo  jumble this is nothing more than grandstanding   if Dr Kessler had been sincere are sincerely  interested in getting the facts all he had   to do was ask Brian Williams two days later Tommy  Sandifer CEO of brown and Williamson got a similar   grilling how did you manage to grow and ship  millions of pounds of y1 if the USDA permits   only experimental quantities of seed to leave  the country in the first that's a good question   I don't know is there any additional y1 being  stored anywhere in the world under your control under my control ownership under my ownership not  that I know Sister corporations or anything else   there may be some sister Co-op corporations  that have some wild one yes will you provide   that information to the record also yes  I will send it for maintained he knew few   of the details of y1 and promised to hand  over documents to Congress I think you all   are going to get more and more marginalized  you will become more and more Irrelevant in   this debate and it just seems to me there's a  better way to do business well congressman is   it's hard for me to Envision becoming more  of an outcast than I already feel that I am the political Troubles of the tobacco industry had   not gone unnoticed by attorneys like  the New Orleans lawyer Wendell gotier Gautier had been seriously thinking about  litigation against the tobacco industry ever since   his best friend Pete castano had died of lung  cancer in 1993. following the funeral Pete's Widow   Diane had come to see him early after Peter died  I received the death certificate and the primary   cause of death was cancer and the second one was  cigarette smoking and obviously it was something   that I've got very upset about got very angered  about and I contacted Wendell at which time he   informed me that there was really nothing we could  do that you know everything that's been brought   against the Tobacco Company almost everything up  until then it was a losing battle and that there   was really nothing we could do about it but  the events of 1994 especially Kessler's focus   on nicotine addiction changed gautier's mind  addiction appears nowhere on the warning label   and I the manufacturer stand before Congress in  the world and swear that it's not addicting now   if I were a smoker which I am not but if I were  I have a right to rely on the manufacturer who   knows more about his product than anyone else if  he says it's not addicting I should be entitled   to believe that it's not addicting he made it a  successful and Wealthy attorney Gautier knew the   risks of taking on the tobacco industry after  all they had never lost a personal injury case   the reason they've won before is they outman the  plaintiff fraternity they outspent the plaintiff   attorney and consequently they outlasted them  all the way through the Supreme Courts making   litigation that should have been two three-year  litigation eight twelve year litigation this time   they will not out man they will not outspin and  they will not Outlast we're here for the duration   now the tobacco industry will have to deal  with a group of 50 of the top law firms in   the country experts in corporate litigation  from asbestos to breast implants with Gautier   at the helm they plan to take on the ultimate  legal foe Gautier has gathered the cream of the   country's personal injury lawyers in New Orleans  to plan tactics in a billion dollar Federal class   action lawsuit on behalf of 40 million current  former and deceased nicotine dependent smokers   all done in the name of Diane castano each firm  has put up one hundred thousand dollars towards a   five million dollar yearly War chest and they say  they are ready to continue as long as is necessary in their other cases what they have successfully  urged this lesson this country is based on freedom   of choice and on Assumption of the risk if you  freely freely won't assume a risk that should   be your right in the United States and you know  what I agree with that they are completely right   but for you to make a free choice you  have to have all of the information   they deceived you and concealed the information  about addiction that they knew of and they asked   you to choose without all of the information  so you didn't make an intelligent choice   well gautier's group is the biggest dozens of  other legal actions against the tobacco companies   are underway in one groundbreaking case the state  of Minnesota in collaboration with Blue Cross Blue   Shield is suing the tobacco industry for cigarette  related Health costs this morning we filed a   historic lawsuit charging the tobacco cartel with  conspiracy Consumer Fraud and antitrust violations   and demanding that tobacco companies not  Minnesota taxpayers pay the Staggering health   care costs caused by the company's deception and  violations of law the companies denying nicotine   is addictive and deny concealing important health  information from the public but in court their   lawyers will have to deal with Witnesses like  Victor De Noble I left the company in 1984.   the company was years and years and years ahead  of anybody else out there we knew more about   tobacco tobacco products byproducts nicotine  than any government or Federal Institution   did Philip Morris for example know that  smokers were blocking the ventilation holes   absolutely yes there's no doubt about that  in fact there was a project in which the   psychology group at Philip Morris actually  filmed people smoking to determine where   filter and dilution holes should be placed  so that the fingers would cover them up the commissioner of the Food and Drug  Administration Dr David Kessler is with me   here in studio 3A in Washington for this hour of  Talk of the Nation welcome to the program doctor   great being here Ray in a few short months David  Kessler had changed the debate over cigarettes now   tobacco was spoken of in the same way as illegal  drugs like heroin and cocaine Thomas welcome to   the program hi uh many years ago I was addicted  to cocaine for about two or three years when I   realized what I was doing to myself I stopped  and I stopped cold turkey I'm still smoking   I've been smoking since I'm 16 I'm 52 years  old and I can't stop smoking I smoke about a   pack a pack and a half cigarettes a day and it was  harder to stop smoke it's harder to stop smoking   yes I mean ask smokers whether the nicotine is  addictive in cigarettes and and I think just   listening to smokers I mean they tell you and  unequivocally how addictive it is well let's   go to Kessler didn't plan to ban tobacco but as  a former pediatrician he did want to find a way   to stop the next generation of children from  taking up smoking and tightening up the access   that we could get fewer kids to stop smoking  or are they going to get the cigarettes anyway   well it depends on which way you look at it I  know kids in my accent my age I can just walk   into the convenience store and boom they got the  cigarettes in their hand let me ask you a question   if we just cut down on cigarette vending machines  would that help no not help at all no that's just   that's just the way to you know what else would  you do besides cigarette vending machines well   you'd have you definitely have to put more  enforcement on the on the on the subject and   who's selling you have to put in much enforcement  on cigarettes as you do on beer and alcohol   smoking is a habit that starts in childhood  two-thirds of all smokers start smoking before the   age of 16. by age 18 that figure Rises to nearly  90 percent people who don't start smoking before   the age of 20 probably never will Kessler had  many options from reducing the nicotine content   of cigarettes to Banning advertising critics say  is aimed at children like Joe Camel ironically   on October 10th as if symbolizing the terrible  year tobacco had faced Joe Camel was taken down   from his place in Times Square to be replaced  with a public health warning not to eat fat   smoking was now banned in places from McDonald's  to the Pentagon from Amtrak to the airlines   nervous shareholders were urging Philip Morris  and R.J Reynolds to split off their tobacco   divisions from the main business it looked to some  observers like the tobacco industry was finished [Applause] from ABC this is World News Tonight  with Peter Jennings Republicans are now the   majority party both in the Congress and in the  governor's Mansions Across the Nation the only   Power base the Democrats still have is the one  that was not at stake yesterday the presidency   itself within 24 hours it looked like the  political fortunes of tobacco had been transformed   Kessler's support in Congress disappeared  overnight with Waxman no longer running   the committee Kessler found himself  surrounded by enemies Keen to curb his power   house Speaker Gingrich characterized  him as quote a bully and a thug the future of Kessler's plan now depended  on President Clinton but could a weakened   president afford the risk of backing Kessler too  much partisan conflict too little there will be   people inside the White House and close to the  White House who will go to Clinton and say if   you support what Kessler is proposing to do you  will put the final nail in the coffin of of the   democratic party in the south a powerful argument  on the other hand I can't think of a better issue   to challenge the Republicans on than the  issue of children and tobacco the issue of   the cigarette companies and their exploitation  of vulnerable children I think that's a strong   issue a strong issue politically for him and one  that he may see the virtue of standing firm on embattled inside the FDA Kessler  knew he was in for a long hard fight   by focusing on children and how to prevent them  from smoking he hoped he would win the support   of the president and the American people would he  succeed or would his attempt to regulate tobacco   meet the same fate as other reform efforts and be  smothered by the political realities of Washington it's been two years since Frontline broadcast  this program 11 days ago in an historic ruling a   federal court in North Carolina affirmed the fda's  right to regulate cigarettes as drugs Kessler's   gamble had paid off with Clinton's support he'd  survived and won for the first time in history the   government can regulate cigarettes it can regulate  the labeling they can regulate the manufacturer   they can regulate the product it's an enormous  change many people thought we would Buckle under   there was a lot of pressure Congress they tried to  zero out our budget they fought us every inch but   the world has really changed no longer can these  companies credibly stand up and say smoking is a   matter of free choice made by adults no longer can  companies credibly say nicotine is not addictive by declaring nicotine an addictive drug Kessler  had inspired a litigation explosion [Music] 24 State Attorneys General are suing to  recover cigarette related Health costs and this March one of the companies caved in  the ligate group sought a settlement admitting   the company had targeted teenage smokers and  also that they had known nicotine was addictive a few weeks later news broke that the two largest  companies RJR and Philip Morris were involved in   top secret talks the industry wants to settle  all present and future health claims by paying   a lump sum in return they want immunity from  prosecution lawyers involved in the negotiations   are saying little about what progress if any  has been made if we take this figure that's   being tossed around of 300 billion dollars it's  about 295 billion bigger then the next biggest   case that's ever been settled or where that's the  breast implant case so this is huge it's like it   could be wrapped up in a matter of weeks or we  go for a long time it's very hard to say it's   like we're on new ground all of us because it's  just bigger than anything any of us have been in one thing apparently not for sale at the talks  will be the fda's jurisdiction of tobacco Kessler recently stepped down from the FDA  satisfied he's made a dent in the largest   preventable public health problem of the 20th  century a regulator can do certain things but when   a regulator has the support of a president of the  United States it's an entirely different ballgame this has to be the most important thing that  anyone could do I mean the opportunity to work   with a group it was as committed and worked day  and night and take on literally The Impossible   and have a president stand up and a  judge in Greensboro North Carolina   agreed that nicotine is an addictive  drug it's just been unbelievable thank you [Music]   foreign [Music] funding for Frontline is provided by  The Corporation for Public Broadcasting   and by annual financial support from  viewers like you Frontline is produced   for the documentary Consortium by WGBH Boston  which is solely responsible for its content [Music]

Channel: FRONTLINE PBS | Official

Views: 191,669

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Id: 8E-h5ZXUC9k

Length: 55min 23sec (3323 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 17 2023