Reform in Canada Pretense & Perils

3.7.2 The Tobacco Industry
The tobacco industry is a legal, government-regulated commercial drug industry.
The legal tobacco cigarette is designed and manufactured in strict accordance with
regulator-approved protocols. It is also our most toxic legal consumer product when
used in its intended manner. Tobacco use is a public health crisis in Canada resulting in
substantial morbidity, mortality, and economic loss. Rehm et al. (2006) have provided
estimates for several indicators of the country’s annual harm from tobacco, including
2.2 million hospital days and 37,209 premature deaths resulting in 515,607 years of lost
life (PYLL). The cost to the Canadian economy is $17 billion annually.
A significant contributor to this perennial harm is more than a half century of nefarious
conduct by the tobacco industry. The reader is referred to two sources. The Canadian
story is told in Smoke & Mirrors: The Canadian Tobacco War (Cunningham, 1996),
while a US account is provided in “Ashes to Ashes” (Kluger, 1997). Both books provide
a comprehensive historical account of the epic battle involving the tobacco industry,
public health authorities, government regulators and the courts. More recently, a
compelling exposure of tobacco industry malfeasance surfaced in the US landmark
court case against Philip Morris USA as provided by Justice Gladys Kessler. After
reviewing hundreds of depositions and thousands of exhibits, Kessler issued a powerful
condemnation of the industry in her 1,742 page opinion (United States District Court for
the District of Columbia, 2006). Some highlights of Kessler’s findings follow:
“[This case] is about an industry, and in particular these Defendants, that survives, and
profits, from selling a highly addictive product which causes diseases that lead to a
staggering number of deaths per year, an immeasurable amount of human suffering
and economic loss, and a profound burden on our national health care system.
Defendants have known many of these facts for at least 50 years or more. Despite that
knowledge, they have consistently, repeatedly and with enormous skill and
sophistication, denied these facts to the public, the Government, and to the public
health community.”
“Defendants have marketed and sold their lethal products with zeal, with deception, with
a single-minded focus on their financial success, and without regard for the human
tragedy or social costs that success exacted.”
“Over the course of more than 50 years, Defendants lied, misrepresented and deceived
the American public, including smokers and the young people they avidly sought as
‘replacement’ smokers about the devastating health effects of smoking and
environmental tobacco smoke.”
“The evidence in this case clearly establishes that Defendants have not ceased
engaging in unlawful activity.... For example, most Defendants continue to fraudulently
deny the adverse health effects of second-hand smoke which they recognized
internally; all Defendants continue to market “low tar” cigarettes to consumers seeking
to reduce their health risks or quit; all Defendants continue to fraudulently deny that they
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