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NEWS: Phyllida Brown Smoking increases among teenagers in eastern Europe BMJ 2002; 324: 442 [Full text]

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Comprehensively Solving the Tobacco Problem

Leroy J. Pletten, PhD   (26 February 2002)

Comprehensively Solving the Tobacco Problem 26 February 2002
Leroy J. Pletten, PhD, The Crime Prevention Group 8401 18 Mile Road #29, Sterling Heights, MI USA 48313-3042 Send response to journal: Re: Comprehensively Solving the Tobacco Problem	The author identifies a genuine problem. The world has now had experience for many centuries with tobacco control efforts. The situation the author describes results from two fundamental flaws in typical tobacco control, (1) limited approaches, and (2) not dealing effectively with United States of America (USA) export of tobacco. 1. To deal with the limited approaches situation, more comprehensive action is needed. Here are four aspects of a comprehensive approach: A. recognize that tobacco-caused deaths constitute a "holocaust," the word used by the Royal College of Physicians of London, Smoking and Health Now (London: Pitman Medical and Scientific Publishing Co, 1971), p 9 (as per the then "annual death toll of some 27,500"—a now much exceeded number of deaths). B. follow the 1897 Iowa model, banning manufacture and sale of cigarettes entirely; C. utilize a "due process of law" concept, mandating, to protect the right to life, a "right to pure air" as per the British-United States common law system; and D. prosecute tobacco manufacturers and sellers for tobacco-caused deaths pursuant to standard laws and precedents against poisoning and intentional death. 2. To deal with the situation of the USA export of tobacco, more comprehensive action is needed. Here are three aspects of a comprehensive approach: A. acknowledge the USA role, as per a century of writings on the subject, e.g., John Britton, "Tobacco: The Epidemic We Could All Avoid," Thorax 1997;52:1021-1022; Editorial, "Exporting tobacco addiction from the USA," Lancet 1998;351:1597; Letter, John Britton, "Exporting tobacco addiction from the USA," Lancet 1998;352:152; and John I. D. Hinds, The Use of Tobacco (Nashville, Tenn: Cumberland Presbyterian Publishing House, 1882), p 49. B. acknowledge that as USA courts refuse to cooperate, European efforts to resolve USA tobacco exporting via civil law litigation within the USA have failed, even when linking tobacco exporting to Iraq and terrorism. See the recent failed litigation report, "U.S. Tobacco Companies Accused of Terrorist Ties And Iraqi Sanctions-Busting" (22 Feb 2002). C. adopt a criminal law approach of extraditing USA tobacco exporters to stand trial, not in the USA, but in European courts. This means obtaining the extradition of such individuals. Requests should be made to European prosecutors to initate such action. Here is a sample: "Tobacco sellers in the USA are sending tobacco (a known poisonous substance) here into Europe, foreseeably killing our people. Please identify the manufacturers, transporters, and accessories, and file with the appropriate authorities in their respective jurisdiction(s), for extradition of said tobacco exporters for conspiracy to kill Europeans, via bringing poisonous items (tobacco) known to kill, into Europe. This type prosecution action is being advocated in the USA, details at USA sites such as http://medicolegal.tripod.com/tobaccomurder.htm, http://medicolegal.tripod.com/genocide_icc.htm, and http://medicolegal.tripod.com/extradite.htm. "Tobacco's poisonous ingredients are well known in the USA, http://medicolegal.tripod.com/toxicchemicals.htm. "However, the USA is not taking adequate, if any, action in this regard, nor enforcing its own laws on such poisonings and premeditated death-causing activity; and numbers of our people are being killed as a foreseeable result. As Europeans, we should and must take the lead in protecting our own people from this internationally-conducted criminal enterprise. Please arrange for the aforesaid-requested extraditions promptly." Copy to: Honorable John Ashcroft Attorney General of the United States U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530-0001 United States of America This is to encourage Europe, indeed, all jurisdictions, to take the above full-solution-type approaches, including invoking criminal law and extradition, as distinct from limited actions and mere civil law useage, having foreseeably limited or failed results.