It seems clear that it is not clear… or is it the things we know do not include the unknowns…or is it the things we don’t know are known unknowns?

In any event, based on comments I have seen in blogs, one thing is clear: the public does not understand the lawsuits that are occurring against Big Tobacco here in Florida.

The lawsuits in Florida, known as the Engle cases, largely involve people who became addicted to cigarettes and nicotine back in the 1920’s, 1930’s, 1940’s, and the 1950’s. The cases involve evidence of tobacco companies paying big bucks to:

• convince the public that cigarettes were good for you
• convince the public that nicotine was not addictive
• convince the public that smoking was a positive social choice
• convince the public that smoking did not cause cancer, emphysema, or other diseases

When Big Tobacco was required to place warning labels on cigarette packs, they spent huge sums of money backing articles and other efforts designed to convince the public about the safety of cigarettes; that stated no reliable link between smoking and cancer, much less other diseases, could be established; and that a grand conspiracy existed against cigarette smokers and the tobacco companies.

Bottom line? The Big Tobacco lawyers now want to reinvent history. They want to convince everyone that tobacco companies did not spend massive sums on advertising to convince the public that smoking was good for you, actually healthy for you.

They want to paint smokers who got hooked before the public was really aware of the dangers of smoking as making bad decisions. What they want the public to remember is only history that existed after warnings were given to the public and after all the smoke they could generate to hide the truth had dissipated.

Just check out this Camel ad from 1949:

Or this one from the 1950’s:

As thousands of Post-Engle cases wind their way through the Florida court system, Philip Morris, R. J. Reynolds, Lorillard and Liggett & Myers are facing daily challenges.  After years of priding themselves on winning most of  the lawsuits filed against them through historic “scorched earth” tactics, it appears that those days are over (and perhaps it is time for Big Tobacco to rewrite that old playbook).

Here are just a few of the highlights for the past week:

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Ya gotta love those guys at Big Tobacco. Deny, deny, deny. If that doesn’t work, spin, spin, spin. If that doesn’t work, try reinventing history.

In Florida, jurors have been hearing the truth about Big Tobacco antics over the years; and deny, spin, and lies is no longer working for them.

Thousands of smoking victims were required to file individual lawsuits against the Big Tobacco companies a couple of years ago, after the Supreme Court’s decision in the Engle case. Much to the chagrin of Big Tobacco, those cases are going to trial and Florida judges are trying their level best to allow sick and dying victims the opportunity to pursue justice in court.

Big Tobacco does not want anyone to know about the things they have been doing for 70 years.

They do not want jurors to see the memos talking about cigarettes being the single best drug delivery system ever invented; all the while Big Tobacco was denying that cigarettes were addictive.

Big Tobacco does not want jurors to see the memos where they analyzed the “youth market”. Where they discussed “the real need to become more aggressive against young adult males in major metro markets”. Big Tobacco does not want the light of day to see the studies where they discussed strategies for increasing their market shares with “14-15, 16-17, 18-20 age segments”.

Big Tobacco is desperate to deny jurors the opportunity to see the decades of publications in which Big Tobacco repeatedly told the public that smoking cigarettes was not addictive; smoking cigarettes was not dangerous to your health; and, in fact, smoking cigarettes was actually healthy for you.

Big Tobacco keeps losing trial, after trial, after trial; because once an unbiased public sees the truth, the written evidence, of Big Tobacco’s decade’s long campaign of deceit and irresponsibility, good and honest citizens can reach only one conclusion:

We find in favor of the plaintiff…

You just have to love Big Tobacco.

Produce a product you know kills people; hide or deflect all the information that would alert the public of the totality of the dangers; engineer nicotine delivery in a way that maximizes addiction and write memos talking about the whole scheme as if you are immune from being held responsible. Then, when you get caught, you rewrite history and hide behind “freedom of choice”.

In an undated memo, Colin Greig, a research and development gentleman for Big Tobacco discusses marketing scenarios which, at least in part, involved his unscientific testing of the way in which his mother-in-law smoked and enjoyed cigarettes; together with her level of addiction. Clearly this must have been the classic “hate your in-law” scenario.

Colin Greig Document

Let me hit the high points of good ‘ol Colin’s memo:

• Cigarettes deliver their drug (think nicotine here) to the brain faster than “other drugs” such as “marijuana, amphetamines, and alcohol”.
• Nicotine “is about the lowest dose” drug available (that still succeeds with addiction).
• Cigarettes are a cheap drug.
• Cigarettes are “a relatively cheap and efficient delivery system…” (think drug delivery here).

Mr. Greig includes in his analysis a quote from Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray”:

“A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure.

It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?”

And, then, Colin concludes with a statement that could not better illustrate Big Tobacco’s methods of operation all along:

“Let us provide the exquisiteness, and hope that they, our consumers, continue to remain unsatisfied. All we would want then is a larger bag to carry the money to the bank.”

Translation: Let’s continue to keep smokers hopelessly addicted and our only problem will be what to do with all that money!

Previous litigation has disclosed other writings by Big Tobacco with which they must now be seen with in the Florida sunshine:

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“What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.” Henry Thoreau.

Things must be tough for Big Tobacco; 8000 plaintiffs, so much truth, so little defense. As I have previously written, I felt Florida would be a little too hot for those boardroom lawyers representing Big Tobacco and it appears I may have been correct.

You expect them to come after you in the courtroom or in deposition. You expect Big Tobacco’s lawyers to be aggressive, take no prisoner types of lawyers. You expect Big Tobacco to want to delay cases going to trial; after all, in some cases, they face dying plaintiffs. What, at least, I did not expect is that Big Tobacco would try and hijack the Florida litigation to California.

In a couple of cases here in Florida, Big Tobacco has actually changed their focus of attack from the plaintiffs to a lone professor from Stanford University. Yes, that is correct, Big Tobacco is bringing its entire, massive power down upon the head of a historian, Dr. Robert Proctor, who apparently had the temerity to testify for injured smokers and against Big Tobacco.

Big Tobacco’s lawyers have filed motions trying to force Dr. Proctor to disclose his notes, his unfinished notes and any other papers remotely connected to a book he has been researching – a book not yet even published.

Let’s think about this. Dr. Proctor is an historian. So, that would mean that Dr. Proctor testifies about things that have occurred in the past; discussions that have occurred in the past; publications published in the past; and Big Tobacco’s advertising, again, in the past.

Could it be that Big Tobacco has difficulty with Dr. Proctor’s testimony? Can they not read the history just as Dr. Proctor does and can they not hold his feet to the fire based on the history? Could it be that Big Tobacco does not like the title of Dr. Proctor’s proposed book: “Golden Holocaust – A History of global Tobacco”?

Yep, it can get hot down here.

More than 8,000 smokers and their loved ones have been waiting for nearly two decades for their opportunity for justice. These smokers were part of the Engle class action that was decertified several years ago.  The Florida Supreme Court upheld a number of findings made by the Engle jury after they heard evidence for nearly a year; which will now apply in individual trials being held across the state for smokers and their surviving family members.  Most of the upcoming trials involve the surviving spouses and children of smokers who died long ago due to lung cancer or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Below is a summary of upcoming tobacco trials:

In addition to the above trial settings, additional trials should be scheduled during the same time period in Broward, Hillsborough, Lee, Escambia, Duval, Volusia, Alachua, and Levy Counties.  Several judges have indicated a willingness to consider conducting multi-plaintiff or consolidated trials, over the strenuous objection of the tobacco defense lawyers, in hopes of giving every former member of the Engle class action the right to a jury trial during their lifetime.

Phillip Morris was found to be 38% at fault in the death of a smoker. This is the verdict delivered by a jury of good citizens on August 14, 2009, in Broward County, Florida.

Philip Morris and their lawyers, presumably, blame the judge and bad rulings made by him. Altria’s (Philip Morris’ owner) senior vice-president, Murray Garrick said that “Today’s verdict is the result of a severely prejudicial trial plan. From beginning to end, this case was marked by legal rulings that should be reversed on appeal”
Imagine a cigarette company denying their product had anything at all to do with the death of a smoker. Apparently, Philip Morris and Altria do not believe they shared even 38% of the blame. It seems that Big Tobacco is not going to ever accept responsibility for producing a product, which they have manipulated and adulterated to an extent that it really has little connection with original tobacco.

But why change your conduct if you are a multi-billion dollar empire that has produced a drug for 75 years that the FDA would never allow to be marketed today? Why change your concern for billions in profits over dead victims of your product?
In 1958, The Tobacco Institute (a propaganda organization created by Big Tobacco) spewed a press release that, in part, said the following:

“It is the position of the Tobacco Institute (and so Big Tobacco) that the health of the American people is more important than dividends for the tobacco or any other industry.”

Apparently, that was as false as their claims for the last 70 years that cigarettes are not addictive and cigarettes do not cause lung cancer, COPD or any of the other dozens of diseases we know they cause.

To be fair, this statement was made by Big Tobacco before they knew, that we knew, that they knew for a long time that cigarettes would make people sick and kill them. So, sure they were not really on a search for the truth; in fact, they were lying, but hey, the health of the American people was what was important to them. Billions of dollars in profit was not what was driving this industry. Greed was in the back seat to charity and compassion for Big Tobacco.

When the CEO’s of all Big Tobacco stood before congress and stated the following where was the charity?:

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Today a jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida found that a long time smoker, Stuart Hess, really was addicted to cigarettes. If you can imagine, Big Tobacco’s lawyers marched into the courtroom and argued that cigarettes were not addictive or, in the alternative, cigarettes were not addictive to Mr. Hess.

Mr. Hess had smoked cigarettes for 40 years and had tried numerous methods to quit, without success. Ultimately, Mr. Hess died from cancer and his addiction to nicotine endured throughout his chemotherapy.

Big Tobacco’s lawyers apparently argued that because Mr. Hess appeared to be “able to quit from time to time”, he was not addicted to cigarettes. Mrs. Hess attorney, Gary Paige, put it about as plainly as you can: “People smoke because they’re addicted, not because they choose to,” Paige said. “Nobody wants to be addicted to cigarettes. It’s as addictive as cocaine and heroin.”

What is it with an industry who can not even be honest enough to admit that cigarettes are and always have been addictive!

Finally, Mrs. Hess has found some vindication from Big Tobacco.