Tobacco Industry Takes Hits But Continues to Exert Influence and Target Kids

"[The Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act] specifically addresses a new genre of dangerous tobacco products that are being marketed to our children: tobacco candy. In response to a drop in the number of cigarette smokers and new laws limiting smoking in public, Big Tobacco has resorted to outrageous tactics to hook a new generation of our children on tobacco. The tobacco companies are trying to portray new dissolvable tobacco products as harmless, but the truth is that smokeless tobacco is not safe tobacco.Tobacco candy causes cancer and kills."
— Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR),
June 11, 2009.

As was highlighted in the 2008 State of Tobacco Control report, the nation's leading tobacco companies—Altria and Reynolds American—now own the two largest smokeless tobacco companies, U.S. Smokeless Tobacco and Conwood. With the might of their parent companies behind them, these smokeless companies now are promoting policies—and using marketing campaigns—to encourage smokers who want to quit, or who cannot smoke due to smokefree laws, to use smokeless tobacco products instead.

Camel debuted its Camel Orbs, Strips and Sticks in Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Portland, Oregon in 2009. These products, dubbed "tobacco candy" by Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, received much attention during recent consideration of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. The size of Pez candies, Orbs are mint- and honey-flavored. According to reports from school janitors, used containers are turning up in high school and middle school trash cans.

After failing to defeat the passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in Congress, Reynolds American, Lorillard and a number of smaller tobacco companies filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Kentucky seeking to overturn many of the marketing restrictions in the new law giving FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products. The lawsuit shows that the tobacco companies know these marketing restrictions will make it much harder for them to continue to target the next generation of children, and the companies will fight to continue to target kids. The case was pending in early December, when this report was finalized, but a ruling on a preliminary injunction sought by the companies was rejected by the presiding judge in the case in November.

The tobacco industry also remains immensely powerful and influential in Washington and in many state capitals.

  • As of November 8, 2009, the tobacco companies and their employees have contributed over $900,000 to federal candidates for office for the 2009-2010 election cycle. This same group contributed over $4 million dollars during the 2007–2008 election cycle.15
  • According to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, the tobacco industry contributed over $7 million to state candidates' campaign coffers during the 2007-2008 election cycle, and had reported contributions of over $675,000 in 2009 (as of December 1).16

 

15 Center for Responsive Politics. Political Contributions Database. "Tobacco: Long-Term Contribution Trends" (based on data received from the Federal Election Commission as of Nov. 8, 2009). Available at: http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=A02.

16 National Institute on Money in State Politics. Industry Influence Database. Table 1: Tobacco companies and Tobacco Product Sales Contributions to All Candidates and Committees (as of December 1, 2009). Available at: http://www.followthemoney.org/database/IndustryTotals.phtml?f=0&s=0&i%5B%5D=143.