U.S. tobacco industry: Killed more Americans than all wars combined

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But actually the interests of the grower and the manufacturer diverge, White tells us. The price-support system, which has operated since 1933, guarantees the grower a minimum price for his crop, and limits its The merchants of death Larry White writes about are not arms dealers. But the product they peddle kills as Every farmer must file for an "allotment" that may be surely as bombs and bullets. It killed at least 350,000 as little as a few rows. However, these few rows may bring Americans in 1986 through self-administered poisoning. in more money than any other crop he might raise. This These merchants of death deal in cigarettes and other situation has not been to the liking of the manufacturers tobacco products that, White tells us, "have killed more who are faced with a controlled supply and price. They Americans than all the hostile armies from the British to have been looking to cheaper tobacco in Brazil and parts The author does not spend much time arguing the case To the dismay of their "partner," the small farmer, against tobacco. He agrees with Surgeon General C. Ev- the tobacco magnates have been strangely silent when The tobacco indüstry is an oligopoly, White points out.

Seven companies have been producing tobacco products for nearly 100 years. In that time, tobacco interests have developed such clout in Congress that tobacco is unique It cannot be regulated for wholesomeness by the Food and Drug Administration, or for safety by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. No government agency has the power to ban any of the hundreds of additives put Augmenting the clout of the tobacco tycoons is the humble tobacco grower, tending his few acres in the hills of the Mid-South. Tobacco has never been a big plantation crop, and government price-support policy has kept the Vietnamese."

erett Koop, who says the debate is over. He quotes Koop: "The only scientists in the world who take a position opposing the 50,000 published articles opposing smoking, are those in the employ of the tobacco industry."

In the face of these devastating facts, however, "The tobacco industry is not only surviving, it is actually becoming richer and more powerful than ever," White says. How kills, manage to thrive in the subject of this study. among consumer products.

into cigarettes, no matter how toxic.

it a small-scale enterprise.

So the family farmer in his corporate giant as a "partner" gether they condemn taxes on Merchants of Death, by Larry L. White. Beech Tree Books, 1988. 241 pages. $17.95.

. Little government regulation DOONESBURY / Garry Trudeau HEY, TEENS! MR.

BUTTS HERE!

EVER WONDER WHY THERE'S SO MUCH PEER PRESSURE TO SMOKE? these dealers in a product that the face of so much hostility is coveralis stands beside the in the tobacco family. Totobacco and restrictions on smoking.

production. of Africa. under 18.

IT'S BECAUSE YOUR FRIENDS DON'T WANT YOU TO MISS OUT! GETTING HOOKED ON CIGARETTES.

I5 FUN-AND SURPRISINGLY EASY! young people hooked.

T.V. Guide informs its clients that it lion young people aged 12 to 17. This more cigarette advertising revenue than cation—$36 million in 1985. FOR JUST A FEW DOLLAR A DAY, YOU'U HAVE A GLAMOROUS NEW HAE FOR LIFE!

ME, NEXT!

ME, NEXT! priced campaigns. bite you on the ankle?"

IS IT SAFE? HECK, YES! JUST CHECK OUT THE FILTER!

BELIEVE ME, NOTHIN GETS BY THAT BABY! The mass magazines afraid they would lose valuable accounts from food divisions controlled by the tobacco conglomerates.

Some people think diversification means investors are getting out of the killer-weed business. Not at all, says Larry White. The tycoons are using their huge profits to iegitimatize and partly conceal their tobacco

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