| ||||||
Big Tobacco's Latest Dirty Trick: Deceiving Oregon Voters |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
From Government and Policy: In the latest example that the tobacco companies have not changed and continue to put profit before health, Big Tobacco and its bag of dirty tricks have descended on Oregon in an effort to defeat a November ballot initiative that would increase the state cigarette tax and fund children's health care. R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris have so far spent at least $6.6 million - a record for an Oregon ballot measure - to defeat Measure 50, the Healthy Kids Oregon initiative, according to media reports. At least six Oregon TV stations refused to run one of Reynolds' ads until the company revised them to include a tag line stating it was the sole funder of the ads. --Oregonian media have repeatedly exposed false claims in R.J. Reynolds' ads against the initiative, including a false claim that most of the money would not be used for children's health care. R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris are fighting Measure 50 because it would raise the cigarette tax by 84.5 cents per pack, which they know is a highly effective strategy to reduce smoking, especially among kids. The tobacco companies are well aware that voters strongly support cigarette tax increases, especially when used to fund important programs like children's health care. So they've concluded that their only chance to defeat this initiative is to spend vast sums to carry out political dirty tricks and deceive voters. Last year, tobacco companies spent more than $80 million to oppose state ballot initiatives to increase tobacco taxes and require smoke-free workplaces and public places.
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
