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Mr. Waxman. Thank you Mr. Bliley. 



Mr. Synar. 



Mr. Synar. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for this op- 

 portunity to focus on a very important health issue for all of us. 



Ladies and gentlemen, the tobacco industry is perpetrating a 

 fraud on the American people. Tobacco companies put Lord knows 

 what in their tobacco and they do not believe that they should in 

 any way be accountable to the American people who buy their 

 products. 



Americans have the right to know what is in cheese through the 

 ingredients on the back of the package. Americans have the right 

 to know what is in NyQuil and other drugs. Americans do not have 

 the right to know what is in this cigarette package. Yet 7 out of 

 every 10 Americans believe that tobacco products should be regu- 

 lated. Nine out of 10 Americans believe that manufacturers should 

 disclose the additives used in tobacco products. 



Why isn't it happening? It could be because of the increasing 

 amount of attention that has been drawn to the means and the in- 

 fluence that the tobacco industry yields in this town and across this 

 country. Their lobbyists are some of the wiliest and best com- 

 pensated in America. 



Let me share with you a quote from a former tobacco industry 

 lobbyist in the Maryland State legislature, Victor Crawford, which 

 appeared in The New York Times on March 20, 1994. "I am not 

 proud of having lobbied for them, the tobacco industry. I think it 

 is ironic and just desserts, because in my heart, I knew better. But 

 I rationalized and denied because the money was so good and be- 

 cause I could always rationalize it. That is how you make a living, 

 by rationalizing that black is not black. It is white; it is green; it 

 is yellow. 



"But I knew in my heart that what the Surgeon General said 

 was right. I think these people know that. Do I feel guilty about 

 what I did? Yes. Would I do it again knowing what I know now? 

 No. Would I do it again not knowing what I know now? Yes. Why? 

 Because it might be unhealthy but it will never again happen to 

 me and, after all, there is freedom of choice and it is a free country. 

 If you want to make an ass out of yourself, you have that right. 

 Sounds good, but the fact of the matter is that it is a killer." 



My colleagues, friends, fellow Americans, it is time, long overdue 

 to force this tobacco industry to show some respect for the health 

 of the American people. 



Mr. Waxman. Thank you Mr. Synar. 



Mr. Wyden. 



Mr. Wyden. I want to start by congratulating you and Congress- 

 man Synar for your many years of leadership on this issue and I 

 also want to commend Dr. Kessler for his courage and his efforts 

 in the public interest to examine the question of regulating tobacco 

 products as drugs. 



This is an extremely important hearing. We are going to be ex- 

 amining today whether cigarettes are indeed a delivery system for 

 the addictive drug nicotine and, therefore, should be regulated like 

 other drugs under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938. 



We see many representatives of the tobacco industry in the audi- 

 ence. They are here, I believe, because they are concerned, con- 



