171 



Mr. Califano. Raising the tax on cigarettes would put cigarettes 

 beyond the means and lunch money of most elementary and high 

 school students. The fact that just about everyone who smokes gets 

 hooked as a teen and that so many of them move on to hard drugs 

 makes this higher tax not only an immediate revenue raiser but an 

 essential public health initiative to protect our children from being 

 abused by tobacco companies and to prevent them from becoming 

 a burden that will threaten the financial viability of Medicare and 

 Medicaid. I 



Congress should seek to examine the research conducted by to- 

 bacco companies on their marketing strategies regarding teenagers, 

 women, and minorities. Cigarette executives claim they do not try 

 to target children with their ads, but in view of their concealment 

 of the deadly diseases that cigarettes cause and the addictive na- 

 ture of nicotine, it is imperative to study their market research on 

 children as well as on women and minorities. 



Congress should also withhold any Federal funds in the form of 

 Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement from outlets that sell ciga- 

 rettes such as hospitals, nursing homes, and pharmacies. Congress 

 should outlaw cigarette vending machines and ban the advertising 

 and sale of cigarettes within 10 blocks of any school. 



These are only a few ideas, Mr. Chairman; there are many more. 

 If we had known in 1964 what we know now, we could have turned 

 our best minds and energy then to arresting this killer. Now, 30 

 years and 9 million deaths later, we must move aggressively to 

 stop the carnage. 



Mr. Chairman and members of this committee, let me close on 

 a personal note. For most of my professional life I have been 

 trained as a lawyer. I have been disturbed to read reports of law- 

 yers advising their clients to move research overseas, to suppress 

 the results and even stop the research, all because of their interest 

 in winning lawsuits filed by people suffering from heart disease, 

 cancer, and emphysema due to smoking. These lawyers see the end 

 of reducing their clients' vulnerability to litigation as justifying any 

 means, actions that they know will contribute to the disease and 

 death of millions of Americans. 



This raises profound questions about professional ethics and 

 standards of conduct, and I hope my own profession will, in polic- 

 ing and examining itself, investigate the conduct of its members. 

 But, unfortunately, we cannot rely on the better angels in tobacco 

 executives and their hired lawyers to protect Americans from the 

 deadly threat that tobacco poses to their health. It is up to each 

 one of us to bar the doors and bolt the locks that will safeguard 

 every family and child from America's number one serial killer, to- 

 bacco. 



Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



[Testimony resumes on p. 290.] 



[The attachments to Mr. Califano's prepared statement follow:] 



