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March 2004

Firebrand cigarette industry foe calls citizens to action

Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, second from left, called on audience members to encourage more state funding for anti-smoking efforts during a visit to UNF.

There were no ambiguities in Dr. Jeffrey Wigand’s recent speech at UNF. He offered an impassioned plea to increase funding for the state’s anti-smoking programs and proclaimed two of Florida’s most prominent politicians guilty of “moral treason.”

Wigand, whose controversial disclosures about the tobacco industry were the subject the movie The Insider, was blunt in his criticism of state officials who have cut anti-smoking programs from $70 million to $1 million. He said Florida’s once “best in class” model program has been gutted.

“Florida’s performance is dismal,” he said, comparing it with other states. Once ranked No. 1 in the nation in terms of anti-smoking funding, Florida now is ranked No. 44, he said.

He laid the blame squarely on the shoulders of Senate President Jim King of Jacksonville and House Speaker Johnnie Byrd.

“The people you have elected have a duty and responsibility to the future,” he said.
Wigand called on the audience to get involved and write their lawmakers to encourage that the funding be restored in the next budget cycle.

He predicted the loss of funding for the programs will result in more children starting to smoke in Florida and, consequently, increased health care costs. For every $1 spent on prevention programs, he asserted, the state would save $3 in eventual increased health care costs.

Funding for the Florida Tobacco Control Programs was part of the $14 billion settlement reached with tobacco companies to compensate the state for additional Medicaid expenses associated with caring for patients with smoking-related illnesses.

Although the state devoted $70 million in the initial year, that total was cut in successive years as the state suffered an economic slowdown and a decline in tax revenues. Gov. Jeb Bush has proposed allocating $16 million for the program in the next fiscal year.

But the anti-smoking agenda laid out by Wigand went far beyond influencing the Florida Legislature. He noted that although the surgeon general’s report on the dangers of smoking came out 40 years ago, there are still inadequate warnings on cigarette packaging.

He also criticized the federal government’s failure to place nicotine under the regulation of the Food and Drug Administration despite knowledge that it is six times more addictive than cocaine or heroin.

Wigand was particularly critical of tobacco companies exploiting undeveloped countries with some of the same advertising tactics that have been banned in the United States. But children were the primary focus of his remarks.

“The tobacco companies target underage kids,” Wigand said, “because they know that if they hook them young, they hook them for life.”

Since being fired as the vice president for research and development at Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corp. and being the subject of a famous 60 Minutes interview, Wigand has devoted his efforts to reducing smoking among children.

His nonprofit organization, Smoke-Free Kids Inc., has worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to produce an educational video for schools on the harmful effects of smoking. To date, more than 30,000 copies have been distributed to schools across the nation.

While in Jacksonville, he discussed the dangers of smoking with a fifth-grade class at Rawlings Elementary School in Ponte Vedra Beach.

His Jacksonville appearance was hosted by Leadership Jacksonville, Jacksonville University and UNF. The sponsors were the American Cancer Society, BellSouth, Mr. and Mrs. Dan Davis, and Wayne and Delores Barr Weaver.