If They Lied, Prosecute

A powerful anti-smoking commercial that aired briefly across the state in late 1994 featured footage of tobacco industry executives testifying under oath before a House committee. One after another, they maintained they did not believe tobacco was addictive. The spot ended with an announcer asking, “Do they think we’re stupid?”

An executive of the R.J. Reynolds company, makers of Camel cigarettes, took such offense at the implication that these men might have lied that he threatened to sue unless Califor- nia’s Department of Health Services pulled the ad. Skittish state officials complied in early 1995.

Now comes news the U.S. Justice Department has intensified its probe into allegations that these executives and their associates indeed committed perjury in the hearing and in documents submitted to the Food and Drug Administration. Those documents dealt with the addictive nature of cigarettes as well as whether the companies had secretly tried to boost that addictive power.

In Senate hearings last month, some members seemed to condition endorsement of the recently reached $368-billion tobacco settlement on a confession by industry executives that they had lied in their 1994 House testimony. But criminal prosecution would be more appropriate than any deal for a confession.

Federal prosecutors have reportedly granted immunity to a witness whose testimony could be devastating, a New Jersey scientist who helped Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. create a tobacco plant with unusually high levels of nicotine. The decade-long secret project was first revealed at another 1994 hearing; B&W; executives maintained they were merely trying to enhance cigarette flavor. As part of its probe, which covers other major cigarette makers as well, the Justice Department has also convened grand juries in Washington, New York and Brooklyn to look into possible wrongdoing, and these bodies have subpoenaed a number of current and former employees of the major tobacco companies.

Clearly, the companies tried to deceive the public in denying that nicotine is addictive. Lying to Congress and lying to the FDA are actionable offenses, and Congress should not permit them to be negotiated away.