LAWSUITS: MINNESOTA ACTS; NEW YORK REVIEWS
A group of Minnesota smokers filed a lawsuit WednesdayThis is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
against the tobacco industry claiming that the tobacco makers had
concealed the addictive nature of nicotine, manipulated nicotine
levels to addict smokers, deceived the public about nicotine and
specifically targeted advertising to young people to entice them
to start smoking, AP/Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE reports. Attorneys
said this is the eighth such suit, with Minnesota joining actions
in Alabama, California, Louisiana, New Mexico, New York, Ohio and
Pennsylvania. The lawsuit is requesting class action status to
include all Minnesota smokers who use products made by Philip
Morris Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Lorillard Tobacco Co.,
Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corp. and American Tobacco. Randy
Hopper, an attorney with the Minneapolis law firm Zimmerman Reed,
said the class action suits are much broader than those suits
seeking reimbursement for Medicaid costs. According to AP/STAR
TRIBUNE, a New Orleans federal court threw out a similar case in
May (9/5). The Castano case sought to recover damages for all
addicted smokers nationwide, but was thrown out because it was
too large. A variety of smaller state-level suits have been
filed as a result of the ruling (see AHL 5/24).
NEW YORK: Increasingly under pressure to announce his
position on a tobacco lawsuit, New York Attorney General Dennis
Vacco (R) said he was working with other state attorneys general
that had not filed suits on a plan that would produce "tangible
results faster than litigation would." He intends to ask the
tobacco industry to "help stop teenage smoking, give the state
some cash, and in exchange, he won't sue," NEWSDAY reports.
Vacco said he has drafted an alternative proposal to be
circulated to other states. But "experts" say they know of no
such plan.
BIG DOLLARS: Vacco has come under criticism for not filing
suit; New York spends more than any other state on Medicaid
(Slackman, 9/5). An estimated $650 million in Medicaid funds was
spent treating smoking-related illnesses as of 1993 (Precious,
Albany TIMES UNION, 9/4). "Legal experts" say larger settlements
are likely to go to those states who sue first (NEWSDAY, 9/5).
But Vacco said he is looking to do more than recoup state
dollars. "He said he'd rather have the states negotiate with the
industry to help cut down teenage smoking and to fund cancer
research." However, Vacco did stress that he would file a
lawsuit "if he does not see some changes" made by the tobacco
industry (TIMES UNION, 9/6).