There is an illusion that the front group, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, is in the business of reducing and preventing children from smoking. As CEO and President, Matt Myers has done more to keep tobacco use in the United States than any tobacco executive could hope for.
In fact, as a tobacco executive’s wet dream, Myers promotes smoking to adults and eludes to protecting children. What a guy.
Adults have choice. Meanwhile, children have opportunity.
Tobacco Free Kids was invented in 1995 and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Johnson & Johnson, makers of smoking “cessation” products).
Matt Myers has negotiated with Philip Morris to determine terms of the Master Settlement Agreement, and”helped” create legislation with his friends once again in 1994 to create legislation for the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco.
You know, to keep it around.
Enacted by Congress
in 1992, the Synar Amendment was enacted and
“requires states (that is, all states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and six Pacific jurisdictions) to enact and enforce laws prohibiting the sale or distribution of tobacco products to individuals under the age of 18. States must comply with the Synar Amendment in order to receive their full Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant (SABG) awards.
It also has an ambiguous “ambitious” goal of 80% success when retailers sell to minors.
2 of ten children could purchase tobacco in their “compliance checks” and STILL be IN compliance? WHY is this so lenient, still acceptable and still in “practice”?
Negotiate interim targets and a date to achieve a noncompliance rate of no more than 20% (SAMHSA requires that each state reduce its retailer violation rate to 20% or less by FY 2003)
“Failure to promptly and adequately correct all violations and ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations may lead to enforcement actions, including Civil Money Penalties or No-Tobacco-Sale Orders.”
So what if you’re a retailer?
Obviously there are penalties and fines, right? The WeCard program and individual retailers are responsible to check the identification at the point of sale, just like alcohol.
According to Transform Tobacco, “FDA inspections of retail establishments have shown a 95% retailer compliance rate when it comes to checking identification prior to sale”.
Transform Tobacco is a project of RAI Services Company on behalf of the tobacco company, Reynolds American.
Obviously, they do more to reduce underage tobacco sales at the point of sale than the law requires.
Added 6/15/17
Nothing’s changed:
PDF from Public Health Law Center
Prepare yourself
What if a retailer breaks the law? Of course there are tough and stringent consequenses to selling tobacco – right?
“Under the law, the FDA may pursue a No-Tobacco-Sale Order (NTSO) against retailers that have a total of five or more repeated violations of certain restrictions within 36 months.”
Wait. What?
There are groups like Tobacco Free Kids and Truth Initiative dedicated to reducing tobacco use –
— and the acceptable rate of sales of tobacco to minors has a noncompliance rate of no more than 20%?
FIVE infractions?
Well….c’mon in kids. We’ve got tobacco.
Pay no attention to the man behind the front group.
WHAT exactly are the front groups like Truth Initiative and Tobacco Free Kids doing?
They’re keeping an acceptable amount of smoking for children and adults under the pretense of “kids and truth” with no integrity or accountability for their actions – more specifically, their inactions.
David Goerlitz
David is the only man alive that’s seen every aspect of the tobacco, anti-tobacco and tobacco control world – and talks about the seedy side of the corruption starting in the ’80’s here with Fergus Mason.
“The deals they made in these meetings should have been about protecting the nation’s health – but, far too often, they were about money.”
David Goerlitz Interview: The Winston Man Talks Tobacco and Vaping
He talked about it throughout the award-winning documentary A Billion Lives.
WHEN will “Tobacco CONtrol” figure it out?
Skip’s got a question about CONtrol here.
They won’t. They can’t. It isn’t in their – or their founders – best fiscal interests.
After more than 30 years of “fighting” tobacco, (they) can’t “figure out” how to keep tobacco out of children’s hands?
Why aren’t they paying attention and CHANGING existing idiotic loopholes instead of patting themselves on the back for not doing a damn thing?
Someone get a letter together to “convince” these assholes to change this friggin’ Synar law.
Imagine if you didn’t do your job for 30 + years…
Ask yourself – why they are still “in business”?
The illusion – “Think of the children™” posed to the public to create the illusion is just that. An illusion. A lie. The “children” are expendable and profitable casualties of their made up, self-serving war.
Tobacco control stays in “business” with what looks like good intentions,
Related:
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids contributed to youth cigarette addiction
Dear Matt Myers, President of Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids
Reducing smoking, a challenging “Campaign” for Tobacco Free Kids
You can find me here trying to be cordial on Facebook
You can find me here being a bit more evil on Twitter
You can also find me on LinkedIn
Please visit my friends:
Medical, Research, Science Professionals:
Research:
Politics:
A Billion Lives
Your comments are NEVER filtered, always encouraged and welcome on this blog.
More to come.
Keep ON #Vaping On.
Kevin
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