Chapter 33 The FDA, tobacco regulation and state lawsuits

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The FDA, tobacco regulation and state lawsuits: State Lawsuits

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The state of Mississippi joined Florida, Minnesota, and West Virginia in filing suit

against the tobacco industry to pay for the medical bills of the state's Medicaid

patients who have required care for tobacco-related illnesses. "For decades, the

tobacco cartel has conspired intentionally, fraudulently, and maliciously to mislead the

public in order to peddle defective products they know are addictive and deadly", said

Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore. "This lawsuit is based on a simple notion:

you caused the health crisis; you pay for it. The free ride is over. It's time these

billionaire tobacco companies start paying what they rightfully owe to Mississippi

taxpayers."

Lancet, July 23, 1994, p. 253, New York Times, May 24, 1994, p. A12, ad San

Francisco Chronicle, December 21, 1995

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Philip Morris admitted that it organized Mississippi businesses to fund Governor Kirk

Fordice's legal fight to block the state's Medicaid lawsuit, which was settled out of

court in 1997.

ANR Update, Spring 1997

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Four major tobacco companies agreed to pay Mississippi $3.4 billion over 25 years,

including $170 million immediately, to settle the state's lawsuit over health care costs

caused by smoking.

New York Times, July 4, 1997

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Florida in 1994 introduced legislation, the Medicaid Third Party Recovery Act,

seeking to hold the tobacco industry liable for the state's cost of treating

smoking-related illnesses in Medicaid patients, a sum amounting to $1.2 billion since

1989. Governor Lawton Chiles commented, "We're going to take the Marlboro man

to court. With this law, Florida sends a loud and clear message to the tobacco giants

that they will be held accountable for sponsoring sickness and death."

Associated Press, May 27, 1994, and Wall Street Journal, May 3, 1994, p. A3

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Monday, July 24, 2000

Page 12 of 15

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