Tobacco Documents Online

This is a progress report from an R.J. Reynolds (RJR) field coordinator for the company's "Partisan Movement," a project to develop a massive "grassroots" lobbying network by tapping into and recruiting smokers, employees who worked for the industry and its allies (retailers, growers, advertisers etc.). This document shows that RJR actively organized smokers rights groups in states throughout the southwestern United States. The field coordinator reports some successes, but the document also describes the difficulty the company had in organizing smokers:

"Mike Skelly... said he is growing very frustrated with his group because all they want to do is gripe but do nothing about it..."

"Becky McKoon finally gave up on her group. She resigned as the President because she couldn't deal with a bunch of old people who just wanted to sit around and get drunk..."

"We only have 5 people in the [Flagstaff] area that could help out...Maybe I can persuade one of these guys to take an active role in getting a group more organized..."

"Billy Allison is growing leary of his group. It seems like they have 20 attenders at every monthly meeting but nobody wants to do anything. All they do is bitch..."

Successes: one group held a "Smokers Rights Ball" that raised $100, another group held a "Great American Smoke-In," and two other groups were successful at getting smoking rooms reinstated on the ground floors of local hospitals (one was a Veteran's hospital) and were forging ahead to get them reinstated on all floors.

This 1999 Philip Morris (PM) email reveals the extent of the cigarette maker's interference in efforts to enact public health smoking regulations at the most local level.

In the email, PM's Arizona public relations consultant Joanne Ralston discusses efforts to defeat smoking ordinances in the southern Arizona towns of Tucson, Douglas and Tombstone and Pima County. Ralston says that county supervisors in Pima are "...hiding behind the 'health issue" and are "likely to go forward with a ban stronger than Tucson." She expresses frustration with the Arizona Restaurant Association (ARA) over their refusal to act as a PM third party ally, saying

"ARA Tucson is weak...and not wired into supervisors at all. We offered help with a phone bank and they rejected it because we'd have to say 'Philip Morris.' Tucson bars also offered to help and were rejected by ARA/Tucson, which didn't want to be connected to tobacco and alcohol...So that's why I'm having trouble getting op-eds signed by Tucson restaurant folks."

Ralston concludes that the Arizona Restaurant Association has "a serious head in the sand mentality," and complains about the restaurant owners' realization that they, and not PM, would be the ones to bear the cost of PM's proposed "ventilation" solutions:

"...We have a model ordinance, but it requires ventilation, negative airflow over smoking sections...and minimum size requirements. Tucson ARA won't buy it. Their attitude is that we'd [be] spending their money, sans facing cost reality of separate facility vs. ventilation."

Ralston continues,

"I have asked PM to bring in Will Fox and put him on the ground in Douglas and Tombstone to stir up a firestorm of local opposition and Ginny is working on it."

That a big corporation like Philip Morris would take the time and effort to clandestinely "stir up a firestorm of opposition" to a public health effort to control smoking in an isolated southwestern U.S. community of 1,300 (Tombstone, AZ) shows the incredible extent to which this company will go to manipulate lawmaking to benefit itself.

In the email, Ralston discusses efforts to defeat smoking ordinances in several southern Arizona towns and counties, including Tucson, Pima County, Douglas and Tombstone. Ralston says that county supervisors in Pima are "...hiding behind the 'health issue" and are "likely to go forward with a ban stronger than Tucson."

She expresses frustration with the Arizona Restaurant Association (ARA) because they would not become a PM ally, saying "ARA Tucson is weak...and not wired into supervisors at all. We offered help with a phone bank and they rejected it because we'd have to say 'Philip Morris.' Tucson bars also offered to help and were rejected by ARA/Tucson, which didn't want to be connected to tobacco and alcohol...So that's why I'm having trouble getting op-eds signed by Tucson restaurant folks."

Ralston concludes that the Arizona Restaurant Association has "a serious head in the sand mentality," and complains that restaurant owners have discovered that they, and not PM, would bear the cost of a "ventilation" solution to the smoking problem:

...We have a model ordinance, but it requires ventilation, negative airflow over smoking sections...and minimum size requirements. Tucson ARA won't buy it. Their attitude is that we'd [be] spending their money, sans facing cost reality of separate facility vs. ventilation."

Ralston indicates her desire to "stir up a firestorm of local opposition" to the ordinance, saying

"I have asked PM to bring in Will Fox and put him on the ground in Douglas and Tombstone to stir up a firestorm of local opposition and Ginny is working on it."

That a big corporation like Philip Morris would take the time and effort to clandestinely interfere in the goings-on in an isolated southwestern U.S. community of merely 1,300 to "stir up a firestorm of opposition" to a smoking ordinance (Tombstone, AZ) shows the incredible extent to which this company will go to manipulate lawmaking to benefit itself.

This memo was written around the time that Arizona and Colorado were pursuing tobacco tax increases in 1994. It shows how the tobacco industry works behind the scenes to defeat tobacco tax increases. The memo describes a group called the National Coalition Against Crime and Tobacco Smuggling, and is clear about the industry's sole hand in forming this group and subsequent funding of its activities, saying "RJR made the initial grant to get the organization formed and to pay for its first activity -- a major study of the current U.S. contraband tobacco situation." The memo describes use of Rod Stamler, a former assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, to conduct a study of cigarette smuggling in Arizona and Colorado and disseminate the results to the media in those states. The memo describes other ways how Mr. Stamler could be used to help defeat the tax efforts in Colorado and Arizona. A section on Page 2 is entitled "Avoiding Direct Ties To 'The Tobacco Industry' " and explains how the National Coalition Against Crime and Tobacco Contraband (NCACTC) would be used as a front to avoid connecting the smuggling studies and their dissemination back to the tobacco industry.

Further investigation into the NCACTC's budget reveals a "highly confidential" internal industry Q&A document about the nature of the organization. The document was apparently a briefing for members about how to respond to questions about the organization and the tobacco industry's involvement in its formation. In response to a question about whether the tobacco industry IS the NCACTC, the paper denies that the organization "is" the tobacco industry. In response to a question asking how the organization is funded, the paper says the answer is, "Members fund the organization through membership fees, grants and contributions." [RJR 512544485, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/cgi/getdoc?tid=jll33d00&fmt=pdf&ref=results]. However, another document, a "highly confidential" 1999 estimated budget for NCACTC, reveals no estimated income from membership dues is even listed. The only income projected for the organization comes from contributions made by Brown & Williamson and RJR, at $225,000 each, and from interest [RJR 522917843/7847, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/cgi/getdoc?tid=veu60d00&fmt=pdf&ref=results ]