Is Janet Renos RICO lawsuit against Big Tobacco legally justified?
Attorney General Janet Reno’s lawsuit against the major cigarette manufacturers is long overdue and more than justified. Big tobacco companies for decades have peddled their deadly and addictive products to children while hiding their own research into the dangers of these products, doing their best to deceive the public about these dangers and suppressing designs for safer cigarettes. To assist their deceptions and avoid detection, they have operated a conspiracy since 1953 to pretend to be researching scientific issues to which they already had answers and to provide public relations and lobbying cover for the fraudulent enterprise. As a result, every year more than 1 million American children become addicted to nicotine, about 1 million Americans develop smoking-related illnesses and more than 400,000 die from the industry’s products. The lawsuit filed on Sept. 22 is making two very different types of claims. First, it seeks reimbursement for the more than $20 billion each year that
Related Questions
- Now that the lawsuit between the State of California and the tobacco industry has been settled, what will be the ongoing responsibilities of the Office of the Attorney General?
- Can the Attorney Generals office represent me in a private lawsuit against the tobacco industry?
- Why Big Tobacco? And why healthy eating issues?
