Editing Money
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| − | + | <metakey>tobacco,control,industry,tobacco control,tobacco control industry,junk-science,science,ETS,second hand smoke,interests,tobacco tactics,pharmaceutical,Big Pharma,money,financial</metakey> | |
| − | + | <metadesc>An overview of the money streams feeding Tobacco Control. As the political power of the Big Tobacco Industry, shrunken, regulated into submission, and gagged against protest, has declined despite their growth in world product, the Tobacco Control Industry, supported by governments and by a Pharmaceutical Industry which profits from “smoking cessation” products, has become a financial colossus. The losers are the people. Their losses come in the form of suffering a divisive victimization campaign aimed at smokers, of wealth wasted on Tobacco Control bureaucracy and junk science rather than productive research, of the tarnishing of the good name of science and a loss of trust in the medical establishment, of blocking of the development of effective reduced risk cigarettes, and of ever-increasing oppression in the form of restrictions on personal choice and individual freedom. </metadesc> | |
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== Funding overview == | == Funding overview == | ||
Governments are the biggest players in the tobacco market. In the US, for example, as Doctor Gio Gori has noted, various areas of government at the turn of the twenty-first century received around $40 billion annually from tobacco, against less than $9 billion in profits received by the tobacco industry itself. "It is governments that benefit from and control the tobacco trade far more than the tobacco industry, which has been virtually nationalized by taxation and the US Master Settlement Agreement with the states," [http://www.olivernorvell.com/GoriReIOM.pdf says Gori]. The Master Settlement Agreement is a price-fixing scheme which makes manufacturers, in effect, surrogate tax collectors, even as direct government-collected taxes also continue to grow exponentially. The situation is similar worldwide, where total taxes on cigarettes typically outstrip the actual price of cigarettes, several times to one. | Governments are the biggest players in the tobacco market. In the US, for example, as Doctor Gio Gori has noted, various areas of government at the turn of the twenty-first century received around $40 billion annually from tobacco, against less than $9 billion in profits received by the tobacco industry itself. "It is governments that benefit from and control the tobacco trade far more than the tobacco industry, which has been virtually nationalized by taxation and the US Master Settlement Agreement with the states," [http://www.olivernorvell.com/GoriReIOM.pdf says Gori]. The Master Settlement Agreement is a price-fixing scheme which makes manufacturers, in effect, surrogate tax collectors, even as direct government-collected taxes also continue to grow exponentially. The situation is similar worldwide, where total taxes on cigarettes typically outstrip the actual price of cigarettes, several times to one. | ||
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<imagemap> | <imagemap> | ||
| − | Image:TC_Money.png | + | Image:TC_Money.png |
# Comment | # Comment | ||
poly 626 258 669 171 649 168 645 86 602 91 598 173 581 177 [[#pharmaceutical|Pharmaceutical NRT producers]] | poly 626 258 669 171 649 168 645 86 602 91 598 173 581 177 [[#pharmaceutical|Pharmaceutical NRT producers]] | ||
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* <span id="NGOs">'''NGOs/Charities'''</span>: Although many TC organizations are also "Non-Governmental Organizations" (NGOs), many other NGOs sponsor TC: Cancer, Asthma, Heart charities and even patient organizations give Tobacco Control forces money out of both idealistic and public-relations motivations. They are funded by governments but also by the general public who still consider these charities as simple well-doers, with that perception reinforced every time they perform an act or make a contribution in favor of "saving the children" and against "Big Tobacco." These charities also often have financial or other ties with, or are facilitated by, the Pharmaceutical Industry. | * <span id="NGOs">'''NGOs/Charities'''</span>: Although many TC organizations are also "Non-Governmental Organizations" (NGOs), many other NGOs sponsor TC: Cancer, Asthma, Heart charities and even patient organizations give Tobacco Control forces money out of both idealistic and public-relations motivations. They are funded by governments but also by the general public who still consider these charities as simple well-doers, with that perception reinforced every time they perform an act or make a contribution in favor of "saving the children" and against "Big Tobacco." These charities also often have financial or other ties with, or are facilitated by, the Pharmaceutical Industry. | ||
* <span id="nrtsales">'''NRT sales'''</span>: NRT products only include nicotine patches and gum but also, in common usage, extend to anti-depressants and brain-chemistry pharmaceuticals like Zyban and Chantix/Champix, as well as the developing field of anti-smoking vaccines. These products are developed to prevent smoking in the first place or to make it easier for smokers to quit, but they do not always have the desired effect. Side effects reported for some of these "pharmaceutical interventions" include mood swings, anger, violence and suicide attempts. As a whole the effectiveness of these NRT and stop-smoking products Patches and gums don't appear, in formal double-blind placebo-control studies to have the nearly the success rate touted by their producers and the Tobacco Control Industry in general. A personal decision by the smoker to quit "cold turkey" because they themselves desire to do so still seems to be the most successful method of smoking cessation.<ref>[http://www.forces-nl.org/download/DarEtter.pdf Assigned Versus Perceived Placebo Effects in Nicotine Replacement Therapy for Smoking Reduction in Swiss Smokers]</ref><ref>[http://whyquit.com/whyquit/A_RealWorldNRT.html "Real-World" Nicotine Patch and Gum Rates ]</ref> | * <span id="nrtsales">'''NRT sales'''</span>: NRT products only include nicotine patches and gum but also, in common usage, extend to anti-depressants and brain-chemistry pharmaceuticals like Zyban and Chantix/Champix, as well as the developing field of anti-smoking vaccines. These products are developed to prevent smoking in the first place or to make it easier for smokers to quit, but they do not always have the desired effect. Side effects reported for some of these "pharmaceutical interventions" include mood swings, anger, violence and suicide attempts. As a whole the effectiveness of these NRT and stop-smoking products Patches and gums don't appear, in formal double-blind placebo-control studies to have the nearly the success rate touted by their producers and the Tobacco Control Industry in general. A personal decision by the smoker to quit "cold turkey" because they themselves desire to do so still seems to be the most successful method of smoking cessation.<ref>[http://www.forces-nl.org/download/DarEtter.pdf Assigned Versus Perceived Placebo Effects in Nicotine Replacement Therapy for Smoking Reduction in Swiss Smokers]</ref><ref>[http://whyquit.com/whyquit/A_RealWorldNRT.html "Real-World" Nicotine Patch and Gum Rates ]</ref> | ||
| − | * <span id="TCI">The '''Tobacco Control industry''' not only includes anti-tobacco lobby organizations but also many scientists in universities and in government funded knowledge institutes worldwide. Most of these organizations and individuals are members of Globalink, an international communications and planning network open and accessible only to approved tobacco control activists and researchers. As discussed elsewhere on this site, Globalink keeps strict watch over its membership and has been known to expel scientists who begin to deviate from its core doctrines.<ref>[http:// | + | * <span id="TCI">The '''Tobacco Control industry''' not only includes anti-tobacco lobby organizations but also many scientists in universities and in government funded knowledge institutes worldwide. Most of these organizations and individuals are members of Globalink, an international communications and planning network open and accessible only to approved tobacco control activists and researchers. As discussed elsewhere on this site, Globalink keeps strict watch over its membership and has been known to expel scientists who begin to deviate from its core doctrines.<ref>[http://globalink.org Globalink.org]</ref>.</span> |
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<references /> | <references /> | ||
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'''The following are just a few examples of the pharmaceutical money trail:''' | '''The following are just a few examples of the pharmaceutical money trail:''' | ||
| − | *[ | + | *[http://www.who.int/inf-pr-1999/en/pr99-04.html WHO launches partnership with the pharmaceutical industry to help smokers quit] |
:Excerpt: | :Excerpt: | ||
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The following excerpts come from the Novartis website which explains the lobbying and political contribution policy of the corporation: | The following excerpts come from the Novartis website which explains the lobbying and political contribution policy of the corporation: | ||
| − | *[ | + | *[http://164.109.68.206/business-conduct/lobbying/public-policy.shtml Public policy and advocacy ]: |
<blockquote>The Novartis Global Public Affairs department is responsible for managing political lobbying and contributions. Our aim is to monitor and assess regulatory and political decisions that may affect our business, to make timely and substantive contributions to the policy process and to ensure consistency of action across all policy fronts.(...)</blockquote> | <blockquote>The Novartis Global Public Affairs department is responsible for managing political lobbying and contributions. Our aim is to monitor and assess regulatory and political decisions that may affect our business, to make timely and substantive contributions to the policy process and to ensure consistency of action across all policy fronts.(...)</blockquote> | ||
