From: Jim Rosenfield <[j n r] at [igc.apc.org]>
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Date: 20 Feb 94 08:56 PST
Subject: SUBSIDIZE TOBACCO FARMERS

		   ELDERS FAVORS SUBSIDIZING TOBACCO FARMERS

RTw  2/10/94 3:02 PM

    RALEIGH, NC, Feb 10 (Reuter) - Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders
said Thursday it would be far cheaper for the U.S. government to
subsidise tobacco farmers than continue to pay the health-care
costs associated with tobacco-related illness.
     Elders made the comments during a brief news conference after
she addressed a forum at North Carolina State University. The
forum, "Investing in Health: An American Agenda," was attended by
several hundred health-care professionals and advocates, and
government officials in the country's largest tobacco producing
state.
     "I think putting the tax on cigarettes is the appropriate
thing to do," Elders said, referring to the Clinton
administration's ambitious plan to pay for health-care reform by
raising taxes on a pack of cigarettes.
     She said the government spends $18 for every $3 the tobacco
farmers get, and added that tobacco manufacturers make the "big
money" from tobacco -- not the farmers.
     Elders sidestepped a question on whether President Clinton
was willing to write off North Carolina politically in efforts to
use the proposed 99-cents-per-pack tax on cigarettes to help fund
his health care programme. The current tax on a pack of cigarettes
is 24 cents.
     The government's health-care plan was drafted by First Lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was expected to also address the forum
Thursday via teleconference from Washington.
     "I don't think you have a tobacco farmer in North Carolina
who'd want their children to smoke or chew tobacco," Elders said.
"I'm about health, and I think we have to advocate the best health
for America. I can't say we support inducing 3,000 children a day
into smoking," knowing that some will die of lung disease.
     A study by the Roswell Park Cancer Institute of Buffalo, New
     York, found that 2.7 million teen-agers smoked 516 million
packs of cigarettes in 1991, more than half sold illegally. It
said that in North Carolina
 about 78,074 youngsters between the ages of 12 and 18 smoked
 regularly. REUTER

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