FEBRUARY 9, 2000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: Kathryn Serkes (202) 333-3855

Web www.aapsonline.org

DOCTORS CRITICIZE CLINTON TOBACCO FINES FOR UNDERAGE SMOKERS

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), issued the following statement by Jane M. Orient, M.D., Executive Director, in response to President Clinton's proposed $3,000 fine on tobacco manufacturers for each underage smoker:

As physicians, we find reprehensible the use of excessive government intrusion and control to force changes in behavior affecting health and well-being. Many other voluntary activities are associated with adverse health effects, some more probable and more immediate than the hazards of tobacco use.

What's next? Fining auto makers for each speeding driver, nailing Hershey for every diabetic who eats a candy bar, or gouging McDonalds for all obese people who order a Big Mac?

Although anyone who doesn't live on Mars knows that tobacco is bad for your health, concern about health does not justify using Third Reich measures against corporations engaged in a legal business. (The Nazis, by the way, were health nuts and death on smoking.)

How do we find every underage smoker without posting Big Brother in every home and on every street corner? And to impose punitive fines without benefit of reliable evidence, for behavior outside a company's control, without benefit of trial by jury or other rights, threatens the very foundations of our constitutional republic.

If tobacco is so evil, why doesn't the government just outlaw it? For one thing, the government has a huge vested interest in having people continue to smoke so that its revenue stream will be uninterrupted. It could be that the government reaps more profit from this vice than cigarette makers do.

Noted economist, Murray Rothbard, stated: "Once we bring in threats to person and property that are vague and future, ie. are not overt and immediate, then all manner of tyranny becomes excusable."

This Clinton directive would set a precedent for pervasive and intrusive interference with all aspects of private life, including diet, exercise, recreation, and sexual activities. Conduct Cop will be the next government job title.

AAPS is national association of physicians in all specialties dedicated since 1943 to the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship, and the protection of their hundreds of thousands of patients against third-party intrusion into that relationship.