ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 25, 1997 TAG: 9701280129
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: TALLAHASSEE, FLA.
SOURCE: Associated Press
As Florida pressed ahead with its $2.4billion lawsuit against cigarette makers, the tobacco industry produced evidence Friday that the state's prisons used to make and sell cigarettes.
``The fact that the state itself manufactures cigarettes changes virtually everything,'' said Michael York, an attorney for tobacco giant Philip Morris.
Florida wants to recoup an estimated $800million in taxes spent annually since 1994 to treat sick smokers, claiming the industry deceived the public about the dangers of smoking. The trial is to begin in August.
At a pretrial hearing in West Palm Beach, the industry produced records showing Florida's prison system once had two factories that made high-nicotine, no-filter cigarettes, which were given to inmates and sold to local governments.
``I think it demonstrates, more than anything else, the hypocrisy this entire lawsuit is built on,'' said Stephen Krigbaum, another Philip Morris attorney.
Dexter Douglass, the top lawyer to Gov. Lawton Chiles, said he wasn't aware of the state's past as a cigarette maker. He later acknowledged that from about 1972 to 1980, prisons in Raiford and Starke made cigarettes, but said he doubted the evidence would have any impact.
``In answer to this insipid statement from Big Tobacco, the people running the prison system were relying on the information put out by the tobacco industry'' that there was nothing wrong with smoking, Douglass said. ``They, like everyone else, were completely duped by these masters of deceit.''
Florida is among at least 19 states seeking to recover funds spent on tobacco-related illnesses.
LENGTH: Short : 40 linesby CNB