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Tuesday, December 23, 1997

Texas looks to block tobacco strategy

DALLAS (AP) - Texas attorneys are fighting to neutralize one of the tobacco industry's favorite defense weapons before the state's $8.6 billion Medicaid reimbursement lawsuit goes to trial.

For decades, tobacco companies have defended their products by contending that sick smokers continued to puff away with full knowledge of the risks involved. Meanwhile, according to that strategy, the state was more interested in collecting tobacco tax money than discouraging users.

The state's attorneys asked U.S. District Judge David Folsom in Texarkana last week to block the defense, saying the conduct of cigarette makers is the only matter at issue. Folsom said he will rule on the issue by Jan. 5, a week before jury selection is scheduled to begin.

"We believe we can win this case before the jury on this one point," tobacco industry lawyer Dan Webb told The Dallas Morning News for a story in Monday's editions. "But they want to guarantee that we don't get a fair trial."

Industry attorneys filed documents saying the state paid out $1.9 billion in smoking-related Medicaid costs from 1970 to 1996. During the same period, Texas collected more than $11.3 billion in tobacco-related taxes and fees.

Webb said tobacco taxes have not been used to deter smokers, but rather to collect money from people who continued using tobacco products.

The industry is only trying to divert attention from the real issues, plaintiff's attorneys said.

"The fact that the state taxes something doesn't mean it endorses or approves of the product," said John Eddie Williams, a Houston lawyer hired by Texas Attorney General Dan Morales to work on the case. "The state also taxes beer, strip joints, pornography and even marijuana. That doesn't mean the state approves of any of it."

Sen. Judith Zaffarini, D-Laredo, said legislators would have clamped down on tobacco had industry powerful lobbyists not softened the true risks of smoking.Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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