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David Spates I've got 145,000,000,001
I've written the be-responsible-for-your-own-actions-and-don't-blame-anyone-else-for-your-own-stupidity-and-weakness
column a few times already this year. It's an axiom in which
I firmly believe, but I had hoped I was done beating that dead
horse. Well, late last week I came across 145,000,000,001
reasons to pull out my bullwhip and give Secretariat a few more
lashes. I'll provide you the basic background, in
case you somehow missed it on the news or have spent the last
few days at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. A Florida jury
has decided that the tobacco industry should pay $145 billion
in punitive damages to sick Florida smokers. The two-year trial
ended after the jurors spent five hours deliberating. The cigarette
makers are, of course, going to appeal the verdict, tying up
the matter for what could be decades. When you're talking about
what could mean the survival of a multibillion-dollar industry,
you can be sure that it won't end with a Miami jury's decision. So once again, people who I am absolutely
sure knew what risks they were taking each and every time they
decided to light up have gone running to the government asking
for compensation following their poor judgment. Should the tobacco industry be held accountable
for its decades of deceit, denial and treachery? Absolutely,
but right-thinking people have a little something philosophers
call free will. The cigarette companies make a product that is
more addictive than heroin (wow - that's the second time in as
many columns that I've used the word heroin), but it's still
the free will of the consumers to consider the risks and decide
to smoke anyway. Plenty of people, myself included, exercised
my free will to smoke and then again exercised my free will (plus
lots of determination) to stop smoking. There was a time in history when science didn't
have the medical knowledge to determine that cigarettes kill.
That time has long since passed. No reasonable person can shrug
his shoulders and claim ignorance. Modern-day smokers can be
placed into two categories. The first category is the group that
knows cigarettes are bad but have decided to smoke regardless
of the well-documented dangers. The second category is the dead.
It's that simple. I smoked for years and enjoyed every cigarette
I ever had. If cigarettes didn't kill you I'd probably still
be smoking today. Apart from that whole cancer thing, cigarettes
are just really, really good. I had the choice to smoke or not
smoke. For about 10 years I was an idiot and decided to smoke.
I have since decided not to smoke. The cigarette companies had
no influence on either one of my decisions. It was me, me, me.
Someday I'll die of something, but it won't be a result of smoking.
I took that one off the table. As I mentioned at the beginning, I had 145,000,000,001
reasons to revisit this issue. The ...001 is Mary Farnan. She
is one of the three Florida smokers chosen to represent the entire
class during the class-action lawsuit. Mary has lung cancer and
brain cancer, and she smoked for 29 years. Mary probably is going
to die soon, and for that I am truly sorry. Doctors have no doubt
that the smoking led to the cancer. By the way, Mary, who called the verdict "absolute
justice," is a nurse. Medical school, day one: Smoking causes
cancer. She knew the risks, but she decided to smoke anyway.
Now she wants her share of the Tobacco Industry Lotto. Mary,
you of all people should know better. So who will be next to call themselves a "victim," hire a gaggle of lawyers and sue a company that makes a product everyone knows is bad for the human body? The gunsmiths are already in the pot. If I were with the fast-food industry, the butter churners, the brewers, the automakers, the television producers, or if I were associated with the guy who organizes the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, I'd be worried. There's a jury just waiting for you, too. |