ASSIST - ANTI-AMERICAN BLUEPRINT OF CONTROL

Continuing our mission of illuminating the dank and dingy corners of the anti-smoking edifice, FORCES shines the light on an ugly document published by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Strategies To control Tobacco Use In the United States: A Blueprint for Public Health Action in the 1990's (NIH Publication No. 92-3316) was issued late in 1991 and is a summary of what the anti-smoking movement has learned during the 40 year war against tobacco use waged by the public health establishment. Additionally the document argues for comprehensive smoking control strategies to bring the 50 million Americans who smoke into line.

Although the document is public property and subject to the Freedom of Information Act, requests for the 300 page document have been unsuccessful. FORCES has, however, obtained Chapter 5 which addresses the strategies to manipulate and control American society on the road to the preposterous goal of a smoke-free American by the year 2000.

Much of Chapter 5 is the usual compendium of the regulations and restrictions so loved by anti-smokers. The text is riddled with references to studies by authors and organizations who, for the most part, are financed by the public funds that flow so readily to the anti-smoking industry. What makes Chapter 5 so important is the authority by which it was issued.

The publishers are not the usual coalitions of non-profit organizations riding the publicly funded anti-smoking gravy train. Nor are they the innumerable crackpot Action-On-Smoking fringe groups that shriek for prohibition. The publishers are people who work for the United States government.

Chapter 5 is part of the plan by which the American Stop Smoking Intervention Study for Cancer Prevention (ASSIST) will bring the country into a new millennium of healthy, happy and smoke-free people. ASSIST, currently active in 17 states, has already cost the taxpayers $135 million and will cost many millions more until its goal of de facto prohibition is attained.

Of special interest is the discussion of the mass media beginning on page 205 in the Intervention Channels section. The lethargic and doctrinaire coverage of tobacco issues by the media is a phenomenon which is well known but not much understood. Chapter 5 provides some clarity to the puzzle of why our free press is so captivated by the anti-smoking philosophy.

Recently, there have been cries from the anti-smoking industry disputing terms such as fascist or Health Nazism to describe the activities of the neo-prohibitionists. The section on economic incentives beginning on page 239 highlights the accuracy of these ugly words in describing the anti-smoking agenda.

Fascism advocates the imposition of severe economic and social regimentation by a dictatorial entity. Chapter 5 impassively discusses job loss, denial of employment opportunity and governmental interference in private businesses as worthy tactics in the battle against tobacco use. With these tactics, the apparent approval of vandalism described on page 238 and the constant call for control, the use of ugly terms is appropriate to describe the authors of Chapter 5.

As you read Chapter 5, keep in mind the following statements culled from the opening paragraphs:

"As social beings, humans are subject to a desire to conform, to adopt the social conventions, customs, and norms of the majority. To the extent that individuals perceive their actions as deviant, there will be pressure to conform to the dominant public opinion"

On To ASSIST-Chapter 5 INDEX