Posted on 01/02/2010 3:58:25 PM PST by Halfmanhalfamazing
On their web site they brag that they are "the nation's largest philanthropy devoted to improving health and health care." On NPR their slogan is "committed to helping Americans lead healthy lives and get the care they need." In reality they are a front group for the pharmaceutical industry, specifically for the giant Johnson & Johnson corporation.
If Johnson & Johnson were to get directly involved in the politics of health most people would be very suspicious of their motives and critical of their claims. So one of the founders did something very clever - he set up the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as an "independent" charity whose primary source of income is the dividends on six billion (yes, billion) dollars worth of Johnson & Johnson stock. What's good for J&J is good for RWJF.
Of the three billion dollars it claims to have spent since its inception, hundreds of millions have gone to attacking smokers. Many supposedly grass-roots organizations and political coalitions calling for bans on smoking in public and/or higher tobacco taxes are quietly funded by RWJF. How many of them realize they are acting as puppets of big pharma?
Regular readers know of my dealings with the anti tobacco shill James Repace. Mr. Repace has spent nearly three decades lying about smoke and smokers. He claims that removing tobacco smoke from a room requires 300 mile an hour winds, that smoke doesn't dissipate outdoors but forms little white tornados that hunt down non-smokers, and sucking down exhaust fumes near a highway is safer than in inhaling a bit of smoke in a bar. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has given him hundreds of thousands of dollars to fabricate such studies and spew his bile, and then gave him an award for performing so well. First you buy a monkey, then you train your monkey, then you give him a little monkey treat.
Political activism can theoretically cost a charity its non-profit status. Although this law is (sadly) seldom enforced, RJWF is careful not to violate it directly. Instead of pushing for laws themselves, they generously fund third party activist groups, then sit back and let their lackeys do all the work.
Why do they do this? Every time a smoking ban or other restrictions are put in place some smokers decide to quit. When they do, many of them will try nicotine replacement therapy. Johnson and Johnson makes nicotine patches, nicotine gum, nicotine sprays, nicotine inhalers, and are probably working on nicotine breakfast cereals and air fresheners. These products are enormously profitable. Consider that you can buy 50 sticks of gum for about two bucks at any dollar store. Putting a hint of nicotine in it lets J&J charge thirty dollars for forty pieces.
Every sale increases the profitably of J&J, which increases the stock dividend, which increases the income of . . . the Robert Wood Johnson foundation. Yet, the foundation is independent of the corporation. Pretty clever, isn't it?
BTW, there are now several studies that show NRT doesn't work. Smokers who quit cold turkey have at least twice the successes rate of those using those using NRT. Some studies show even bigger differences. And isn't it surprising that none of these studies were funded by RWJF?
I'm writing about their anti-tobacco activities because that's what I'm most familiar with, but they've got their fingers (at least I hope it's their fingers) stuck into a lot of other American pies. They're anti booze, and have spent hundreds of millions to fund studies and programs that encourage higher taxes on alcohol and restrictions on marketing and advertising. That includes gifts to the junk science machine "The Center for Science in the Public Interest" to fight "binge drinking."
They're also anti-drug. Well, anti illegal drug, supporting groups like the "Partnership for a Drug Free America." If you've had a rough day and want to smoke a joint, you should go to jail. But if you take big pharma approved happy pills, day after day after day after day, you're a good little citizen!
To be fair, some of the things they do, like funding NPR shows, don't directly profit Johnson & Johnson. But you won't find them funding anything that can hurt J&J either.
They’re a big successful corporation, they must be stopped.
If they are running scams at controlling products and money, yes, they do.
I don’t know if you remember the commercial but J&J had one where he says “My father removed fluorocarbons from our products before anyone else did”. So I would think they are very lefty.
Yeah, they are lefty.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2341083/posts
The RWJF worked with Soros on PDIA - Project on Death in America.
"According to their November 2005 publication, "Taking on tobacco: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Assault on Smoking", from 1991 to 2005 the foundation paid $446,398,054 in tobacco-control grants. Grantees that did not move from tobacco education to tobacco control became ineligible for further grants.
As of March 31, 2008 the foundation owns 35,435,189 shares of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) common stock (valued at nearly 2.3 billion dollars) and is one of the company's largest institutional holders. As a tax exempt foundation RWJF pays 1 percent tax on realized capital gains and dividends from its investments, while other investors pay 15 percent. Johnson & Johnson profits from the sales of Nicoderm CQ and Nicorette products. The foundation therefore directly profits from cigarette tax and smoking ban laws they've provided grants to create. In January 2008, 1,000,000 boxes of the company's nicotine replacement products were reportedly sold and Nicoderm CQ is touted as the "best selling smoking cessation patch in history". April 15, 2008, Forbes reported that Johnson & Johnson profit jumped 40% during the first quarter of 2008.
The foundation created the National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids and has provided more than $84,000,000 in grants to fund that advocacy group. As a non-profit the foundation can't legally lobby but the center can. The center aggressively promotes increased taxation on tobacco products.
The foundation sponsors conferences on "how to identify ways to increase the use of evidence-based tobacco cessation treatments" and awarded the American Cancer Society a nearly $1,000,000 grant to "expand the use of tobacco cessation treatments". It's about the money, profits for stockholders and control. Tobacco control is the best marketing strategy that pharmaceutical dollars can buy.
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons has been warning the government for over a decade of the RWJF's desire to control the health care policies of this country. Following the pattern for tobacco control, the foundation has pledged $500,000,000 in grants for anti-obesity. Johnson & Johnson will profit once again from anti-obesity public policy advocacy through its Splenda brand of artificial sweetener."
That’s a great find. Thanks.
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