Critics Fault North Carolina for Sending Tobacco Cash Up in Smoke

Fox News ^ | 8 July 2002 | Jonathan Serrie

[SheLion]

While 46 states participated in the $246 billion tobacco settlement aimed at punishing the tobacco industry for its contribution to public health problems, several of those states have decided to dump the cash right back into the tobacco industry.

North Carolina, for instance, was awarded $4.6 billion in the multi-state settlement, and politicians promised the money would be used for health care, smoking prevention and steering farmers to alternative crops. But since 1999, 75 percent of the cash has gone back into the production and marketing of North Carolina tobacco.

[Phantom Lord]

and the carpetbaggers are trying to kill it by building on all the land around here

Its called PRIVATE PROPERTY ya yokel. If farmer A wants to sell his land for people to build homes on that is his business. If farmer B wants to maintain it as farm land that is also his business.

And if you think "carpetbaggers" are moving here to buy land and build on it to stop the growing of tobacco you are in need of a very large shipment of tinfoil.

[billbears]

Its called PRIVATE PROPERTY ya yokel

Look here goob. I'm not saying that it was the reason just a direct effect of the 'explosion' shall we say of implants. And my understanding of the meeting was that she does not want to sell her land, but may be required to sell it to the city for more growth (i.e. townhouses, strip malls, destruction of the beauty of Eastern NC). And that does happen

[Phantom Lord]

Who in Cary has been "forced" to sell their land to a private developer?

And didn't the Saviour, Glen Lang, put an end to development in Cary? He keeps claiming he did.

[Phantom Lord]

And I only called you a Yokel because you called me a Carpetbagger. Nothing personal. Yet. LOL!

[billbears]

Same here. I wasn't talking about you necessarily. You're almost a copperhead IMO. I was talking more about those implant bicyclists that seem to have nothing better to do on a Sunday morning than get all dressed up in Spandex and take over every country road around Apex.

[Phantom Lord]

And they do look like they think they are in some sort of race. I will see a group of 30+ guys on bikes 3 and 4 wide.

They dont seem to come over to my side of Apex. Never see them over there. Probably afraid they will be swallowed by the pot holes on 55 if they tried.

[Constitution Day]

Why?

1) North Carolina has produced, is producing and will hopefully continue to produce some of the finest tobacco in the world.
Two other countries in the world that produce high-quality tobacco are Zimbabwe and of course Cuba.
Both are run by despotic madmen... perhaps we should do business with them instead?

2) Tobacco still happens to be a lucrative crop for farmers.
Many would get out of farming altogether if they had to switch exclusively to other crops.
I know this is true, because I've personally heard some say so.
I'm not too familiar with the price support system and if it's anything like milk supports, etc., it's probably mismanaged as hell.

3) From a personal standpoint, tobacco is part of my heritage and that of many native North Carolinians.
I would venture to say that without it, I and many others never would have been born, and NC would not be the place you love to live in today.
It's a way of life I would hate to see completely disappear.
I know that it will never again be like it was, but do-gooder busybodies like Rep. Henry "Nostrils" Waxman don't need to decree what farmers can grow on their own land by government fiat.
This is - for now - a legal product.

The FDA and assorted healthocrats need to butt the f* out of farmers' business.

[Constitution Day]

Yokel
goob
Carpetbagger
Copperhead

Hey hey hey!!!
Y'all settle down 'round heah before I hafta come knock some heads together.

[Phantom Lord]

Lets hit them point by point.

1) Cuban tobacco is used to produce cigars. North Carolina tobacco is NOT. NC tobacco is used virtually exclusivly for cigarettes.

2) I have often heard tobacco farmers whine "its all we know and its all we have ever done." Well tough. Other people have had to make career changes before, especially at the turn of the century when techonolgy put them out of business. I bet there were some wonderful horse buggy and horse whip makers in NC. Luckily the government didnt support them and their product to keep them in business because it was "all that they knew."

I suggest ending ALL subsidies to not just tobacco farmers, but ALL farmers. Make it in the market in a competitive fashion or close up shop.

3) I will not question for one moment the importance of tobacco in NC history and how much of this state was built by tobacco money.

I also do not want to see the Imperial Federal Government (IFG) using its heavy hand to end tobacco farming or heavily curtail it in NC or anywhere else in the US. As stated above, I also don't want BILLIONS of tax dollars used to prop it up either. And don't deny for a minute that tobacco farmers are constantly whinning that their "government subsidy" isnt going to be "as big" this year and other such whinning. They are constantly bitching about it and complaining about the new auction rules for tobacco and the price to be paid.

Guess what farmers, you signed up to be the governments date at the dance. Don't bitch when Government leaves you at the table and doesnt pay enough attention to you.

There is 1 cash crop that they could switch to over night. But none dare attempt it here. That crop is industrial hemp. And you could smoke 10 acres of the stuff and never get a buzz so the "anti-drug" crowd doesnt have a leg to stand on in fighting it on 'drug' grounds.

The number of products that can be produced with it are almost uncountable.

[Lee'sGhost]

Hey, CD, as far as the farming side of the "tobacco" issue is concerned, the farmers worst enemy is the manufacturers. More and more they go to cheap foreign tobacco -- patting the Amer. farmer on the back with one had saying, "we're you're friends" while grabbing South Amer. and Far East leaf as fast as they can with the other. Did you notice that they've all but done away with auctions? Another way to force growers to confirm to their whims. It's been awhile, but I also believe that manufacturers, as part of the coop agreement, in some way prohibited tobacco farmers from pursuing alternative crops.

[Constitution Day]

PL, you're dead-on about about the industrial hemp.

I've heard experts on the subject say you could smoke a joint of it the size of a telephone pole without any buzz.

I must say your "buggy whip" analogy doesn't wash.
People stopped using horses & buggies because of the auto.

They weren't taxed, frowned upon, or otherwise coerced and cajoled into no longer using them.
Smokers are giving it up for those very reasons, plus the healthocrats' jihad against it.

[Constitution Day]

LG,

You're absolutely correct there.
The auction system is just about gone.

I work in Wilson, which used to be known as the "World's Largest Tobacco Market"
Well, I think that last year alone, two or three warehouses here shut down for good.

I think there are probably two or three in town still planning to auction this year.
The farmers are choosing to go that route, as I understand it.

Not sure about the coop agreement.
The farmer who rents my grandmother's farm planted nothing but tobacco last year.
This year it's soybeans & I think cotton.

[Phantom Lord]

The Horse Buggy/Whip analogy works on the grounds that tobacco farmers are constantly whinning "Its all we know and its all we have ever done. We have to farm tobacco."

I am sure blacksmiths, and the buggy and whip makers only "knew" those buisnesses and had been doing it for generations. I don't know if they went crying to the government for money to keep them in business. But if they did they were clearly turned down otherwise we would still have them around.

I dont want to see tobacco farmer 1 put out of business by the heavy hand of the IFG. I also dont want to see them proped up by the IFG.

To be honest, the tobacco farmers have virtually signed their own death warrants by dancing with the devil (the IFG) for as long as they have.

[Constitution Day]

You're right on dancing with the devil... as the saying goes, sooner or later you've gotta f-!

I think that whole program is a legacy of FDR's New Deal.
Seems like I read that the quotas were based on how much tobacco the particular farm produced in 1938.

Not to belabor the whole horse/buggy thing, but some of the carriage makers actually got into building cars or other similar things.

I believe that Studebaker was one of them... of course they are gone now, but they made it work up until the early-mid 60's.
There was a local company here in Wilson called Hackney Body which used to make wagons and eventually converted into making milk & other delivery trucks.

But I digress - and I see your point.

[metesky]

Now, you two guys in the back seat quit fighting! We're almost there.

Seriously, I see you both on the Civil War threads and found this funny:

Wade Hampton, a throat cancer survivor who blames 31 years of two-pack-a-day smoking for his disease, said North Carolina's tobacco settlement has amounted to little more than a publicity stunt and a smoke screen to maintain the status quo.

Wade Hampton, still here after all these years.

[Gabz]

"Communities aren't getting their needs met and kids might be trying to stop smoking and not be able to find a program to help them quit," said Ann Houston, field director for public education and communication for the North Carolina Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch. "It's a tragic situation that so many really good programs are suffering right now."

I for one am tickled pink about ths situation.

Everyone, but particularly the antis, forget the purpose of the MSA to begin with. The purpose of it was to REIMBURSE the states for the allegeded extra helath care costs that had been expended on smokers. The rationale being had these funds would have been spent elsewhere had they not been spent on smoking related health care. That is why the states all sued to begin with.

The antis shouldn't be getting a penny of this money There is a large portion of it funding the American Legacy Foundation, the sole purpose of which is anti-smoker propaganda.

I love seeing weasels whine!!!!!

[Gabz]

The REAL story of the tobacco extortion is which states ARE spending the money in the manner they said they would.

Actually the REAL story is which state said they sued the tobacco companies to fund anti-smoker propaganda. None of them did. The extortion was settlement of lawsuits for allegedly previously paid state health care costs.

[SheLion]

Wade Hampton (1818-1902)

Whaaaaaat?????? heh! Wait a minute! This must be a Junior, you think? My God, what's up with this.

Thanks for finding this, metesky! hehe!

[SheLion]

I love seeing weasels whine!!!!!

AMEN to THAT, Gabz!

[Lee'sGhost]

There's a big piece of this picture that you guys are missing. Everyone forgets that there were only a handful of states who started the lawsuits in the beginning and they were actually doing it with the intention of putting the money back into health related areas. The snow ball started rolling downhill and the other states piled on -- and I seriously doubt many, if any, of them gave a rat's @ss about health -- it was feeding time at the trough.

And why do you think NC, the so-called "Tobacco Road" got involved? At first the response was, "no way!" But then somebody got the bright idea that, "Hey, we can jump on the band wagon, usurp our own big pot of cash, roll it back to the farmers and tobacco industry, and buy a whole boat load of votes!!!!!!!!! Shazaaaaaam! It's a tobacco scam!!!!

And guess what, NC's own Attorney General did just that -- he even became the lead attorney for the negotiations for ALL the states participating in the law suit. While telling the folks in the health arena he was doing it for them he was winking at the growers, tobacco communities and industry. When it was all said and done the tobacco-related groups got 3/4s of ALL the settlement money, and in reality are getting about 95 percent of it. Wow!!!! Talk about a powerful vote buying machine! We're talking billions of dollars.

And guess who that good ol' AG was? That's right -- Mike Weasley. And here's a little extra food for thought. Does anyone out there think for one second that NC would have participated in the law suit/settlement if the politicos didn't have a green light from big tobacco industry? No way. These guys ran the figures and realized that they would come out a lot better in the long run to go ahead and settle rather than face an endless parade of law suits.

So who got screwed? Not the tobacco farmer -- remember, they're getting all kinds of compensations (but in doing so are phasing themSELVES out of growing tobacco). The only people who truly got the shaft were the stupid health people who really believe that an attorney was doing something FOR THEM. And, of course, everyone honest Joe Blow who hates these back room deals, betrayals and dishonest government.