STATE OKS TOBACCO SETTLEMENT

BOSTON -- Attorney General Scott Harshbarger yesterday said the state
will join a $206 billion national settlement with the tobacco
industry, rather than risk going it alone in court.

"It produces tangible benefits for our state, for our children and for
the public health for generations to come. I do not believe we can do
better at trial. In fact, we could do worse," Harshbarger said.

The deal is expected to bring $7.6 billion to the state over 25 years.
There would be an initial payment of $98 million in 1999, with annual
payments of more than $250 million after that.

Although the Legislature and governor can spend the money any way they
choose, Harshbarger said he would like to see money spent on health
care and efforts to reduce tobacco use.

He said he is filing legislation calling for a commission to make
specific recommendations each year.

Harshbarger also said he will be proposing first-in-the-nation
consumer protection regulations to create greater restrictions on retailers.

Among other things, the regulations would limit the advertising of
tobacco products in retail establishments within 1,000 feet of schools
and prohibit the sale of single cigarettes.

Harshbarger said the decision to abandon the state's three-year
lawsuit against the tobacco industry was difficult and he understood
that some health advocates disagreed with it.

"It's far short of what many of us had fought this battle for a long
time for. We hoped and believed we could do more," Harshbarger said.

He said he would have liked to have seen nicotine regulated as a drug,
tobacco industries responsible for reducing smoking among youth and
bigger warning labels on cigarette packs.

"This national settlement is an important and historic step forward in
the war against Big Tobacco, but it is only a first step that we can
and we should take as a state and a nation," he said.

Ed Sweda, senior attorney with the Tobacco Control Resource Center at
Northeastern University, was among those disappointed by Harshbarger's
decision to accept the deal.

"We found very major problems with just about every aspect of the
document," he said.

He said the fact the tobacco industry is not being held accountable
for reducing youth smoking is one of many flaws.

"As the days and weeks go by, when the various details of this
agreement become more widely known and better understood, I think a
number of attorneys general may have second thoughts about the wisdom
of what they did under the gun," said Sweda.

The national settlement was announced Monday and attorneys general in
the 46 eligible states were given until midday yesterday to accept the
deal. All did.

In addition to the $206 billion to be paid out to states over 25
years, the settlement calls for tobacco companies to spend $1.7
billion to study youth smoking and finance antismoking advertising. It
also forbids the use of cartoon characters in ads, billboard
advertising and putting cigarette brand names on shirts, hats and
other merchandise.

Also critical of the decision was Sen. Lois Pines, D-Newton, a
longtime tobacco foe.

Pines said it will be difficult to keep the money for anti-tobacco and
health care purposes. She said Massachusetts had one of the strongest
cases against tobacco companies in the country and could have obtained
a settlement with better health care provisions.

She said she would have also liked to have had the public see the
tobacco industry's "dirty secrets" played out in what would have
likely been a nationally televised trial.

"Now it's being all shoved under the carpet," she said.

Other health advocates were skeptical of the deal, and vowed to keep
up the fight.

"If the tobacco companies think for one minute this is going to buy
them any peace in Massachusetts, they are sadly mistaken," said Lori
Fresina, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts chapter of the American
Cancer Society.

"We are going to redouble our efforts, and if some of the money is
going to public health and tobacco control, all the better. But this
is not a peace accord," she said.

Harshbarger said he did not believe the states would have to share any
of the money with the federal government because the federal
government was not involved in the lawsuits or the final settlement.

He dismissed the idea that the federal government would be able to
claim some of the money because it shared the health costs for
tobacco-related illness the payments are meant to cover.

He also said he believed the private lawyers that helped the state
would be reimbursed by the tobacco companies through a separate fund.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry