TOBACCO SUITS NEAR SETTLEMENT

BOSTON -- After walking away from a proposed multistate tobacco settlement,
Attorney General Scott Harshbarger must decide whether to rejoin the
agreement -- which could provide Massachusetts with about $4 billion -- or
take his chances on winning an even bigger settlement in state courts.

Negotiators from eight states are expected Monday to announce a $200
billion settlement with the tobacco industry.

Details of the proposed agreement began leaking Friday, and it was
immediately attacked by anti-tobacco activists in Massachusetts.

Critics say the proposal fails to force a number of concessions from the
cigarette firms on public health issues, including marketing aimed at
teen-agers, despite the $4 billion Massachusetts could recover in
smoking-related Medicare expenses.

Harshbarger has seven days to decide if the state will rejoin the
agreement, according to The Boston Globe.

Anti-tobacco activists have been urging him to continue pressing the matter
in state courts.

"If Harshbarger folds on this, everyone else folds," said Richard Daynard,
a professor at Northeastern University School of Law and chairman of its
Tobacco Products Liability Project.

Daynard said the rest of the country is looking to Harshbarger for
leadership because he has built a powerful case and stands a good chance of
winning.

The total cost of the multistate deal is considerably less than the $368
billion the industry offered the states in a 1997 settlement supported by
Harshbarger that later died in Congress.

The cigarette firms had also struck a deal with Minnesota earlier this year
that would have cost them $470 billion if projected nationally. However,
they have since won key court decisions and become more aggressive in
dealing with the states.

Daynard said the main beneficiaries of the multistate plan under
consideration would be attorneys who would capture large fees.

"Most of the public health provisions appear to be fool's gold," Daynard
said. "They have impressive titles but little substance. They are fig
leaves to cover up the huge fees the attorneys are getting."

Harshbarger declined comment Friday. His aides said he is withholding
judgment until the settlement proposal is unveiled Monday.

Dr. Gregory Connolly, director of the state's Tobacco Control Program, said
Harshbarger's decision will have far-reaching ramifications.

"What Scott decides will ultimately determine how America will deal with
tobacco control over the next 25 years," Connolly said.