HOOKED ON YOUNG SMOKERS

The latest trove of internal documents from the tobacco industry provides
the strongest evidence yet that the industry was not only targeting very
young smokers, it was doing so with the approval of high corporate
officials. Even in a business renowned for its lack of social conscience,
the cynicism is breathtaking. Congress will need to look skeptically at
proposals to grant immunity to the industry for its reckless behavior as
part of an overall tobacco settlement. The case may be getting stronger for
a straightforward crackdown, with or without a negotiated deal.

The documents, which were pried loose by a lawsuit settlement in
California, come from the files of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, the
nation's second-largest cigarette maker. Realizing that most smokers get
the habit before they are 18 years old and tend to stick with their first
brand, the company tried through the 1970's and 1980's to woo smokers as
young as 14.

Although company officials have testified under oath that they did not go
after underage smokers, several documents suggest the opposite. A 1976
10-year planning forecast presented to the board of directors called for a
new brand for children as young as 14, and a 1980 memo to the company
chairman called for reversing the company's decline among youngsters from
14 to 17. Repeated surveys assessed the smoking habits of these young
teen-agers. Other memos describe the age group between 14 and 24 as
"tomorrow's cigarette business" and vital to the company's long-term
prosperity and survival.

The new documents increase the pressure to crack down harshly on this rogue
industry, either in the context of an overall tobacco settlement or through
separate legislation aimed at strengthening legal and regulatory tools to
combat youth smoking. The Justice Department will need to determine whether
perjury charges are warranted against high corporate officials, a legal
crowbar that could prove every bit as effective as liability suits in
prodding the industry toward more responsible behavior. If the long-stalled
tobacco deal is to move forward in Congress, it seems clear that the
penalties to be imposed on the industry should it fail to reduce youth
smoking will need to be much harsher.

Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company