New tobacco plan would regulate nicotine
By Lauran Neergaard
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON Antitobacco activists and the tobacco industry are
considering a settlement proposal would let the Food and Drug
Administration regulate nicotine as long as it didn't ban it as an
addictive drug for 10 years.

Another provision under consideration would deposit as much as $7
billion a year in tobacco money into a federal fund to care for uninsured
children, a move that may score valuable political points but would leave
states with less money from their tobacco lawsuits than they had
anticipated, according to a source familiar with the proposal.

Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore, who is leading law
enforcement officials' negotiations with the industry, is pushing the new
provisions on Capitol Hill this week.

Tuesday, he tests whether his own side will stick together when he
travels to Dallas to present the details to all 33 states that have sued
the tobacco industry to recover Medicaid costs of treating sick
smokers.

Wednesday, cigarette makers are expected to formally receive the full
settlement proposal at a meeting in New York.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal pledged again Thursday
that the deal wouldn't protect cigarette makers against smokers'
lawsuits.

The attorneys general are "resisting any changes to the civil justice
system that would deny people their present rights to a day in court," he
said.

"If the industry is unwilling to yield on liability, it may be an
insurmountable hurdle and a bar to achieving a plan through more talks,"
Blumenthal added. "I'm hopeful, but can't predict what will happen."

Blumenthal said no final dollar figure had been determined in the
settlement.

But a source famihar with Moore's latest proposal said the idea was to
divert part of the nearly $400 billion settlement into a fund to pay for
uninsured children's health care.

In talks so far, cigarette makers have agreed to a host of unprecedented
advertising curbs and other limitations. In return, they want some
protection against future lawsuits from smokers.

The talks had stalled for a week after Moore and other negotiators,
acknowledging growing concern among the states, told cigarette companies
not to expect any protection from legal liability.

That remains the largest sticking point in any deal, although
compromises now being considered would ban classaction suits against
tobacco firms. But FDA regulation of nicotine had been a stumbling block
too.