Posted by Clinton School grad DR. GARY WHEELER – Susan Ivey’s visit to the Clinton School to participate in the speaker program has elicited a lot of criticism. No wonder. Her company, Reynolds American (aka RJR Tobacco), makes products that cost the lives of about one loaded 747 aircraft everyday. After years of denying the disease effects of tobacco products, with CEOs lying under oath before congressional committees, they now acknowledge the relationships of their products and disease. And there is no corporate remorse. Why should there be? The profits keep coming in as new tobacco users (children and young adults) are lured into addictive behaviors every day.
As it turns out, Ms. Ivey thinks that she is doing public service by promoting a new program called “harms reduction.” This program would move people from smoking addiction to chew/spit/snuff addiction. Instead of a 737 going down every day, it would be like a couple of MD-80s going down everyday.
You may expect me to be a critic of the decision to invite Ms. Ivey speak at the school. But that’s not the case. Anyone claiming to promote public service by their actions is fair to invite in my opinion. The school’s greatest legacy might be its creation of a sanctuary where anyone can talk, provided their talk is in some way related to public service. To prevent the school being a pawn of industries like tobacco, it is our job to meet the speaker in the forum of free speech, and to expose Ms. Ivey’s “harms reduction” program for what it is: skillful marketing ploy to continue to bring profit to stockholders, disguised as health policy. I think the audience recognized the smokescreen.