WASHINGTON — Tobacco companies, desperate to maintain
their hold on tens of millions of American smokers, worked together
for decades to deceive the public about the dangers of cigarettes
and to encourage the young to start puffing, government lawyers
said Tuesday at the start of a racketeering trial.

Justice Department lawyers pointed to numerous statements by
industry executives that created doubt among smokers about whether
the habit was harmful and whether they really needed to kick
it.

“Defendants’ strategy of denial worked, and they
knew it,” Justice lawyer Sharon Eubanks told U.S. District
Judge Gladys Kessler.

The government wants new restrictions placed on the industry and
is seeking $280 billion it claims the companies earned through the
alleged fraud, a record amount for a civil racketeering case.
Tobacco lawyers say such an amount would bankrupt the companies,
and the government isn’t entitled to any money.

The defendants are Philip Morris USA Inc. and its parent, Altria
Group Inc.; R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.; Brown & Williamson
Tobacco Co.; British American Tobacco Ltd.; Lorillard Tobacco Co.;
Liggett Group Inc.; Counsel for Tobacco Research-U.S.A.; and the
Tobacco Institute.

The companies will present opening statements Wednesday. Philip
Morris attorney William Ohlemeyer said the industry had heard all
the evidence the government put forward Tuesday in previous
cases.

He said the government’s case is too focused on past
behavior to succeed. Ohlemeyer, who denied fraud had occurred, said
it would be impossible for the government to prove future
wrongdoing is likely to occur, which the law requires.

“Cigarettes aren’t sold the way they were sold in
the past,” Ohlemeyer said.

He noted agreements worth $246 billion that the industry reached
with all the states in the late 1990s imposed sweeping restrictions
on how cigarettes are marketed. For example, companies can’t
rely on billboard, transit or cartoon ads; the government alleges
have been used to attract teens.

The Clinton administration filed the lawsuit in 1999, and the
Bush administration pursued it after receiving early criticism for
openly discussing the case’s perceived weaknesses and
attempting unsuccessfully to settle it.

The government has spent $135 million on the case so far.

Scientific studies dating to the 1950s said smoking could lead
to cancer and other health problems. In 1964, the U.S. surgeon
general issued a report linking smoking to lung and larynx cancer
and chronic bronchitis.

Still, the government’s lawyers pointed to numerous
statements in which tobacco executives denied such links. They
showed Joseph Cullman, former chairman of the Philip Morris board,
saying in a 1971 television interview, “We do not believe
that cigarettes are hazardous. We don’t accept
that.”

Justice lawyers said the industry created now-shuttered
organizations to rebut findings about smoking and the dangers of
secondhand smoke and to conduct public relations campaigns to
create uncertainty about whether smoking was harmful.

“The problem to them was that the public might stop
smoking because of health concerns,” Justice lawyer Frank
Marine said.

Justice lawyers pointed to internal memos to try to show
cigarette-makers knew they were being deceitful.

In one from the early 1960s, an R.J. Reynolds scientist, Alan
Rodgman, said, “The statistical data from the smoking health
studies are almost universally accepted.”

Eubanks reminded U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler of a highly
publicized congressional hearing in 1994 when the major executives
of the tobacco companies testified that they believed smoking was
not addictive.

“Internal documents show that they were aware of
nicotine’s effects on the brain,” Eubanks said.

She pointed to one Brown & Williamson document that stated
the “reduction or deletion of nicotine could be the death to
us.”

With regard to targeting teens, Marine, pointed to an internal
Lorillard document from the 1970s that discussed one of the
company’s brands and stated, “The base of our business
is the high school student.”

Marine said the companies need to hook teens to stay in
business, since that’s when many smokers take up the habit.
He said the tobacco companies continue to market to teens but in
different ways, largely through magazine ads or in-store
advertising.
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