Etheridge: Ease Up on Tobacco
08/05/99
As the Eastern Belt tobacco markets opened yesterday, Congressman Bob Etheridge called on President Clinton to abandon plans to sue the nation's tobacco manufacturers.
In a letter to the president, Etheridge said the administration's anti-tobacco campaign has claimed too many unintended victims, especially tobacco farmers and their families. Etheridge says he shares Mr. Clinton's goal of reducing teenage smoking, but says the lawsuits leveled against big tobacco are causing great pain in rural communities throughout North Carolina. Etheridge, who is a tobacco farmer himself, says a federal lawsuit following the settlement with the states would be unfair.
Cigarettes
