In her book, Up in Smoke, Martha A. Derthick analyses and describes the events leading to historic 1998 tobacco settlement with the states (Derthick 23). She concludes that such developments show an ill-fated shift from a representative democratic negotiation towards an adversarial legalisation which relegates democratic politics to side-lines of the public policy. Derthick gives a scornful appraisal of the role of the anti-smoking groups, private tort lawyers and attorneys general in creating an unprecedented and a possibly unconstitutional exceptional protection for tobacco companies at the expense of public health protection and at cost of the violation of the constitution, anti-trust principles as well as smokers’ pocket books.
The author begins by describing the patterns of cigarette use over the 20th century and the growing public concern about the impact of tobacco smoking on health. The report by surgeon general advisory committee on health and smoking on 1964 is the defining moment of the…show more content… The congress went ahead and educated citizens about the dangers of tobacco smoking on health mainly to regulate their use. For instance, Bans were imposed on radio and TV advertising and there were many warning labels on products. Moreover, smoking was also banned on many domestic airline flights. Some local and state governments also enacted more stringent regulations regarding cigarette smoking. During this time, plaintiffs against the industry would encounter so many procedural delays and costs in terms of money and time were enormous. Nonetheless, Derthick posits that there was a considerable progress in reduction of tobacco smokers from 1964 through 1993. However, towards the end of the period, ordinary politics was now taking a back seat to adversarial legalism. This approach was greatly promoted by forces within federal bureaucracy (Derthick
