A Better Punishment for Big Tobacco

A conspiracy to deceive the public and break the law:

A federal judge ruled yesterday that tobacco companies have violated civil racketeering laws, concluding that cigarette makers conspired for decades to deceive the public about the dangers of their product and ordering the companies to make landmark changes in the way cigarettes are marketed.

But U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler said that under a 2005 appellate court ruling, she could not impose billions of dollars in penalties that had been sought by the Justice Department in its civil racketeering suit against the eight defendant tobacco companies.

All she could do, she said, was try to deter future illegal acts by the companies, and to that end, she ordered them to stop using terms such as "low tar," "light" and "mild" and to undertake a massive media campaign in an effort to correct years of misrepresentations.

Further appeals by either the tobacco industry or the Justice Department can still overturn the appeals court ruling that prevented Kessler from imposing billions in actual penalties. Until then, the order to remove misleading labels on cigarette packaging isn't enough to deter the millions more potential smoking addicts in the making.

A better punishment is to make Big Tobacco print graphic visual warnings on their cigarette packs, like (warning: graphic images ahead) this, this or this (click imagens novas), which are already mandated by several countries around the world.

Small price to pay for the decades of deadly deception, if you ask me.

(h/t Boing Boing)

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