Needed relief, regulation

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The Senate bill giving the Federal Drug Administration regulatory authority over the sale of tobacco is a grudging compromise between the lawmakers looking out for tobacco farmers and the lawmakers seeking to appease anti-smoking advocates. Indeed, the $12 billion bill, which passed overwhelmingly July 15, helps both struggling farming communities concentrated in the South and the ongoing campaign to curb cigarette smoking.

It's a good deal for South Carolina. This state stands to reap about $1 billion once the government buys tobacco quotas that have lost value due to the recent decrease in smoking and the pressure cheaper imported tobacco has placed on prices. Both Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings voted in favor of the measure.

However, the buyouts have been criticized by some as duplicative payments to rich farmers. In this state, tobacco farmers have shared $117 million of South Carolina's portion of the landmark tobacco settlement and $361 million in payments from cigarette companies.

But here's the problem: South Carolina has dropped from the nation's third-largest tobacco producer in 2002, with exports of more than $90 million, to the fifth-largest, with just $60 million in product sold in 2003. Those numbers are expected to decrease even more dramatically due to dwindling demand and fewer exports. A good case can be made that tobacco farming is disappearing much more quickly than was predicted during the settlement.

Ideally, these payments will help those farmers adopt other job-creating enterprises. A mix of stipulations and incentives should accompany the payments to direct the windfall toward job creation and business investment and not solely to the retirement portfolios of farmers who are facing a crisis but are generally not destitute.

Used to spur new business ventures, the payments can save jobs in communities in the Pee Dee and along the coast that have depended upon tobacco farming for generations.

A bill the House passed last month called for a smaller buyout and no FDA regulations. This won't fly in the Senate. Furthermore, regulation is viewed by anti-smoking advocates as an effective means to ensure tobacco products are sold and marketed to adults and manufactured safely. The FDA would be given the authority to mandate that disclosures of the health risks associated with smoking are communicated effectively.

The largest tobacco companies favor this bill because they envision regulation as the answer to thwarting future litigation. The anti-smoking lobby sees regulation as the next logical step beyond their anti-smoking message, which has had a modest impact on teen smoking.

This is a compromise where all sides give up something, yet tobacco farmers, the tobacco companies and the anti-smoking advocates can all claim victory.