transcript: Attorney General Drew Edmondson

(Video of Drew Edmondson saying) Yes. I’m here. Thank you. Thank you very much and thank you to Students Working Against Tobacco for this award I’ve received here this evening. It has been a labor of love for me since we first got involved in the tobacco litigation. One of our major concerns, aside from the dollars that the state was losing treating smoking related illnesses, was the impact that tobacco was having on our young people. Those national statistics were staggering. A million young people each year were starting to smoke for the first time and we knew from the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta that one-third of them would die prematurely due to cancer, heart disease or smoking related illness. But even worse, when we got into the tobacco companies own internal documents, we found out that they were deliberately marketing to a segment of our population that could not legally purchase their product, our youth. And that they refer to the young people of this country as replacement market. And we found out that what they meant by that was that their older smokers were dying and they had to replace those customers with teenagers, kids who they had to get hooked on tobacco in order to keep their sales up. And that was the whole story behind Joe Camel and all the other marketing devices that they used to get cigarettes started among our younger citizens. So I was pleased to be able to file the litigation against them. And I was even more pleased when we settled that lawsuit and that we were able to put into place safeguards to keep the company from marketing to young people. We now have a permanent injunction on file in Cleveland County against the tobacco industry marketing to our kids. We have an injunction against them sponsoring rock concerts or athletic events that involve young participants or young spectators. We have an injunction against them paying movie companies or producers to have actors use their products and have their products visible in television or in the movies. And all of these ultimately will have a great impact on the youth of our nation. But all that we did, all that we did, and are doing day by day can’t match the courage that you have to tell your brothers and sisters, to tell your classmates that smoking is not good for them because they are far more likely to listen to you than to listen to some adult. So the work that you do is absolutely valuable in this effort. And believe me when I tell you that when you do that work, you are saving lives. It’s good for each other, it’s good for the State of Oklahoma, it’s good for the health of our entire population. So I thank you for giving me this award, but I hope you will give yourselves a pat on the back at the same time. Good night.