Gingrich's Call for Death Penalty for Drug Smugglers is

Inconsistent With His Leniency Demands for Drug Kingpins

House Speaker Newt Gingrich's announcement that he will introduce a bill next month that would set prompt and automatic death sentences for convicted drug smugglers is inconsistent with his demand that the biggest and most deadly drug pushers be protected even from weak FDA regulation.

"It make no sense to impose capital punishment on those whose drugs collectively kill only about 6,000 Americans each year, and to protect from any regulation whatsoever those who kill almost half a million," says law professor John Banzhaf, Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), World Health Organization (WHO), American Medical Association (AMA), and many other organizations have now determined that nicotine is a drug which is every bit as addictive as heroin or cocaine, and which kills almost half a million Americans each year, says Banzhaf.

We also know that most smokers start as young children, and that pushers of the drug nicotine addict about 3,000 kids every day - one third of whom will die as a result of their addiction, and many more will suffer serious medical problems - so there's no justification for this gross disparity in treatment.

In seeking to justify the death penalty for drug smugglers, even if their activities do not lead to any deaths, Gingrich said: "if you import a commercial quantity of illegal drugs, it is because you have made the personal decision that you are prepared to get rich by destroying our children."

But, as recently-disclosed documents now make abundantly clear, tobacco industry executives have also deliberately chosen to get rich by destroying children, including to the point of studying thirdgraders to determine if hyperactive children are a potential market for cigarettes, argues Banzhaf.

Since getting children to smoke tobacco makes it one hundred times more likely that they will move on to smoking marijuana, and thirty times more likely that they will also graduate to cocaine, it makes no sense for Gingrich to shield nicotine pushers from any regulation, while hoping to electrocute those who kill only a small fraction of those killed every year by tobacco, he says.

The DEA is expected to address this controversial issue today.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, August 28, 1995

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL: John Banzhaf (202) 659-4310

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