MPAAT stands for Minnesota Partnership For Action Against Tobacco. Created as a private, nonprofit organization resulting from the Minnesota tobacco settlement of 1998 it has been controversial from the start.

As D. J. Tice pointed out in a Pioneer Press editorial, April of 1999, “Its governing board includes many medical experts and officials from health organizations and anti-tobacco advocacy groups. MPAAT is already slated to receive, through the settlement, a fund of $202 million, from which it will finance tobacco cessation and research programs.

But MPAAT's structure and representation are inadequate to make it the right entity to administer hundreds of millions more public dollars. Of the 21 members on MPAAT's governing board, 15 were named by one public official -- former Attorney General Skip Humphrey. Many are affiliated with organizations that are likely to seek and win grants and contracts to provide services to MPAAT.

However well-intentioned, a private board structured and appointed in this way cannot inspire public confidence that its decisions will be disinterested and nonpolitical.”

Archie Anderson, president of Minnesota Smokers' Rights Coalition. says, “The $202 million mendaciously acquired from the people of Minnesota is considered theft. The endowment endorsed by Gov. Jesse Ventura and Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe giving MPAAT $650 million or $35 million a year for the next 25 years, to be used without oversight by citizen representatives is seen as tyranny that deserves immediate citizen response.”

St. Paul Pioneer Press editor D. J. Tice has pointed out “... the arrangement has produced a complex money trail and continuing opportunities for former public officials to benefit, directly or indirectly, from a flow of public revenue they helped create while in public office.”

While in favor of $1.3 billion in endowments for tobacco control and education, Gov. Jesse Ventura was against giving additional money to MPAAT, which was already assured $202 million in court-ordered payments for smoking cessation and research.

This is the first time in the history of Minnesota that a self-appointed group assumed this much power and money ($200 million) without oversight by elected representatives.

In August, 2000 MPAAT’s long anticipated anti-tobacco advertising campaign focusing on the dangers of secondhand smoke began airing on Minnesota TV stations. It is MPAAT’s first public action and, at a cost of $400,000, the campaign is slick and professional.

In one ad, after recalling his wife often complaining about the smell of cigarettes, a smoker then reveals that she died as a result of exposure to cigarette smoke. The unspoken implication of course is that he killed his wife himself with his smoking.

In another, viewers are asked to choose between medical and scientific organizations that have warned about smoking or the tobacco industry's which insist that smoke isn’t harmful. It concludes with the question, "Who are you going to believe?" Naturally the answer is supposed to be, those wonderful medical and scientific organizations which always tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Dr. Richard Hurt of the Mayo Clinic and chairman of the MPAAT board claims that, "Minnesotans need to hear about the dangers of secondhand smoke."
(But they have been hearing that Big Lie for seven years now, Doctor!)

Then there is Jeremy Hanson of The Minnesota Smoke-Free Coalition who feels that, "The MPAAT campaign is perfectly timed and needed now more than ever." He also concludes that, "If more people understood the real threat that second-hand smoke poses, more people would be calling for action." (The same old same old again.)

Quite a different point of view is expressed by Tom Day, director of communications for Hospitality Minnesota: "There really isn't a need for local or state government to dictate how a private business treats its guests." (But who wants to hear from victims?)

Overall the State of Minnesota has a $6.1 billion settlement to blow trying to keep people from enjoying a smoke. What makes it doubly grating is, it all came out of smokers’ pockets.

Coon Rapids, MN

MPAAT, the Minnesota Partnership Against Tobacco announced a $400,000 "media blitz" in which they falsely state that second hand tobacco smoke can kill and cause illness. This is without fact or scientific proof of any kind. In fact, ETS (Enviornmental Tobacco Smoke) is only an annoyance and no threat to bystanders.

A request has been made to the Minnesota Attorney General that he request and injunction against MPAAT'S media venture. This action is seen as nothing less than a "hate speech" and is a very contentious issue that threatens the safety and well being of Minnesota's citizens. Both verbal and physical attacks on smokers have already been demonstrated. We demand protection under the law and will hold the messengers and promoters of the hate speech responsible for any acts of violence against citizens that are "smokers."

SIGNED:

Archie Anderson, FORCES Minnesota/MN Smokers's Rights Coalition