Elijah Lewis: “I rise in support of the Doggett amendment. We should not use any Federal funds to support the promotion and export of…”

“I rise in support of the Doggett amendment. We should not use any Federal funds to support the promotion and export of tobacco overseas. Tobacco kills. It is a known killer. It is toxic and addictive. Tobacco kills more than 1,000 Americans every day. Most people begin smoking when they are teenagers. Every day 3,000 young people begin smoking. We must put an end to this effort. This is an effort we support worldwide. We must send that same message around the world that tobacco kills. We should not, we must not, we cannot support smoking in other countries around the world. We must not allow public funds to promote smoking in other countries. Why should we export our poison? Why should we send our poison to poorer, sicker, less developed countries? We all live on this planet together, Mr. Chairman. We must be concerned not just about our children becoming addicted, we must also be concerned about children around the world, rich or poor, black, white, yellow, or brown. They all are our children. We are talking about the lives of innocent children. Mr. Chairman, we have people that are trying to sell poison to our neighbors' children. They are using their money and their ads and their glamour to poison our Nation's and neighbors' children. We have a moral responsibility not to support this effort. We have a moral duty to protect our neighbors' children just as we protect our own children. We must say no to tobacco both here in our country and around the world.”