Kent Conrad: “It all boils down to the question at the bottom, which is, What are we going to do to reduce smoking in this country?…”

“It all boils down to the question at the bottom, which is, What are we going to do to reduce smoking in this country? Why is that the goal? Because we have 400,000 of our fellow citizens dying every year from smoking-related diseases. It is the No. 1 health challenge in the country that is avoidable. It is No. 1. There is nothing else that kills this number of our fellow citizens. The estimate is for every three that are smoking, one will die of smoking-related diseases. I have held hearings now all across America. Everywhere we have gone people have come forward and described the agony and the tragedy caused in American families by the use of this product. This is the only legal product in America when used as intended by the manufacturers that addicts and kills its customers. There is no other product that fits that bill. The only one, the only legal product, when used as intended by the manufacturer that addicts and kills its customers. People in this country are asking us to stand up and do something to help them--to help them keep their kids from using this drug, and a drug it is--to help them avoid the disability and death that attends the use of tobacco products. We are not going to prohibit the use of tobacco because we have 45 million people in this country that smoke. We don't have a very good history with prohibition. We can do something to help American families deal with the agony caused by the use of these products.”