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Many individuals and organizations within communities of color in the United States are concerned about the content and form of negotiations that are currently underway between the tobacco industry and attorneys general and lawyers for victims of tobacco.

The Tobacco Industry and its allies use economic analysis to argue against tobacco control policies by stating that they will create havoc on jobs, tax revenues, tobacco farmers and the economy in general. These same arguments are used around the world to promote tobacco production and industry in countries that could put their resources to more humane and health promoting uses.

Regulations on the local, State, National, and International level have been enacted as evidence mounts on the dangers of smoking to smokers and nonsmokers alike. These regulations have, in large part, been initiated by local communities.

To get some perspective on the deal negotiated with the tobacco industry CorpWatch spoke with Stanton Glantz, Professor of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. Glantz, a long-time tobacco crusader, is the author of the Cigarette Papers, the published version of internal documents leaked to him from the Brown and Williamson tobacco corporation.

Excerpted from the San Francisco's Forum On Global Tobacco Control Policies. Dr. Judith Mackay looks at the ''New Opium War.''

As 33% of San Franciscans are immigrants, the Coalition believes that it must think globally and act locally in the development of a Global Tobacco Control Policy Framework.

The following is excerpted from the World Health Organization's Tobacco Use: A Public Health Disaster.

The following tobacco industry facts were excerpted with permission from INFACT's web site. INFACT is a national grassroots corporate watchdog organization founded in 1977.

The San Francisco Tobacco Free Coalition will actively work in solidarity with domestic and international grassroots communities, groups, organizations, government agencies, and Ministries of Health to promote social, economic, and environmental justice. As 33% of San Franciscans are immigrants, the Coalition believes that it must think globally and act locally in the development of a Global Tobacco Control Policy Framework.

The tobacco industry offers a compelling case study in the breakdown of democratic principles. Facing Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation of their deadly product in the US, tobacco giants Philip Morris and RJR Nabisco set the pace for the spending frenzy of 1996. Philip Morris was the #1 contributor overall in the federal election cycle, and spent over $12 million to lobby federal officials in just the first six months of the election year. RJR Nabisco was a top corporate donor, especially of unregulated ''soft'' money, and is a pioneer in ''astroturf'' lobbying to rally its consumers behind the corporate agenda.

My friend the ghost of Tom Paine says that tobacco corporations are fronts for drug dealers that poison and addict people, and sabotage the Constitution. He does not believe that we should allow such corporations to exist. The only conclusion a reasonable Person can come to, he says, is that we should revoke the charters of these corporations, put their executives in jail, and divvy up the assets among their victims.

WASHINGTON, DC -- Governor Gray Davis and the California Legislature have done the tobacco industry a favor and cheated the state's kids and taxpayers by agreeing to a budget that slashes funding for the state's highly successful tobacco prevention program and fails to increase the cigarette tax. With this shortsighted budget, California will cease to be the nation's leader in tobacco prevention, and the state will pay a high price as a result. We urge California's leaders to reverse course by increasing the cigarette tax and using some of the revenue to restore funding for tobacco prevention.

Ottawa (May 13, 2002) -- Sluts Against Butts, a group of women bent on holding the tobacco industry responsible for the death, disease, and addiction it causes, today announced the launch of their website: www.slutsagainstbutts.com.

Negotiations on the world's first international tobacco control treaty, The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, are being held in Geneva, Switzerland, March 18-23, 2002. This is an excellent opportunity for public health and tobacco control advocates to voice their concerns over the Bush Administration's attempts to weaken the treaty.

The $145 billion punitive damage award against the tobacco industry in the Engle case in Florida should be celebrated as evidence of a civil justice system that works, proof of the value of juries and a major public health achievement.

India (and South East Asia) are a huge market for tobacco. Cigarette companies are also targetting youth between 15-25. Two countries where tobacco sales are expected to zoom up are India and Indonesia.

According to the World Health Organisation, tobacco use is set to cause an epidemic of heart disease and cancer in developing countries. Currently, 4 million people die each year from tobacco use, but that number is set to rise to 10 million a year by 2030. In addition to premature death, smokers suffer from an ongoing degradation of their health due to smoking.