SECRET LIGGETT DOCUMENTS NOW AVAILABLE ON INTERNET

The secret documents which the Liggett company turned over as part of its agreement with the Attorneys General, and which still remain sealed by court order because of the tobacco industry claims that they would be "irreparably harmed" by their release, are now available to the media and to the general public on the Internet. The documents contain intriguing titles like:

Package Objectives - "more appeal to youth"
Market objective - "To appeal to young adult women"

Reference to cigarette market segment - "16-21 -- the formative years"

Cigarette sales promotion to the Spanish, Jewish and Negro markets

Development of a Cigarette with Increased Smoke pH - Progress Report Use of Calcium Hydroxide to create "a reduction in total nicotine in the smoke without a reduction in the physiological satisfaction associated with nicotine."

The Concept of A Less Hazardous Cigarette - Memo from D.H. Conning "Is it morally permissible to develop a safe method for administering a habit-forming drug when, in so doing, the number of addicts will increase?" "The main factor in cigarette acceptability is the nicotine content of smoke. This constitutes the all important pharmacological effect but also plays a major role in imparting the requisite taste."

On March 20, 1997 Bennett Lebow, CEO of Liggett Group Inc., agreed to release thousands of pages of internal documents from both Liggett and other tobacco companies that would provide damaging evidence in lawsuits pending against other cigarette makers.

Lawyers for the tobacco industry rushed to North Carolina and immediately filed for a temporary restraining order to prevent the release of those documents.

At 12:21 pm, Judge William H. Freeman of Forsyth Superior Court obliged the tobacco industry and issued an order blocking the release of the documents. On April 5, a North Carolina appeals court rejected a request by the Liggett Group to allow the release of the secret tobacco industry documents.

In the meantime Judge Freeman, stating that it is likely the four major tobacco companies could be irreparably harmed if the secret documents were released, converted the temporary restraining order into a preliminary injunction, which remains in effect indefinitely.

The Liggett documents are posted on Jack Cannons' Internet Web Site:

http://www.gate.net/~jcannon/liggett/

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