Philip Morris paid the National Restaurant Association at least $450,000. Makes you wonder who the N.R.A. really works for, doesn't it? [How Big Tobacco Uses The Hospitality Industry: N.R.A. Case Study] "Our first priority should be to discourage restaurant associations from 'going south' on tobacco," declared tobacco industry lobbyists in 1993. Big Tobacco had already spent ten years trying to block local smokefree measures that reduced their sales and dimmed their profits. Repeatedly rebuffed at the polls, the industry decided to recruit hospitality organizations-"not necessarily a natural partner," tobacco strategists admitted - to act as Big Tobacco's fronts. "Since we are reliant on the [hospitality] industry to be out front fighting on this issue, it is important that we are able to forge a strong and relevant relationship," Philip Morris noted in a secret memo. To create a "relationship" with restaurant association leaders and staff, Big Tobacco budgeted millions of dollars for: huge public relations projects like "Accommodation" and the "Hospitality Coalition on Indoor Air Quality"... National Restaurant Association political action committees... hospitality trade show promotions and sponsorships... advertising in state and national restaurant association publications...and more. Big Tobacco gave almost half a million dollars to the National Restaurant Association in 2000-1. $75,000 of that tobacco money was earmarked for "research on economic impacts of smoking bans." And in time, the N.R.A. released a Deloitte & Touche report claiming smokefree measures hurt hospitality. A claim disproved by over thirty truly independent economic analyses over the past ten years. All of these found that going smokefree has either no effect or a measurably positive effect on hospitality sales and jobs. Big Tobacco's strategic goal? To get restaurant groups to endorse legislation that protects tobacco industry pro?ts-but forces owners to remodel or buy costly ventilation systems protecting no one from secondhand smoke. You see, not only does Big Tobacco want small business to fight its battles, but also to take on its liabilities.That's why it's worth finding out who state and nationalrestaurant associations really work for. See for yourself. Go online to TobaccoScam.ucsf.edu/target and click "Tobacco Allies & Fronts." tobaccoscam Big Tobacco is lying. Again. TobaccoScam is a project of Stanton Glantz, PhD, of the School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. San Francisco, CA 94143-1390.