Group Petitions Pope on Tobacco

Source from:  Monday, April 7, 2008 Edition of By Brynne Lee Assistant Layout Editor  04/08/2008

For the first time since 1979, the pope is making a visit to the nation's capital. From April 15 to 17, Pope Benedict XVI will be in Washington, D.C., talking about issues in our world today and addressing college students at Catholic University. The pope will also make a stop in New York City. Though he is not stopping in Boston, the Physicians and Nurses Against Tobacco (PANAT), will be directly addressing the pope in an advertisement in The Boston Globe in an effort to ban the use of tobacco. In addition to their advertisement in the newspaper, PANAT has started a petition against the use of tobacco. The names of those who sign the petition, which can be accessed online, will be collected and printed in The Boston Globe. According to the petition, "[Signers of the petition] will implore [the pope] to join us in publicly condemning the production, distribution, sale, and use of tobacco." The petition also asks for the pope, not only as a religious leader but also as a head of state, to declare the Vatican the first tobacco-free country. With the pope not visiting Boston on his upcoming trip, many question the effects of the 2002 sexual- abuse scandal that began and broke out in Boston. By the end of 2002, over 1,200 priests had been accused of abuse nationwide and the Archdiocese of Boston faced approximately 500 claims by alleged victims of clergy abuse. According to an article from The Catholic World Report, had the pope visited Boston, he would have been virtually forced to directly address the sex-abuse scandal. Many church officials in Boston had hoped that a papal visit would "mark a return to normalcy, closing the ugliest chapter in the history of the local church." However, the Vatican decided not to put Pope Benedict XVI in such a position in Boston. Though Boston is not on the agenda for the upcoming papal visit, PANAT has made efforts to inform others about the dangers of tobacco and hopes to have a positive response from the public as well as the pope. Through its collective voice of physicians, nurses, scientists, health care officials, associates, and friends who value a healthy society, PANAT looks to facilitate changes on both local and global levels. According to the PANAT mission statement, "Our work is to educate, motivate, influence, persuade, crystallize, and mobilize public opinion and behavior to discourage the production, distribution, sale, and use of tobacco in all of its forms." The PANAT Web site, www.unholysmoke.org, gives detailed information about understanding addiction and problems with tobacco. "Once the brain is exposed to certain chemicals, it doesn't function normally," said Dr. Claude Curran, a Massachusetts psychiatrist and member of PANAT. "There are chemicals that cause and change the way the brain works, and the brain falls in love with nicotine." Nicotine is seen as a gateway drug, a point from which people begin to experiment with other, more harmful drugs. "[The tobacco industry] is an industry that is legally allowed to enslave people to using a product," Curran said. He has observed that the chemicals in tobacco cause neuropathy within the individual using the drugs. The most important areas that are damaged in addiction are ones that inhibit the abuser from ever feeling normal, tranquil, or calm. According to Curran, the PANAT is optimistic that they will at least begin the discussion that there is a moral dimension to the marketplace and a moral dimension to the tobacco industry. After previously attempting to change the tobacco industry through means such as the tobacco companies themselves and politicians, PANAT is now looking to the pope to make the radical change of banning tobacco. "[The pope] is the defender of man," Curran said. "If religious leaders don't act in our best interest, who will?" Because the drug companies make millions off peoples' addictions to tobacco, they do not seek to ban their products for the betterment of society. Curran said that politicians are also well aware of the dangers associated with tobacco, yet they would not support a ban because of the revenue they make from it. Recently, in Illinois, tobacco companies made efforts to stop attempts to nearly double the state's cigarette tax. During the four weeks prior to the primary election, two major tobacco companies donated $83,000 to 30 lawmakers. Approximately three-fourths of the money went to House Democrats. Because of instances such as these, "[PANAT is] addressing the pope because there's no one else," Curran said. "The unseen mind that guides scientific research points to us things that are to be avoided, and we have an obligation to protect our fellow humans from the change in their functioning." Enditem