Mitch Zeller, a former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) veteran, will take over the FDA’s Tobacco Products Center on March 4, 2013, according to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, who added that the center’s work “will continue to vigorously build FDA’s role in tobacco product regulation and efforts to improve public health.”

Created in 2009 after a law gave authority to the FDA to regulate a number of aspects of tobacco marketing and manufacturing, the center was headed by Dr. Lawrence Deyton, who plans to become a professor at George Washington University. Zeller, who served as associated commissioner and director of the agency’s Office of Tobacco Programs from 1993 until 2000, is currently an executive with a pharmaceutical consulting firm. He previously was an executive with the American Legacy Foundation, the Washington, DC-based anti-smoking organization.

An attorney with more than 30 years experience in regulatory, legislative and communications in FDA issues, Zeller was introduced to tobacco control in 1994 as an appointee the Clinton administration. In an interview with AP last year, he said, “We can’t say that regulation alone is going to reduce all the death and disease from tobacco, but I look at it as a vital element of a comprehensive national tobacco control program.”

Zeller is one of the key individuals in the documentary film, “Addiction Incorporated,” that depicts the actions of the tobacco industry and the lawsuits against the industry that were based on FDA investigations and testimony of the tobacco industry whistleblower, Victor DeNoble. He also acted as advisor to the film’s producer and director, Charles Evans, Jr.

Upon learning of Zeller’s new appointment, Evans noted, “This is poetic justice,” adding that Zeller said in a voice over in the film  “‘Imagine a world where the only cigarettes kids can experiment with can no longer sustain addiction. Kids will not stop experimenting, but the experimentation would not necessarily lead to regular smoking, addiction, disease and premature death.’

“‘Now, he’s in a position…to make that come true.”   

Members of the tobacco industry attempted to suppress his findings, which finally came to light during congressional hearings in 1994 and ultimately resulted on passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009. 

The event was introduced by NIDA director Dr. Nora Volkow, followed by brief remarks from Charles Evans Jr., director and producer of the film.  DeNoble, Volkow and Evans then joined Dr. David Shurtleff NIDA acting deputy director, and Dr. Paul Mele-a former Philip Morris researcher with DeNoble who was also featured in the film-in answering questions from the audience. 

Queries ranged from how to talk to children about the dangers of tobacco/drug addiction to how art can be used to transmit public health messages.

For information about the movie visit www.addictionincorporated.com.

Thinking he was researching to create a healthier cigarette, DeNoble began studying the effects of nicotine on rats, whose brains react to chemicals similarly to human’s, thus researchers can make quick strides in their studies by observing rat reactions.

When he taught rats to press a lever for food, he found that when given the choice, they would choose nicotine at ever-increasing levels until they were addicted. They were hooked like humans.

Ingestion of nicotine causes hair to rise and one’s heart rate to increase, eventually leading to heart disease. DeNoble discovered that altering the nicotine to two-prime methyl nicotine satisfied the same cravings without the detrimental results.

However, he also noted that where mice would starve themselves to death for cocaine or heroin, they would not do so for nicotine. So why were smokers addicted to nicotine?

Victor DeNoble discovered the holy grail for cigarette manufacturers.

There are many chemicals in cigarettes. DeNoble discovered that when acid aldehyde was combined with nicotine, it made the nicotine wildly addictive. He was initially allowed to submit his findings to a scientific publication, but when the board members of Philip Morris learned of this discovery, they forced him to pull the paper.

For years prior to DeNoble’s discovery, “Big Tobacco” (the seven largest tobacco companies) agreed to never do animal studies, for it was far too dangerous to find out the true nature of their cigarettes, but Phillip Morris was always looking for a leg up and they found it.

As DeNoble thought that his discovery would allow Phillip Morris to create a healthier cigarette by using his new nicotine less the acid aldehayde, his employers now had a way to make their cigarettes more addictive – and only Phillip Morris Tobacco Company had this information.

It doesn’t take much to realize which path Philip Morris followed – they made their cigarettes more addictive with the old nicotine by adding acid aldehyde.

By 1982 there was a spike in the number of lawsuits against Big Tobacco, as Philip Morris’ legal team began vetting research and development labs, they keyed on DeNoble’s lab, saying his research was too dangerous for the company. 

Soon he was fired and told to kill his rats – and Vic DeNoble faded into obscurity.

10 YEARS LATER – ABC News began an in-depth investigation of Big Tobacco which started the ball rolling to end the cabal’s grip on the secrets they kept.

As the FDA began its investigation, it turned to DeNoble for inside information for the FDA didn’t even know their corporate structure, much less its unrepentent activities. And although he was forthcoming with his damning information, DeNoble was bound by the gag clause in every Philip Morris employment contract – stating that he could never divulge any information as to what he did while in the employ of Philip Morris.

Finally, DeNoble was released from his gag order and became the first whistleblower to reveal that tobacco companies knowingly marketed and sold a harmful and addictive product to consumers.

“Addiction Incorporated” is a fascinating look inside the secretive world of tobacco companies. Building an unusual story about a boy with pedestrian roots overcoming the odds to finish college and graduate school, and eventually take down Big Tobacco is both riveting and uplifting. 

Maybe it’s my Republican roots, but I’ve always felt that tobacco companies were unfairly vilified for selling a product that most knew was addictive, especially when we accept alcohol’s effects on society. However, learning about the decades of research that these companies undertook to create a more addictive product, regardless of the health costs to smokers and those nearby, makes this documentary all the more satisfying. Although the legal matters that wrap up the final act become a bit tedious, they are necessary in order to witness Big Tobacco’s free fall from an industry that had never settled a lawsuit to one that was scrambling to stay in existence.

As the legal representative for Philip Morris later speaks of the responsibility to create a safer product and be more responsible to society, it rings hollow and feels patronizing. The phrase, “It’s better to ask forgiveness, than permission” comes to mind here.

In addition, DeNoble now travels the country talking to students regarding his research and the fallacy of smoking, and ironically, is paid using some of the funds from the settlement Big Tobacco made with the U.S. government.

“Addiction Incorporated” is truly addictive for this well executed documentary spins a tale of an unlikely hero slaying the tobacco Goliath with his bullet of information.

Source: South County Times

That man is scientist Victor DeNoble and most of this film chronicles his 30 year journey from classrooms through private company research labs to the halls of congress and courtrooms returning finally to the halls of academia. DeNoble was plucked out of college to work a high paying job in the research division of tobacco giant Phillip Morris. PM wanted to find a way to replace or severely reduce nicotine since it seems to promote heart attacks and other fatal maladies in their customers ( gotta’ keep em’ alive to keep on buying the product! ). A red flag should have popped up when Victor and his fellow scientists were allowed to use rats for this study ( the companies had mutually agreed that there would be no animal testing ). In trying to approximate cigarette usage in the rats, they found that nicotine combined with another chemical, acetaldehyde, to make the tobacco more addictive ( in the mornings the rats would go right to the nicotine delivery pedal forgoing food and water ). After their findings were presented to the company’s board of directors, the research was halted and the scientists were out of PM headquarters and worked on a freelance basis ( as opposed to being part of the in-house staff ). . Several years later someone gets this info to ABC ( specifically the producers of the late prime-time news magazine ” Day One ” ) which leads to congressional hearings and multi-state lawsuits. This draws in DeNoble and his ex-colleagues who must make many life-changing decisions concerning their past employers and their future.

Evans keeps the film moving at a brisk pace and does his best to avoid miring us in too much scientific jargon. Some of the story telling techniques trip up the film somewhat. Animation of the lab rats is useful in illustrating the study’s research methods, but later on things get a bit too whimsical when the rats are further anthropomorphized into humans with tails, large, wide noses, and pointed ears drifting down a tranquil lake, floating on a raft like Huck Finn. I suppose it’s to illustrate a blissful nicotine high, but it takes us out of the story’s flow ( especially when several ‘ rat people ‘ have an old-fashioned moonlight dance ). Things get back on track quickly after some crude ” Mad Men”- type seventies era recreated sequences. The use of real TV footage ( great timing to have a 90′s clip of a blustery Rush Limbaugh ), newspaper headlines, and current interviews of the principals involved ( you basic doc talking heads ) proves quite enlightening. Like most fiction films, this benefits from the a strong hero ( DeNoble, appropriate moniker! ) and an even stronger villain: big tobacco. Like Ed Harris’s evil businessman in MAN ON A LEDGE, these guys come off as arrogant, sneaky, and very hiss-able. We get that classic news shot of the major company representatives swearing-in before Congress, then almost in unison claiming ignorance of their product’s additive qualities. Just amazing. Finally they were vulnerable to lawsuits that their powerhouse legal team had crushed for so many years. So vulnerable that they all almost went under! ADDITION INCORPORATED is a surprisingly entertaining tribute to investigative journalism. And be sure to stick around for the pre-end credits coda for an update on Mr. D. It’s a twist that would make O Henry smile.

The surprisingly stylish documentary “Addiction Incorporated” traces the backlash against tobacco to a laboratory in Virginia in the 1980s. It wasn’t an ordinary research facility — it was a top-secret lab funded by tobacco giant Philip Morris, which wanted to develop a nicotine alternative to keep its customers hooked without killing them.

A scientist, Victor DeNoble, discovered that a trace ingredient in tobacco smoke amplified the narcotic effects of nicotine. By tweaking the formula, DeNoble could cause lab rats to press a dosing lever up to 90 times a day.

Director Charles Evans Jr. illustrates these concepts with some clever animation of rats relaxing like little Joe Camels, and elsewhere he employs creative re-enactments and vivid cinematography. But the bottom line is dead serious.

When DeNoble tried to publish his findings in an academic journal, his employer invoked a secrecy clause, fired the scientist and killed the story.

Years later, dogged journalists sniffed a story and tracked down DeNoble, who agreed to meet under cloak-and-dagger circumstances. Together they unearthed the buried evidence and gave it to the feds. In 1994, Congress held hearings where the heads of the tobacco companies replied in unison that their products were not addictive.

While it’s satisfying to see fat cats tamed by science and an enraged public, the movie misses the opportunity to sustain the pressure. It rushes through the court cases where some states forced tobacco companies to fund anti-smoking ad campaigns, and it doesn’t mention that the corporations have shifted their focus overseas.

Audiences are addicted to happy endings, but in real-life battles against rats, cats always seem to win.

Addiction Incorporated

The movie’s effectiveness begins with presentation. It starts with a story – that of Victor DeNoble. He narrates his childhood (poor family, poor grades, dyslexia!) and how he became a sharp scientist employed by Philip Morris.

In his research, DeNoble finds that not only is nicotine rather addictive to rats, but another chemical in cigarettes augments the addictiveness of nicotine, making the little rats in his study tap their virtual puff lever hundreds of times a day.

Nicotine: first thing in the morning, last thing at night. Such is the life of the laboratory rat. Knowing this, Philip Morris just increased the amount of the augmenting chemical and guaranteed their smokers’ continued cash.

Talk of this rat study is graphically represented by cartoons of rat-people. The movie suggests – in a not so subtle way – that humans are just rats to the cigarette companies. Or, perhaps, it simply says that drugs affect the minds of mammals similarly. Thus, when a rat grows an intense addiction to cigarettes in a period of 20 or so days, it gives us humans – who are also animals – reason to be prudent.

But that information can’t be known to smokers or doctors or teacher or politicians, Philip Morris realizes. They take the study, which DeNoble is so eager to publish with pride, and hide it. Philip Morris fires DeNoble and his colleagues and makes them sign an oath to secrecy.

This is where the story changes. Many years later, ABC publishes a prime-time report suggesting that cigarette companies knew for years that their products were extraordinarily addictive and had no intention of telling the public. In a way, the report makes the companies out as corporate drug dealers and not the lifestyle enhancers that they make themselves out to be.

The report makes Washington and the rest of the press go nuts. And, for a newsman such as myself, hearing journalists talk of getting phone calls about secret document drop-offs in shady Midwestern motels is like some kind of retro daydream.

The movie does a wonderful job of getting people who can talk in front of the camera. Documentaries often get into trouble when the people they need to tell a story can’t quite pull it off with gusto or personality while being shot point-blank with a movie camera. Addiction Incorporated, I’m glad to report, does not suffer from that problem. DeNoble, in particular, is awesome. He speaks with verve and precision, and it is an absolute joy to watch him speak before Congress about the fruits of his scientific labor, which were kept for decades in the darkness of Philip Morris’ belly.

Unfortunately, the movie ends on an overplayed note that’s hard for most documentaries to hit. DeNoble is now an anti-smoking advocate and travels about the nation, teaching children about his rat studies and the insane addictiveness of cigarettes. DeNoble doesn’t make any vainglorious speeches or ruin his cool character, he just asserts what everybody knows: cigarettes are bad for you; they change your brain, they are addictive. The deliciousness of the movie’s science is long gone and all that’s left is the somewhat nostalgic-smacking message of a 1990s infomercial.

But never mind the ending. Honestly. Addiction Incorporated is a well-made documentary that can get those whose brains are interested in science and secrets and scandal hooked pretty quick.

Addiction Incorporated is playing at the Lagoon Theater. It’s directed by Charles Evans Jr.

I don’t smoke, but I don’t buy into the theory of secondhand smoke being deadly. Nor do I think that punitive payback necessarily improves public health.

Addiction Incorporated might pale in comparison to Christopher Buckley’s book Thank You for Smoking if separated from its proper context. This documentary isn’t out to change opinions but instead present the findings that led to the tobacco industry having to reassess its strategies. It began when Philip Morris funded a behavioral study to back up their claim that there is no causal link between disease and the smoking of cigarettes. Now any inhalant can adversely affect breathing and the blood will transport its properties to the brain, whether pot smoke or glue vapor. Hired to oversee the project, DeNoble found that lab rats don’t care much about weight loss, aren’t influenced by the movies or have the slightest inclination to submit to social pressure – their only reason for pressing the lever to receive their allotment of nicotine is they like it. By reducing the dosage to that of a rat-sized cigarette, DeNoble discovers that nicotine makes rats sick, before realizing that human specimens don’t receive the nicotine wallop all at once but spread over the course of a smoke.

If administered incrementally, rats addict themselves, pressing the bar twice a day, then ten times that, until hooked to where they wake up slapping the bar.

Excited, DeNoble wants to publish his findings, which is the point of science – to bring evidence to others in the field. Philip Morris refused and DeNoble was fired, because what he’d done would incriminate the entire tobacco industry as having full knowledge that nicotine was addictive, and knowing how much was needed to keep people smoking. Tobacco firms had always shielded nicotine as a significant ingredient that only contributed to flavor. It was also an ingredient in insecticide. In other words, they were selling poison, knew it was unhealthy and were only interested in selling more.

There are a number of people that whenever I see them supporting an idea, I have the tendency to reverse course. William Kunstler is one, Michael Moore is another, and certainly the derogatory, rodent-looking douchebag congressman Henry Waxman (D – CA), who always seems to look for any opportunity to tell you how to live, what to think, when to eat and how much, and whether or not you receive medical attention and at whose expense. His goal is control.

But Addiction Incorporated isn’t some document of historical procedures. Sure it sets in motion the Food and Drug Administration convincing Congress to open hearings, which was perfectly legitimate since the function of government is to protect citizens from threats of force or fraud, but the only course of action open to the tobacco industry after 51 law firms sued was a PR campaign to target a new generation of cigarette smokers. I know this for a fact because while writing for Creative Loafing, word came down that Camel cigarettes had requested their ads only be placed in the music section so their product would appeal to “cool” readers!

While I agree with Victor DeNoble’s findings, I disagree with government interference shifting health concerns aside for exemplary settlements. DeNoble ended up pulling out of his status as “professional” witness and redirected his energies to teenagers, traveling the high school lecture circuit.

Addiction Incorporated puts the blame where it belongs: on advertising and promoting risky behavior as “cool.” Kids think they’re immortal. As DeNoble tells it, cigarettes ignite receptors in the brain for life! Tobacco manufacturers know if they hook someone young, they’ve planted a seed for the rest of their life. Addiction always begins with a choice. If you think smoking is “cool,” think again.

Oh, wait. Maybe you will believe that, since every newspaper and TV news program in the country reported it 20 years ago. “Addiction Incorporated,” however, acts like it’s a scoop. And that’s only the biggest way in which this unnecessary documentary goes wrong.

The wrongness starts with the opening scene of a scientist named Victor DeNoble telling us he’s dyslexic, a story whose significance will not become clear until the end of “Addiction Incorporated,” by which point you won’t care. Just so you know, he was labeled unteachable but ultimately became a teacher himself.

That stuff is followed by detailed science that bogs down the movie for no good reason and then animated sequences that make the movie cutesy-poo for no good reason.

Eventually, the film gets back to DeNoble and tries to become the story of a man who developed addictive formulas for tobacco companies until he woke up and smelled the nicotine. But “Addiction” veers away from him for long stretches of time as it charts the wrongs of the tobacco industry.

Admittedly, they are big, big wrongs, but they are so well-documented that anybody who’s remotely interested in this topic already knows everything “Addiction Incorporated” has to say.