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Johnson & Johnson: "The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is the world's wealthiest foundation devoted to health issues. RWJF was named after the former head of Johnson & Johnson, the world's largest health and medical care products conglomerate and msot of its wealth comes from Johnson & Johnson stock holdings. In 1992, the foundation was worth more than $3 billion with more than $2 billion of that in Johnson & Johnson stock -- by 1998 it was worth nearly $8 billion with more than $5 billion in Johnson & Johnson stock."

The above quote is from a report by Wanda Hamilton that can be found in the archives on www.forces.org. Hamilton goes on to point out that "Some of the tobacco-related funding promotes nicotine research and smoking cessation, which in turn benefits Johnson & Johnson, one of the biggest producers of smoking cessation products."

In other industries, this would be called a conflict of interest.

The following excerpts are from a PRNewswire release regarding grants and Smokeless States, found in March 2005 on the following link: http://www.data-yard.net/10a/pharma1.htm
(Smokescam has added the underline for emphasis.)

Wednesday March 14, 2:14 pm Eastern Time

Press Release

SOURCE: SmokeLess States National Tobacco Policy Initiative

Smokeless States Announces First Round of Grant Recipients

CHICAGO, March 14 /PRNewswire/ -- The SmokeLess States National Tobacco Policy Initiative based at the American Medical Association (AMA) today announced the recipients of approximately $16 million in grant awards for a three-year policy initiative funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) of Princeton, New Jersey to reduce tobacco use in the United States. The states with statewide tobacco prevention and control coalitions that will receive funds in the first of two rounds of funding are: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

SmokeLess States is a private sector initiative that supports activities of statewide coalitions working to improve the tobacco policy environment in the U.S. The $16 million awarded is part of a $52 million commitment by RWJF to support the development of policy-based tobacco reduction strategies to reduce the harm caused by tobacco use. RWJF funding is intended to complement other sources of funding and mobilize greater numbers of grassroots advocates.

Grant recipients' policy efforts under this initiative fall into three main areas: increasing state tobacco excise taxes, reducing exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and fostering changes in Medicaid and private insurance to cover tobacco dependence treatment.

... All 50 states and the District of Columbia have submitted grant applications.

SmokeLess States is in its eighth year of existence. During its first seven years, RWJF provided approximately $40 million for educational and policy efforts undertaken by statewide coalitions in 36 states and the District of Columbia.