SFMS Member's Letter to the Editor in Today's Chronicle May 8, 2012 Advocacy, SFMS Member Dr. Ladonna Porter, John Maa, Prop 29 0 This letter to the editor was printed in the May 8, 2012 San Francisco Chronicle. John Maa, MD is a SFMS board member and assistant professor of surgery at UCSF. Big Tobacco's Big Bet I applaud the courage of the editors of The Chronicle to endorse Proposition 29 (“A tobacco tax to save lives,” Chronicle Recommends, Insight, April 29). Big Tobacco led a nearly $70 million effort to defeat Proposition 86 in 2006, with the result that California is currently only 32nd in the nation in per-pack cigarette taxes. Particularly effective in their successful campaign was the recruitment of physicians to appear on television speaking against the tobacco tax, a strategy that is being repeated in 2012. I am deeply concerned by the misleading advertisements featuring Dr. Ladonna Porter, which prominently display her affiliation with the Golden State Medical Association and suggest that she is speaking on behalf of both that organization and the field of medicine. The truth is that both the National Medical Association (of which the Golden State Medical Association is a regional chapter) and the California Medical Association strongly support efforts to curb tobacco’s deadly toll. The misrepresentation of Porter’s credentials is further evidence of the depth of manipulative efforts by the tobacco industry to confuse California's voters. John Maa, San Francisco Comments are closed.
