GLOBAL SOLIDARITY
AGAINST BIG TOBACCO



April 23-24, 2003
Richmond, VA

REVOKE "LICENSE TO KILL"
April 23, 2003

ALTRIA SHAREHOLDERS MTG
April 24, 2003

TEEN ADVOCACY WORKSHOP
April 23, 2003
Licensed to Kill, Inc
We're Rich, You're Dead! ™

Photo credit: AP/Wayne Scarberry

REVOKE THE

www.licensedtokill.biz

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 22, 2003
Contact: Anna White of Essential Action, 202-387-8030

200 Teens Rally at VA Capitol to
Denounce Incorporation of
New VA Tobacco Company "Licensed to Kill, Inc"

Next stop: Altria Group shareholders meeting on Thursday


RICHMOND, VA - Today, over 200 teens from DC, NH, NM, NY, WI, and WV will rally at the Virginia State Capitol at 1pm to denounce the incorporation of the world's newest multinational tobacco company, "Licensed to Kill, Inc," in the Commonwealth of Virginia last month.

Licensed to Kill, Inc's articles of incorporation state an explicit purpose of "manufacturing and marketing tobacco in a way that each year kills over 400,000 Americans and 4.5 million other persons worldwide."

The company is a parody of the actual tobacco industry, which each year kills 4.9 million people worldwide. To read more about the Licensed to Kill, Inc, go to www.licensedtokill.biz.

"People who murder other people get jail time and sometimes even the death penalty. Corporations that kill literally thousands and thousands of people a year are not held accountable," says Jessica Harvey, teen leader of NY Reality Check's International Action Committee, "Something's seriously wrong when a corporation that openly states an intent to kill 4.9 million people is allowed to exist."

The company could have been created in any of the 50 states. Virginia was chosen because of its close relationship with the world's largest multinational tobacco company.

"Corporate profit should not come at the expense of the lives of millions of people," says License to Kill incorporator Robert Hinkley, a Maine-based lawyer, "It is time to change the corporate law that allows tobacco companies to be formed and operate. It is time to revoke Big Tobacco's license to kill."

On Thursday, the teens will bring their message of "people over profits" directly to Altria Group shareholders.

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For more information about Licensed to Kill, Inc, see:
www.licensedtokill.biz

USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/2003-04-18-killer tobacco_x.htm

Corp-focus article:
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2003/000149.html


Essential Action's Global Partnerships for Tobacco Control program links tobacco control groups in the U.S. and Canada with groups in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Central/Eastern Europe to monitor and resist Big Tobacco's global expansion.
For more information, visit our website