FOREST

FOREST (short for "Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco") is a United Kingdom smokers' rights group primarily funded by the tobacco industry which campaigns against what it sees as "excessive regulation" of smoking and tobacco products. Early history In 1978, Air Chief Marshal Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris approached the major British tobacco companies regarding a possible Tobacco Consumers' Association. Foxley-Norris, a pipe and cigar smoker, said that he was concerned about the increasing interference by 'the Government and other do-gooding bodies' in people's lives, and that he was surprised that the industry had not put up any co-ordinated response to anti-smoking measures. He added that, having retired from the RAF in 1974, he was seeking a salaried position in such an organisation to supplement his pension. At around the same time, Lieutenant-General Sir Geoffrey Charles Evans, a cigarette smoker and formerly General Secretary of the National Union of Retail Tobacconists made similar proposals to industry figures. The Tobacco Advisory Committee (TAC), the then British tobacco industry trade association, agreed that the time was right to launch a pro-smoking group. TAC stated that the new organisation would need to 'be closely controlled and supported by the industry, but be seen to be sufficiently independent to maintain its credibility'.