Jeffrey Wigand, the inspiration for the Academy Award nominated film “The Insider,” said Monday that the allegedly fraudulent practices of the tobacco industry depicted in the film were committed deliberately. Wigand, speaking Wednesday in Gaston Hall, also spoke about his personal crusade against what he termed the industry’s destructive tactics in a speech in Gaston Hall.

Wigand discussed the methods that the industry employs to increase profits to a mostly full audience of Georgetown students and faculty.

“I have no regrets whatsoever for working for the tobacco industry,” Wigand said of his four year employment under Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, a Louisville-based company that is owned by the world’s second-largest tobacco company.

In 1995, Wigand became the tobacco industry’s highest ranking former executive to come forward about the industry’s alleged disregard for health concerns. His revealing interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” and subsequent deposition prompted further media investigation into the subject.

“I chose to leave the cigarette company after six months of interviews [with industry workers and scientists] to make a safer cigarette,” he said.

Wigand spoke about his experiences with denial and dishonesty in the upper echelons of the billion-dollar industry – experiences that provoked him to publicly address health and smoking issues.

In spite of using at least 4,000 chemical compounds in their cigarettes, including ammonia and an additive that has been proven to consume the livers of dogs, Wigand said that officials at Browns & Williamson still denied the harm of nicotine.

“Nicotine changes the brain’s shape permanently,” Wigand said, citing a study that documented the substance’s biological effects after prolonged exposure.

“It is addictive in every sense,” he added. “We now know it is as addictive as cocaine.”

Despite the fact that such scientific investigations have shown the damage nicotine causes, Wigand said that the industry still denied nicotine’s addictiveness. Executives swore, he said, that smokers only enjoy nicotine because of its taste.

At one point, high-ranking officials in the industry took an oath affirming that “smoking was no more dangerous than eating Twinkies and gummy bears,” Wigand said. They continued to experiment with toxic additives that would deliberately require smokers to take longer and deeper drags, consequently increasing sales.

“To this date, the [tobacco] industry has not admitted that smoking causes disease,” he said.

After Wigand’s public confession, Brown & Williamson sued him for violating confidentiality agreements. Although the lawsuit was dismissed in a settlement between 40 state Attorney Generals and the tobacco industry in 1997, the attacks did not end there.

His two daughters were threatened on repeated occasions, he said. While the harassment has finally ended for the former tobacco executive, his personal battle against the industry continues.

Wigand has since established a non-profit organization called Smoke Free Kids, Inc., committed to reducing smoking among teens. He also speaks to 4th-6th graders about the truth behind cigarettes.

“If you can at least give [children] information on how they’re being duped they will make more informed decisions,” he said.

While Wigand is clearly committed to educating the public, he said that his aim is not to pry smokers forcefully off of their habit.

“I will make my statement . but I’m going to let you make your own judgment through my eyes,” he said.

Ilana Blankman (COL ’04), a member of the Lecture Fund, said that she admired Wigand’s enthusiasm.

“Wigand was a really vibrant speaker,” she said. “The amount of stuff that people don’t know about the products that they consume and about the fraudulent practices of tobacco companies is disgusting.”

Blankman added that she was pleased with the successful turnout for the event. “I was expecting about 400 people,” she said.

The speech was sponsored by the Lecture Fund.