.......... One of the most hopeful events of the past year in my opinion has been big tobacco's entry into the market. It's not necessarily the industry that any of us wants to be associated with, but it does add legitimacy and a potentially huge cadre of lawyers on our side, so long as they don't try to push out the small vendors.
I know which out of big tobacco or big pharma I'd prefer to be associated with: the tobacco industry.
Let's do a balance:
What tobacco did wrong
Lied about cigarettes being addictive.
Lied about cigarettes harming and killing.
[
- but everyone knew they were lying, right down to the 12 year old next door.]
Left a huge paper trail in place that, when discovered (as it obviously would be), proved they knew they were lying.
Lied everywhere about everything.
[
- but everyone knows they are institutionally incapable of doing anything other than lie]
They bought, and they continue to buy, politicians and government agency staff. But whereas in the past this was an effective tool to bury the truth (which it shouldn't have been used for), now it can't be used for that as everyone knows they are lying or likely to be obfuscating the facts somehow. They are institutionally incapable of telling the truth - but everyone knows that, so it's hardly a major sin: when all know you are telling porkies it tends to reduce the effectiveness. In fact you could say it's useless.
The general public are absolutely aware of their harmful activities, and even the 12.y.o. next door knows it.
So basically they were incompetently managed, on a gargantuan scale, and still don't really get it. They should have just admitted everything, and taken the 30% sales hit for a few months - because after a bit it's back to business as usual. Print a skull & crossbones on the packet and have done with it. People forget soon enough, a year later it's history. You get Brownie points for being honest, but no one likes people who continually lie and who are continually exposed for it. It makes no sense to go that route, which is why I say they were gigantically incompetent.
What pharma did wrong
Up until late last year they were the world's largest criminals, having paid the largest criminal fines in history (untold billions). The oil industry has taken that title; but you could probably regard that as a temporary situation, oil are not stupid and having made a mess of things will learn from their mistakes. Pharma on the other hand have to use illegal and unethical methods of doing business since they are essentially a drug cartel. There is no functional difference between a drug cartel headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and one based in Medellin, Colombia: they both need to move product, at any cost, and cannot accept artificial restrictions imposed on them by laws and ethics.
They buy politicians, government agencies, government staff, and doctors.
They kill tens of thousands with unsafe drugs, placed on the market and kept there by means of corruption.
They kill hundreds of thousands with bought laws and regulations, obtained by means of corruption.
They have paid the largest fines in history for criminal fraud, and regard it as the cost of doing business.
They have paid the largest fines in history for criminal corruption, and regard it as the cost of doing business.
Their principal mode of operation is to buy government agencies, government staff, and doctors, which allows them to proceed any way they like.
They buy medics to lie for them and promote their propaganda.
They may well make the antibiotics that cure the sick little kiddies, but that goes in parallel with a vast drug trade protected at the highest levels that does untold harm and kills tens of thousands a year.
They buy laws to remove competitors, even when those competitors would save millions of lives (Snus for example).
They attempt to buy laws that would kill even more millions (ecig bans).
The general public are completely unaware of their criminal activities.
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So, on balance, I'd prefer to be associated with incompetent liars who in some cases can't seem to learn from their mistakes, rather than murderous drug dealers who buy government staff as a matter of course and are trying to kill millions as their main business MO.
In the short term, BT's involvement with ecigs will be to our benefit. This is because they will start to help fight the bans, they will lobby at top level in that regard, and they will market ecigs far more effectively than the current players, who don't have a clue.
In the long term they will be a massive negative, since they will attempt to remove competitors by regulation, once things have stabilised and the market begins to mature. BT can survive under the toughest regulatory climate; but everything the ecig community values is of no use to BT and will eventually be seen as a threat.
Today, BT are friendly colleagues helping to fight BP (or will be in a few months, when they get their act together).
In 5 or 10 years, they won't be so friendly. It's just business, after all.
