Oh yes, it boggles the mind. The only explanation that makes sense is that it is about the money, even though at first glance that sounds like a loony conspiracy theory. Strange that organizations that have been after us for years to stop smoking are fighting this tooth and nail: The American Lung Association, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids are the ring-leaders. They have even sent out a "Policy Statement" to all their local chapters urging them to introduce and support local legislation to ban sales
All of these orgnizations receive sizable financial support from pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the not-very-effective approved treatments for smoking cessation and/or distributions from the tobacco settlement funds. So the mad merry-go-round that they have smokers on is profitable for them. We smoke, get treatment, relapse, smoke, get treatment, relapse, etc., etc. Big Pharma makes money when we buy the treatment products, and Big Tobacco makes money when we relapse.
The only other explanation I can think of is that the leaders are pure evil who don't care if we die. So I guess the less paranoid explanation is the follow-the-money conspiracy theory.
