What we are up against

[Thulium]

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the image of the American Cancer Society sleeping , maybe not with, but in the same bed as the cigarette industry.

The "conspiracy theorist" in me has a hard time believing that mass delusions happen by accident.

Remember that the "cigarette industry" is the same tobacco industry that this country was founded upon. tobacco was responsible, for example, for the very survival of colonial America, so tobacco represents some of the very oldest "money" in America, so regardless how much it is vilified...the Master Settlement Agreement and Family Smoking Prevention & Tobacco Control Act actually affirm the fact that tobacco will continue to be part of the American economy.

As such, tobacco was the perfect false target for perpetual warmaking, so when it was discovered that some companies had been complicit in efforts to cover up evidence of the harms of smoking, corporate interests (especially Big Pharma, but also Big Food, Big Petro, Big Education, Big Media, and of course Big Government) jumped on the opportunity to blame Tobacco for all of society's ills. People no longer pay attention to the fact that it is actually SMOKING that is linked to a variety of negative health effects because they showed us a picture of a rotting mouth and portrayed all smokeless tobacco use as a dirty and disgusting habit and so we all just assumed that smokeless tobacco was probably worse than smoking (even though that assumption really could not be further from the truth) and perpetuate the false idea that there was something inherently evil about tobacco.

It's just not that tough to understand the difference between inhaling burning leaves that have been treated with dangerous chemicals and inhaling nicotine-infused vapor. Campaigns against reality (at least in the US) are virtually always about money, but I don't understand how the ACS benefits from this position. What am I missing?

Aside from the immense amount of funding from companies that sell drugs to treat tobacco-related illnesses, the Cancer Society frequently receives Government grants and subsidies that are funded by the Master Settlement Agreement. That means a portion of the sales price of every pack of cigarettes finds its way to the American Cancer Society. As long as people keep smoking, it doesn't matter if they try to buy drugs to quit or buy drugs to treat lung cancer or just pay exhorbitant taxes and be "denormalized" as smokers, Big Pharma will have plenty of money to donate to the ACS to ensure that the Blueprint is followed and the Agenda continues.

If people stop smoking without the help of pharmaceuticals, the cash cow would dry up for Big Pharma. If people switch to smoke-free alternatives, the tobacco industry could flourish while the demand for chantix and chemotherapy could tank. Even though it would mean that people were freer and living longer and healthier lives, the "credible authorities" in Tobacco Control won't stand for it because they'll see it as "evil" tobacco beating out "good" pharma.

 

[Vocalek]

Well said, Thad.

 

[GiddyLydia]

@GLydia

. All you need to know in order to rationalise that is to see where its funding comes from - pharma. The implications are then:

...are then pretty grim. I've never even wondered how the ACS was funded, ugh. NRT has an indefensibly poor success rate, and Chantix is a deadly hoax that I honestly thought would have been off the market by now. Bupropion may be marginally the best pharmaceutical for the purpose, but it gets no play now as a cheap generic.

I know the cigarette and drug industries will slow acceptance of ecigs, but this is a revolutionary, dramatically effective product with benefits too obvious to to obscure indefinitely. I just won't believe that it will be quietly swept out the back door no matter how big the broom.


@Thulium
Just as little side note from here in the hills, Kentucky has been reducing it's dependence on tobacco for more than two decades; weed replaced it as our biggest cash crop years ago.

 

[rolygate]

Lydia: I know the cigarette and drug industries will slow acceptance of ecigs, but this is a revolutionary, dramatically effective product with benefits too obvious to to obscure indefinitely. I just won't believe that it will be quietly swept out the back door no matter how big the broom.

You only have your e-cig because a few people fought long and hard and at considerable cost to ensure you have it. That fight continues because there is a lot of money up against e-cigs.

If those people hadn't fought, you would have no e-cig. There is no such thing as automatic fair and right - people have to fight for their rights, there is usually someone who will gain financially from removing them. These days in the Western world there is little overt corruption, instead the system works to keep the money in the pockets of those who already have it. If their interests conflict with your rights, you need to fight hard and to keep on fighting, to maintain them.

If you have rights that conflict with a powerful commercial interest, you can expect a long, hard fight. The problem is that everyone thinks it's someone else's fight, or that the right thing will just 'happen', somehow.

 

[Thulium]

I know the cigarette and drug industries will slow acceptance of ecigs, but this is a revolutionary, dramatically effective product with benefits too obvious to to obscure indefinitely. I just won't believe that it will be quietly swept out the back door no matter how big the broom.

Yes. It doesn't always happen right away, but Truth has a tendency to always leak out.

@Thulium
Just as little side note from here in the hills, Kentucky has been reducing it's dependence on tobacco for more than two decades; weed replaced it as our biggest cash crop years ago.

Agreed. Unfortunately if the "Powers That Be" have their way, Corn will remain king for the foreseeable future--which is why hemp remains illegal in many areas.

Big Pharma and the prohibitionists they sponsor will try to make sure Big Tobacco gets the smallest slice of the pie, but the point is they'll still have a seat at the table. Like the following joke, Big Tobacco is the Designated Decoy:

A police officer was staking out a well-known bar to bust some potential DWI-ers. As it neared closing time, an extremely intoxicated man stumbled out of the bar and spent 30 minutes looking for his car. When all the other drivers had left, the drunk finally located his vehicle. He spent another 20 minutes fumbling for his keys and trying to unlock his car. Finally, he got in and eventually managed to start his car. As soon as he pulled away, the police officer went after him and pulled him over, giving the breathalizer test. It came up negative. "How could this be?" the officer sputtered." I saw you! You were falling all over the place!" The driver grinned and said, "Tonight, I'm the Designated Decoy."

 

[Cuss]

The argument against banning or over regulating e-cigs is linked to the over regulation of every other aspect of our lives. All this guise of protection to gain power and funnel money has incrementally become a fact of modern life. Its seems that an informed populous is non existent. What ever happened to individualism, personal responsibility, and freedom.