The Philip Morris Initiative

I don’t think that I have commented upon this subject directly, other than to say that Siegel has claimed that it is all a scam:

http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/first-major-action-of-foundation-for.html

He said that he refused to be a consultant, but it is not clear that he was personally invited. Perhaps he was, but it seems that lots of emails were sent out to persons who might be interested in contributing to the initiative, so he could have just ignored it.

Since then, it seems that PM has designed cig packets which tell smokers that they should stop smoking and change over to ‘heat-not-burn’. Canadian cig packets carry such a message, it seems. Dick Puddlecote has covered the story:

http://dickpuddlecote.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/tobacco-control-pigeons-meet-philip.html

I like Dick’s ‘cat among the pigeons’ analogy.

Of course, Siegel might well be right, although ‘scam’ might be too harsh a word. I should imagine that PM is clever enough to to have noticed that their attempts to defend themselves in court have not been very successful. People like Siegel, despite being very clever, cannot see beyond their academic prejudices. Do they really think that executives of a tobacco company can just wreck the company? There are millions of shareholders, including pension funds, to whom the executives are accountable. They are not accountable to Siegel et al.

Is there something wrong with a Tobcom suggesting to its consumers that they might like to try HbN products rather than combustibles?

But there is another idea in my mind. In the US, Tobcoms have been instructed by a court to issue ‘corrective statements’. Here are some of the ‘corrective statements’ which seem to be actually going out on American TV etc:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1013581/download

This Department of Justice site might also be worth reading, if you are interested:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/tobacco-companies-begin-issuing-court-ordered-statements-tobacco-racketeering-suit

It would not be beyond the pail to suggest that Tobcoms have been trying to figure out how they can take reasonable steps to avoid similar legislation elsewhere in the world, and to protect their businesses (of providing tobacco product to consumers who want them). By admitting that smoking is dangerous, they are, in effect, issuing ‘corrective statements’. The admission that smoking is dangerous overturns all the accusations of misleading the public. It is a very clever way to get TobCON off their backs.

So, in a way, Siegel et al are right, but it is not a ‘scam’.

The reason that it is not a ‘scam’ is that legislatures have recognised that Tobcoms have a right to exist. Some academic nutters have said that Tobcoms should voluntarily stop producing cigs because cigs are so very, very, very dangerous. In other words, that they should voluntarily shut themselves down. The Zealots never say how shareholders could be persuaded to render their holdings worthless.  I doubt that a person with £100,000 or a pension fund with £10,000,000 investing in Tobcom shares would vote to shut the company down. No – only Government prohibition could do that – which has been tried and failed. So, it is reasonable for Tobcoms to come up with a solution to the danger threat.

TobCON has been hoist by its own petard. And, as a result of its own collective rigidity (quit or die), it is hardly possible for it to change directions. People enjoy smoking in itself, and also enjoy the effects of nicotine. The first thing that I do in a morning, after lighting a cig, is to make a mug of tea – nicotine plus caffeine. What is wrong with that?

But, to make things worse for TobCON, the new Director General of the WHO has openly declared that the WHO is at war with Tobcoms:

http://dickpuddlecote.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/at-war-with-tobacco-industry.html

Can you see how hide-bound that attitude is? It does not allow for any compromise at all. And yet Tobcoms have a right to exist. The WHO’s Director General wants to pursue an illegal war. He wants to destroy an entity which has a right to exist.

It is all very weird.

So what is the missing piece in the jigsaw which might make sense of the situation? It is the voice of consumers.

The absence of that voice is what permits the contradiction.

What do I, as a smoker want? I want to enjoy tobacco as I see fit because I am an adult can make my own decisions about what is best for me. If I am ‘addicted’ to tobacco, it is because I want to be. That is my decision. It follows therefore that I regard tobacco taxes as fraud, and I shall do my best to avoid them.

I see that as a matter of principle, although I would not offer myself up as a sacrifice to political correctness.

But I also see ‘criminal importers’ as heroes, which is a wholly different idea. It is a sad reflection on our system of Government that it can be the equivalent of a pickpocket, nicking the monies of smokers with abandon, whilst pretending that smokers cannot help themselves because they are addicted.

So where are the academics calling into question the activities of the WHO etc? And that is another problem. ASH, a lobby group, is funded by taxpayers to support the theft of smokers’ monies, whereas any organisation which opposes ASH is not so funded.

Can smokers fight back?

It is a pity that Tobcoms failed to understand that millions of consumers were more influential than legal processes. Legal processes produce ‘corrective statements’; consumers sack politicians.