Big Tobacco Doesn’t Like the Truth

You have to love Big Tobacco.  Nothing gets them down – no sir! They can cry foul with the best of ’em; even when they get caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

First, a jury sees through their smoke and mirrors in a trial down in Fort Lauderdale, Fl. The jury finds in favor of a plaintiff who has and continues to suffer from COPD; awarding over $300 million dollars. We know the jury saw through their smoke and mirrors because they hammered Big Tobacco with over $260 million in punitive damages.

If anyone sees the evidence setting forth the conduct of Big Tobacco over the last several centuries, you can not help but be surprised and outraged that an industry has been allowed to get away with the type of conduct they have displayed.

The response to the verdict by Philip Morris? It was interesting:

“From the beginning, this case was marked by a fundamentally unfair and unconstitutional trial plan that allowed the jury to rely on findings by a prior jury that have no connection to the plaintiff.”

Was the prior jury’s findings wrong? They do not say so.

How was the trial plan “fundamentally unfair and unconstitutional”? Simply because the jury was permitted to hear the findings of a prior jury?

So what has gotten Big Tobacco’s “goat”? They do not like that a higher court has made findings they are, well, “uncomfortable” with. A higher court that has quite clearly set forth things like:

• Smoking cigarettes causes disease, including cancers, COPD, and heart disease
• Nicotine in cigarettes is addictive
• Big Tobacco placed cigarettes on the market that were defective
• Big Tobacco placed cigarettes on the market that were unreasonably dangerous
• Big Tobacco concealed or omitted material information about cigarette dangers (think lie here)
• Big Tobacco issued false or misleading information about the dangers of cigarette smoking
• Big Tobacco concealed or omitted information about the addictive nature of cigarettes
• Big Tobacco was negligent in its mnanufacture of cigarettes

Now, Big Tobacco is in a lather that jurors understand they lied to the American public. Big Tobacco can not believe that jurors actually listened to the large amount of evidence that illustrates their campaign to hopelessly addict people to cigarettes and the continued campaign to keep smokers addicted.

After all, when the “seven dwarves” testified in front of congress, they swore under oath that nicotine was not addictive. Big Tobacco simply can not believe we did not believe them. After all, they swore!

A message to Big Tobacco: get over yourselves; the public understands you lied and schemed to addict Americans to a drug more addictive and destructive than most “illegal drugs” we spend billions fighting to keep out of our society. And, Big Tobacco, the public understands you paid good money to be allowed to market your drug. Oh yeah, Big Tobacco, after making billions and billions on the scheme….it is in fact time to pay the price for decades of deception!