Judge orders tobacco companies to warn that smoking is addictive.

[Cathyclysmic]

Breaking on MSNBC

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14395333/

Well, it's about freaking time, don't you think?

[SteppingRazor]

1. Man, that is some bullshit.

I'm so pissed, I'm gonna go have a smoke... a sweet, sweet nicotine-filled smoke.

:smoke:

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

3. Yeah, total bullshit. I'm join you.

Ah, nicotine. How I love thee.

:smoke:

[kimmerspixelated]

2. Hey Judge!

Captain Obvious!

[Barrett808]

4. Drink Slurm! It's highly addictive!

[UpInArms]

5. Tobacco company CEOs declare, under oath, that nicotine is not addictive

http://www.jeffreywigand.com/insider/7ceos.html

MR. WYDEN. Let me begin my questioning on whether or not nicotine is addictive. Let me ask you first, and I'd like to just go down the row, whether each of you believes that nicotine is not addictive. I heard virtually all of you touch on it. Yes or no, do you believe nicotine is not addictive?

MR. CAMPBELL (President of Philip Morris U.S.A.).
I believe nicotine is not addictive, yes.

MR. WYDEN. Mr Johnston?

MR. JAMES JOHNSTON (Chairman and CEO of RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company). Mr. Congressman, cigarettes and nicotine clearly do not meet the classic definition of addiction. There is no intoxication.

MR. WYDEN. We´ll take that as a "no." Again, time is short. I think that each of you believe that nicotine is not addictive. We would just like to have this for the record.

MR. TADDEO (President of U.S. Tobacco).
I don´t believe that nicotine or our products are addictive.

MR. TISCH (Chairman and CEO of Lorillard Tobacco Company).
I believe that nicotine is not addictive.

MR. HORRIGAN (Chairman and CEO of Liggett Group).
I believe that nicotine is not addictive.

MR. SANDEFUR (Chairman and CEO of Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company).
I believe that nicotine is not addictive.

MR. DONALD JOHNSTON (President and CEO of American Tobacco Company).
And I, too, believe that nicotine is not addictive.

[gratuitous]

9. The wiggle room is of course, "I believe"

So, if you're under oath and you need to tell a bald-faced lie, you just say "I believe" this bald-faced lie. It's a standard corporate weasel dodge. The tobacco companies' own research, which they hid for decades, is that nicotine is indeed addictive. And they tested, and they parsed, and they checked, and they double-checked, and they finally concluded that if a cigarette had nicotine lower than 1.0 mg, a smoker was too likely to be able to quit. So all those light and low tar cigarettes are carefully formulated to deliver at least 1.0 mg of nicotine, enough to keep a profitable portion of smokers smoking.

When you smoke, you're handing your money over to a company that is killing you slowly; slowly enough to make sure that you're a steady stream of income for 30 or 40 years. Is your health ruined? They don't care. Did you get lung cancer? Big deal. Did you die a lingering, painful death? So what? Did you keep smoking and buying cigarettes? Super! And did you think it was your "choice" to smoke all along? Well, then you were a sucker, as well.

That's what Philip Morris, RJR Nabisco and the rest think of their customers.

[UpInArms]

11. on Monday - I will have 4 weeks of being a non-smoker

I will no longer be a "sucker" for the tobacco companies.

[gratuitous]

12. Outstanding UIA!

Hang in there, I'm rooting for you.

I quit for good a little over five years ago. The law firm I was working for had won a trial against Philip Morris (the case has just been accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court) and was casting about for a follow-up case. It was my job to do the initial screening of callers and I talked to somewhere between 250 and 300 smokers, ex-smokers and survivors. Talk about depressing. I was never a big smoker, maybe half a pack a day, but after all those conversations about smoking history, health history, and medical expenses, I finally laid them down.

One guy I talked to was a drug and alcohol counselor. He'd beaten alcoholism and heavy narcotic addiction and taught other people the mechanisms and psychology of addiction, but he couldn't quit smoking. His experience was that quitting smoking was tougher than quitting drinking or using narcotics. Use every trick you can think of, whether it's gum or a rubber band on the wrist or putting the money you'd spend on a pack of cigarettes in a jar and everything else. It's tough to beat and replacements are so readily available, but you can do it.

[UpInArms]

16. thanks for the kind words of support, gratuitous

I am really determined this time - maybe all those other times were just my warm-ups.

I decided that I would quit (again) about 7 months ago - and picked the time (months in advance) because of the triggers that I had on my last attempts.

I do believe that I got a jump on it - and feel really positive about my success on this go.

:hi:

[bling bling]

15. That's fantastic!!

Congratulations! You did it! That's a hard thing to do!


Don't ever go back. Not even 1 cigarette. No matter what. I know too many people who, under stress, had "just 1 cigarette" to help them get through it and they went back to smoking immediately.

[UpInArms]

17. already had the stress test

and kept telling myself that the stress would still be there even if I had that cigarette - and made it through without going back to my old crutch -

all that said - I haven't reached the point where I can say that I don't still want one (actually a few thousand more) - yet I really don't want one more than I do want them.

:hi:

[Window]

19. Good for you!

Keep up the good work!

[Raine]

23. CONGRATULATIONS

that's wonderful, keep up the good work! :thumbsup:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

36. 4 weeks of not supporting Dumbyass...

Thank you!!! :loveya:

[hughee99]

6. The next thing you know,

We're going to find out that it's not good for you either.

[The_Casual_Observer]

7. It just shows you how hard it is to get the truth out of corporate

bastards about anything.

[Sapere aude]

8. You know it is addictive when the price keeps going up and people continue

to smoke and defend their right to pollute the air indoors.

[Redstone]

10. It is?

Redstone

[noonwitch]

13. That's okay, I smoke the kind that are only bad for pregnant women

Kidding, but the warnings on my cigs usually say "This product may be harmful to pregnant women" or "Cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide".

[mac56]

14. Judge orders utility companies to warn that water is wet.

:eyes:

[recon54]

18. Pack a day for 22 years here...

Been a non-smoker since mid july. Feels great!

[Raine]

24. TERRIFIC

Good for you! :thumbsup:

[toopers]

20. Isn't anything that feels good . . .

Addictive?

[mac56]

21. Yes, probably. So what's your point?

nm

[toopers]

25. I guess we need a warning label on everything!

nt

[mac56]

28. Interesting.

So in your opinion - smoking is an "addictive" behavior, just like any other?

[toopers]

31. No, there is a big difference between smoking and other . . .

addictive behaviors. The big difference is that everyone knew that smoking was bad for you and could kill you before they started smoking.

[mac56]

32. hunh?!

How does that fit with:

"I guess we need a warning label on everything!"

[toopers]

35. If everything that feels good is addictive . . .

and we need government to protect us from something that we know is addictive and destructive, then don't we need government to protect us from everything?

[mac56]

37. I think you're muddying up the definitions.

First of all, you differentiate "addictive" from "addictive and destructive". Hold that thought for a moment. We'll come back to it.

In the meantime, I think you misunderstand what "addictive" means. To me, "addiction" means participating to excess in a counterproductive behavior, one that does not support the quality of your life and/or your mental, physical or economic well-being. It's a behavior choice that leads to psychological or physical dependence upon a substance or activity.

As you say, it's probably true that anything can become addictive to anyone under the right circumstances. The Internet, for example, or watching "Desperate Housewives". Addiction helps the addicted to "not do something" they should be doing, or "not examine something" in their lives that needs attention.

Now go back and fetch that "addictive and destructive" thought.

Everyone who displays addictive behaviors neglects certain areas of responsibility in their lives: neglects themselves, their health, their work, their relationships. They seek to shift those responsibilities onto others. This is where the "addictive and dangerous" idea comes in. By and large, smokers get more sick, more often and more severely, than non-smokers. Plus their behavior affects the health of non-participating bystanders. (Smokers aren't alone in this, but they're the group we're discussing right now.) The responsibility and the cost of this gets shifted to the greater society. We all pay for it. Thus it's in society's interest to warn people about its dangers: more stridently than the dangers of, say, Internet addiction or addiction to watching "Desperate Housewives". It's a matter of degree.

So is smoking just another risk, one of many off the rack, just the same as any other?

The tobacco companies sure want us to think so. That's the image they project for the product: a risk like any other, which customers take because they like the product so much.

In fact, most customers of this product don't like the product anymore and want to quit. They don't continue to take the risk because they want to, because they freely choose to - but because they're physically and psychologically addicted. They're participating to excess in a behavior that does not support the quality of their life and/or their mental, physical or economic well-being. Indeed, it's one that will kill a third of them.

And in fact, it's not a risk like any other. Imagine if Internet use killed every third Internet user. Imagine if watching "Desperate Housewives" killed every third viewer. That's the "risk" of the product in question. That's why society has sufficient justification to warn people about it.

[blonndee]

30. Not to the point that you experience physical withdrawals when you stop.nt

[Spinoza]

22. Smoking is addictive?

Jeeeez, now they tell me.

[Vinca]

26. Congrats to everyone who has quit or plans to quit.

As for the "addictive" warning, too little too late. Years ago I watched a spokeswoman on the Larry King show defend big tobacco. She was young and not unattractive, but during the entire interview she coughed and - literally - had snot running out of her nose. I swear. At one point it was a great, long, glossy strand from her nostril to the desk. It was the greatest commercial for not smoking I've ever seen.

[0007]

27. Yes!

[SoCalDem]

29. huh?.. there have been warnings on the packs for DECADES..n/t

[Demeter]

33. I'm Waiting and Hoping For A CEASE AND DESIST Order

because my family has lost 5 members to cancer from smoking in the last 10 years that I know of, and more if you go back further.


And there isn't any other logical and legal choice.

[dipsydoodle]

34. They should do the same for everything

that makes people fat.

Health warning - this product could make you a truly gross lump of lard. :rofl: