October 03, 2019
Big Tobacco Will Take Advantage of the Mysterious Vaping Illness
The nation is in the grips of a moral panic about flavored e-cigs that could ultimately benefit Big Tobacco companies. Following a rash of vaping-related illnesses, including eight deaths largely tied to illicit THC cartridges, New York became the first U.S. state to ban flavored e-cigs on September 17. Michigan, Illinois, and Massachusetts are finalizing similar measures and President Trump has also suggested banning e-cig flavors. (Even India recently announced a ban on all vaping, a move embraced by the World Health Organization.)
More big news dropped Wednesday morning. Kevin Burns, the CEO of Juul Labs, is being replaced by K.C. Crosswaithe, an executive from Altria, the big tobacco company that owns a 35 percent stake in Juul. Other outlets are reporting that Juul is suspending advertising and that layoffs are imminent.
If flavored Juul pods and illegal weed vapes seem unrelated to you, you’re not alone. Drug policy experts have described this overreaction as more drug war delirium. But as we're already seeing, big tobacco companies are using this crisis—as they have used other public health crises in the past—as an excuse to consolidate their power over the newly massive vape market.
Big Tobacco stands to gain from this hyper reaction in a few ways. First, nicotine users who may be spooked by heavy-handed media reports could smoke combustible cigarettes instead, according to Jidong Huang, an associate health policy professor at Georgia State University, who specializes in tobacco economics.
could this whole thing be some kind of corporate sabotage??
ReplyDeleteI noticed that after Chipotle declared they would be GMO free, then the next thing you know I think there were reports of ecoli or something (I just assumed it was Monsanto trying to destroy them or something).
There is no doubt in my mind that this is a conspiracy to take over the vaping industry. As usual, they don't have any problems killing people in the process. In this case, it's actually needed for them to reach their goals.
ReplyDeleteWhy not better ask, why people are using all kind of different drugs at first place. Could it be, that we are living in a shitty society?
ReplyDeleteFor those of you not old enough to remember, RJR Macdonald used exactly this strategy with cigarettes in the 1950's, they demonized all the other cigarette manufacturers, and said the FDA had to get involved to sell "SAFE" cigarettes.. there were doctors on TV saying .. "I somke Terryton's because the FDA tells me they're safe"!
ReplyDeleteNow RJRMacdonald owns JULE the largest vaping company in the world, you do the math!
JUUL is about to bankrupted, just so that you know...
ReplyDelete