Tobacco's Great Escape

[THUNDER HANDS]

The war on tobacco is advancing. Smoking is losing. But tobacco is escaping. How? Look at two articles published yesterday. A front-page story in the New York Times examined a new smoking ban in Belmont, Calif., which forbids lighting up even in your own apartment. The rationale: Smoke from your apartment drifts into your neighbors'. Studies have shown that secondhand smoke harms others. Science is dissolving the distinction between your space and mine.

So tobacco is doomed, right? Wrong. Smoking may be doomed, but tobacco is evolving into more elusive prey. Or, perhaps I should say, a more elusive predator. As Kevin Helliker reports in the Wall Street Journal, the industry is going smokeless. Altria Group Inc., the nation's largest cigarette maker, this month completed its $10.3 billion purchase of UST Inc., the biggest smokeless-tobacco maker and owner of the Copenhagen and Skoal brands. Reynolds American Inc., which owns Conwood Co., a discount smokeless purveyor, this month announced that the Camel Snus brand has performed well enough in test markets to warrant national distribution.

Consumers—heck, let's just call them what they are, addicts—seem to be going with the transition. According to Helliker: More Americans are continuing to give up smoking, helping to push cigarette consumption down about 3% each year. ... Morgan Stanley estimates that U.S. consumers spent $4.77 billion on smokeless tobacco in 2007 versus $78 billion on cigarettes. Smokeless-tobacco sales have been increasing about 5% or more a year. ... "There are probably in excess of 400,000 adults switching to smokeless each year," says Seth Moskowitz, a spokesman for Reynolds American.



http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/humannature/archive/2009/01/28/tobacco-s-great-escape.aspx


Well, I suppose this is.... better? :shrug:

[david13]

1. I am a militant

anti smoker. They have been up to this for a long time.
However, I still see hope in the situation. I do not think 'chaw' 'chawin tabacky' will ever obtain the 'vogue' that smoking did as in the 1950's commercials, etc.
Chaw will always remain too gross to catch on much, I HOPE.
Or, I don't think auto manufacturer's will be planning to put spittoons into cars, ever.
dc

[TahitiNut]

2. Thank you for using the sociopathic term "anti smoker" ... rare honesty.

Far too many Tobacco Nazis proclaim themselves "anti-smoking" when, indeed, it's clearly an antipathy towards human beings.

Bravo! :eyes:

[david13]

6. I'm just carrying

a message. You don't debate my message, my idea, BUT you just call me names.
Tobacco Nazi's are the tobacco execs & shareholders who poison you/the smokers with tobacco.
The message is, you/they don't have to smoke/don't need to/don't need to give your money to big tobacco. Why not give that money instead to the food bank? Or do you have some nasty pet names for them too?
Peace. Clean air. Good health.
dc

[Mari333]

3. Im gonna light up and eat some

:popcorn:

whilst I watch the show.

[enlightenment]

5. Would you pass the salt and fake butter

before they ban that, too?

Thanks!
:popcorn:

[global1]

4. Check Here For The Answer........

TOBACCOHOL

Why isn't someone working on how to turn tobacco into an alternative energy source?