The big cigarette companies won a victory in a federal appeals court when a massive class action against the industry was thrown out.
At issue was whether smokers could join together in a class action suit against the cigarette manufacturers for supposedly misleading smokers as to the safety of light cigarettes. Needless to say the idea of this suit didn’t originate with smokers. The idea, instead, came from predatory trial lawyers who salivate over their potential fees from billion dollar damage awards. The industry was never intended to pay those damages which would have come exclusively from the same smokers "represented" by the plaintiffs. Big Tobacco doesn’t grow money on trees. To raise money it raises cigarette prices.
In general analysts consider this a win for "Big Tobacco," even though many issues brought up in the suit are unresolved. Big Tobacco, of course, is never a real winner since it bounces from suit to suit without ever addressing the core issues that, if handled correctly, could end the baseless suits once and for all. There is, for instance, no disease unique to smokers, and no scientific evidence that smoking cigarettes "causes" any disease. The only "evidence" is trash studies produced through "lifestyle epidemiology" from which antitobacco derives demonstrably fallacious conclusions.
The "light" cigarette issue will not go away. Lawyers will continue to seek their fortunes at the expense of a weak, demoralized industry that will not fight back effectively. Smokers will again be called upon to transfer money from their pockets into the pockets of trial lawyers and the tobacco control operatives who egg them on. Buy lesser-known cigarette brands from reliable discount sources. Do not support the foolish and cynical big American tobacco companies.
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