dlow
Noob
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2009
- Messages
- 304
This has nothing to do with children and everything to do with the major tobacco companies getting scared of the popularity of these alternatives and lobbying to stop it. Make no mistake, the end goal here is to remove flavored cigarettes, pipe tobacco, cigars, blunt wraps and all the other boutique brand products from the market in an attempt to get everyone to stay with the big tobacco products (cigarettes, dip, and snus). I've even read that the manufacturer behind snus lobbyied to get dip removed from the market in an attempt to generate sales for their failing snus product.
Remember, cigarette taxes are big money and the big cigarette companies bent over backwards for congress a few years back. Now it's time for congress to scratch their back so to speak. It works out well for both parties. Congress gets to implement programs such as SCHIP and the big tobacco companies get to influence policy that helps their bottom line. They'll systematically remove every competitor until just a handful remain. If they succeed, go back and read up on the major businesses involved in the tobacco hearings a few years back. I bet you'll see that they are still in business and everyone else has been pushed out of the market due to these type of policy changes. It's quite a brilliant business strategy when you think about it.
For those of you who say "well I don't like the flavored stuff anyways", I don't either, but I think that this is appropriate here.
Remember, cigarette taxes are big money and the big cigarette companies bent over backwards for congress a few years back. Now it's time for congress to scratch their back so to speak. It works out well for both parties. Congress gets to implement programs such as SCHIP and the big tobacco companies get to influence policy that helps their bottom line. They'll systematically remove every competitor until just a handful remain. If they succeed, go back and read up on the major businesses involved in the tobacco hearings a few years back. I bet you'll see that they are still in business and everyone else has been pushed out of the market due to these type of policy changes. It's quite a brilliant business strategy when you think about it.
For those of you who say "well I don't like the flavored stuff anyways", I don't either, but I think that this is appropriate here.
