Four states and Washington, D.C., have already legalized recreational marijuana use, while medical marijuana use is currently legal (or about to become legal) in around 20 states — not to mention the many states that have decriminalized the drug. At the same time, tobacco use continues to decline and the few remaining cigarette giants can only merge with each other so many times. So is Big Tobacco destined to become Big Marijuana?
The tobacco industry, for all its feigned ignorance about the health hazards of its products, is not stupid and has been thinking about dabbling in marijuana since at least the 1960s.
“We are in the business of relaxing people who are tense and providing a pick up for people who are bored or depressed. The human needs that our product fills will not go away,” reads an internal Philip Morris memo from 1970, making the argument that pot could be hazardous, not to the moral fabric of America, but to the tobacco industry’s bottom line. “Thus, the only real threat to our business is that society will find other means of satisfying these needs.”
In the decades since, we’ve seen tobacco use plummet in the U.S., with fewer than 20% of adults smoking cigarettes — though smoking is still the leading preventable cause of death, according to the Surgeon General. Read More>
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