Cigarettes are deadly missiles fired into people’s lives. Do you or someone you care about using tobacco or nicotine products? Are you struggling to quit? Is smoking and the cost of living causing you stress? Ever wondered why Big Tobacco can kill smokers with impunity? How is Big Tobacco killing without public outrage? Wars have taken the lives of 150 million to 1 billion people since time began. We get to see the tragedy in the media and recreated in movies, and have remembrance days – we put stories and faces to those numbers. Some memories remain etched in our minds. Veterans and their families bear the burden of the terrors of war. For most of us, Putin razing cities to the ground in Ukraine is incomprehensible. I am angry — very angry! Angry at Putin, who chose open warfare! I am angry at Big Tobacco too; they use little white deadly missiles as trojan horses taken into people’s lives, taking away their ability ‘to choose not to smoke.’ Killing the smoker slowly with each puff they take.

Big Tobacco’s Marketing Strategy – create the next generation of addicts.

The Tobacco Industry spends billions marketing nicotine to men, women, and children. Advertising directed at youth and women via movies and television is increasing. Big Tobacco sponsors school health sessions and camps, supplies PPE equipment for policy concessions and has bought into the e-cigarette market.

Often, the marketing is subtle, and you don’t see it happening, but you can see the effects; for example, vaping is advertised as a stop-smoking aid, and like all products which contain nicotine, it has become a problem. Thanks to Big Tobacco, buying into e-cigarettes vaping has become a pandemic.

Children younger than seven are vaping in our schools.

Big Tobacco has dedicated scientists who have worked hard to produce genetically modified nicotine, and now the marketing is aimed at children and women. They are a largely untapped market compared to men. We must be intelligent about what is happening and say no to Big Tobacco’s marketing.

Parents, teachers and governments have to say no to Big Tobacco getting a foot in the door through sponsorship of any kind. Hollywood Producers, movie stars, musicians and artists must choose to say no to the blood money.
An Indian person dies every 40 seconds from smoking!

Suppose you look at India, which is a tobacco producer. They have 267 million smokers, making it the country with the world’s second-largest number of tobacco users (behind China). Approximately 100 million people age 15 and older currently smoke tobacco (cigarettes and bidis). Bidis are flavoured, lethal, and cheaper than cigarettes; ideal for children, approximately 200 million people ages 15 and older use smokeless tobacco. In the 10 – 14 age group, another twenty million children smoke. If you compare Manipur, India, 87.8% of children initiate smoking before the age ten, with the lowest rate in Buenos Aires, Argentina, of 6.1%. If you think the Indian Government has no tobacco control policies – you would be wrong. The tobacco industry has ingratiated itself into everyday life. Globally, a smoker dies every 6 minutes! Source: Eriksen M et al. The Tobacco Atlas. Fifth Ed. Atlanta, GA: American Cancer Society; 2015 Smokers are NOT responsible for their health problems if they cannot disengage from nicotine substance use. Big Tobacco is responsible for nicotine addiction! Many smokers can’t quit just because they want to. If they could, Big Tobacco wouldn’t exist today. Blaming the smoker is a misleading and unfair narrative that ignores the tobacco industry’s role in creating and maintaining addiction. The tobacco industry has been lying to the public for decades, manipulating its products to make them more addictive, and targeting vulnerable populations with aggressive marketing. They have also been lobbying against effective tobacco control policies and spreading misinformation about the harms of their products. The tobacco industry is the real enemy, not the smokers trapped in their deadly trap. The result of this deception is a global public health crisis that kills millions of people every year, including some who have never smoked. According to the World Health Organization, tobacco kills more than 8 million people yearly, of which more than 7 million are from direct tobacco use, and around 1.2 million are non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke. We now know that third-hand smoke (surface contamination) is also poisoning our homes and cars. That means that every 6 minutes, a smoker dies somewhere in the world. Because of tobacco exposure, God knows how many babies are washed out of their mother’s wombs.