Nicorettes ain't a patch on this stuff!The fanatical anti-smoking temperance zealots like to accuse everyone who objects to their crusade against Ralegh's demon weed of being in the pay of 'big tobacco'. This is part of one of their key strategies of attacking individual responsibility. It is not so much an attack on our right to choose, it is an attack on the very notion of our ability to choose. By defining their battle as against 'big tobacco', they get to play David to the corporate Goliath, but only play, as the reality is very different.
Firstly, there's no bigger Goliath than the authoritarian state which they are working to aggrandise, and which provides much of the funding for their work. Secondly, they clearly have no problem with 'big pharma', which also bank-rolls their operations and benefits from the sale of 'medical' nicotine. Thirdly, their real battle is against ordinary smokers, especially those with the temerity to argue against them.
Personally, I have yet to receive any payment from 'big tobacco', but I'm quite happy to do so in cash or preferably in tins of Peterson's Irish Flake (see above), which is likely to keep far longer than our sadly depreciating paper currency.
Firstly, there's no bigger Goliath than the authoritarian state which they are working to aggrandise, and which provides much of the funding for their work. Secondly, they clearly have no problem with 'big pharma', which also bank-rolls their operations and benefits from the sale of 'medical' nicotine. Thirdly, their real battle is against ordinary smokers, especially those with the temerity to argue against them.
Personally, I have yet to receive any payment from 'big tobacco', but I'm quite happy to do so in cash or preferably in tins of Peterson's Irish Flake (see above), which is likely to keep far longer than our sadly depreciating paper currency.
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