Preserved Topic: $145 Billion

Wow, I can't believe how much money smokers are making off the company which supplies them with smokes.. I think its about time to sue Big Tobacco for supplying people with something which has the potential to kill me <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif"> Perhaps I should go after smokers too.. For killing me with second-hand smoke I can't believe it, 145 billion dollars. (Incase you're wondering, that?s how much big tobacco has to pay to sick smokers in the Florida trial.)

This was not meant to offend any smokers, just to verbalize my disbelief of the stupidity of some people. "I?m killing myself with your product, so I want some money." Maybe I should electrocute myself, and go after the electric company for supplying me with electricity, which I chose to use harmfully against myself.

- Dan -
..about to take up smoking, the perfect get rich scheme.

I dunno things like this makes me sick with America. Where else can you smoke 4 packs a day, be told "he asshole smokings bad for you", see the warnings on the box, see the TV ads, see billboards, etc, etc. and turn around and sue for conducting cancer. NO SHIT!

Im reading articles and seeing it on TV and everyones saying that it wasnt about the money, it was to make a point. Well thats a pretty damn big point if you ask me! Im watching the news and theres one man saying hes been smoking for 10 years now and he developed lung cancer. He was involved in the lawsuit because hes tired of tabacco companies marketing like there product is safe. This is the downfall of business in the US. Who told this man to smoke since 1990? Was it that unknown that cigarettes were bad for you? No, the American public has known since the 1950's that smoking causes cancer.

All this is going to result in is the raising of tabacco prices.

Critisize me all you want, this is how i feel....

Jestah
Jestah91@aol.com
ICQ - 77252449

Well, now that they're all rich, the can definitely afford the price raise. It makes me sick, just to think that they're compensated for killing themselves. Where?s our money from them? They kill thousands of non-smokers every year..

- Dan -

Well I wouldnt say rich, the tabacco companies will appeal the decsion and besides that Im sure the moneys going to be split up between lots and lots and lots of people. I didnt actually pay attention to that part of the article, hehe sorta paid more attention to my gf :0X but Im sure its going into advertising and being divided up.

Jestah
Jestah91@aol.com
ICQ - 77252449

Big Tobacco will appeal, and will win. Because no one, not one person of reasonable intelligence would agree that people should be compensated for making a bad decission. They should be (and are) penalized for making it. Btw, I believe it said over one hundred thousand smokers will be sahring the money. with any luck, they wont have any to share.

Then again, big tobacco should lose the money.. it should be devided up amoungst everyone who chose not to smoke, and big tobacco's products will kill anyways..

- Dan -

[This message has been edited by Dan (edited 15-07-2000).]

Oh, and I forgot to tell everyone:
GO SEE X-MEN, it's the best movie of the year, by far! Possibly the best superhero movie ever.

(Sorry, didn't feel like starting a new thread again.)

- Dan -

That comes out to like 1.45 million per person!

Actually, I think I'll sue the tobacco industry because the second hand smoke is bad for me! <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/biggrin.gif">

Pat Richard
Web weenie
http://www.gurusnetwork.com
ICQ 23113317

Heh, I think I'm going to sue those folks who sued the tobacco companies, why didn't they tell me about all of this? Where's *my* cut, I smoke too! Really, the only folks who win big on a suit like this are the lawyers, who get paid a percentage based on the damages. Now THAT's the crime!

Your pal, -doc-<P>

Wow, that's something to think about... even if he only gets 10%.. thats over a billion dollars! Yikes.. Not to mention his fee's, from representing over 400 000 people..

- Dan -

woohoo, X-Men's good? Im going to see that with Maria later. She doesnt wanna go but im making her

Jestah
Jestah91@aol.com
ICQ - 77252449

Lawyers.....gotta love 'em... heheheh

Ehh, I've got nothing against lawyers, just that they've got so much money already, they shouldn't *pretend* that they actually care, just to make a buck (1 x 1 billion) of the cigarette company by defending people who commit suicide.

- Dan -

It's mad, 145 billion. When people know that it is bad for your health. I don't see anybody receive 145 billion for drinking alcohol, while it does damage to your kitney and liver. Not to speak when people causing an accident when they drive under influence. Who is asking then a 145 billion of the maker of beer X or Wine Y.

No, they just go for the bartenders who served it to them. Saw something like that on one of those Dateline shows.

"He shouldn't have kept giving me beers when he knew I was already pretty drunk. If he hadn't kept serving me, I wouldn't have killed those people."

Actually, the "suing big tobacco" issue is a bit more complex than just "they smoked it. let them die".

The issue that's at debate, has been how much did big tobacco know about their products, and never release to the public. I have no idea how old people are around here, but looking back on history there used to be cigarette ads on television, using actual doctors talking about how "the brand they smoke" is better for your throat than other brands.

Of course that's extreme, and a lot of people will say "way too long ago to be pertinent" but it shows a trend that didn't really change until the mid to late eighties. See, before that, it hadn't been proven that nicotine addiction existed. It was believed that cigarette addiction was purely mental, social, and environmental. It came to light (with the now infamous Jeffrey Wigand/60 Minutes case) that Big Tobacco actually had scientific proof of the physical addictiveness of it's products (which they still deny in some light) and IN FACT they were producing their cigarettes to deliver nicotine in more potent surges, to keep smokers lighting up.

It's mainly that aspect that the tobacco lawsuits are over...the fact that customers were lied to, even while they were becoming guinea pigs for a more potent narcotic.

With that big diatribe out of the way, here's where I drop the Devil's Advocate, and say though I agree with the suit being a win, I'd like to see the money taken straight from the tobacco companies, passed over the scheisters, and the emphysematic "victims" and put into a social healthcare program for the US....so that insurance premiums for "healthy" folks doesn't keep rising while cases of cigarette induced lung cancer patients do.

And that's the end of the overly "quoted" post <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/wink.gif">

I do agree that there was a whole lot more to this than "to make a point" and I have little sympathy for people who make the choice to take on fairly destructive habits then complain about it's effects <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/tongue.gif">

Whatever your stance on smoking, check out http://www.thetruth.com/ for some brilliant marketing stuff (their main message is anti-teen smoking). The way they go about presenting their message is awesome, creative stuff, in particular check out the Youth Voice videos in the tv spots section.

Chris

I think the americans all go apesh*t and the rest of the world sits and laughs, as usual <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/biggrin.gif">

Never Pet a Burning Dog

Yo Wes,

The point is not so the bartenders, but if I for example go to a liquor store and buy myself a crate of beer, or what so ever, and I drink this in private, and then be so stupid to drive, that is what is wrong and who is responsible for his or her actions then ? That particular person. Everybody should be responsible for what they do, and if they choose to smoke, that's their problem. If they wanna quit smoking and they need help, they should be helped. But by spending so much money, they are better off giving it to the cancer funds.

I'm not sure if there was ever a moment I disagreed with you. I simply interjected with an example which illustrated further the point that people always find someone other than themselves to blame.