This sucks bad for people that vape. It WILL cause increased tobacco use through price inflation and lack of availability. I don't think this will impact nicotine use by kids at all besides making cigarettes the go-to cheapest source once again. Corpos are the only ones benefiting from this new shipping ban. Get ready to see a lot more butts on the ground because dirty ass tobacco just got a big win. :(
https://www.barrons.com/articles/facebook-faces-legal-risk-big-tobacco-oxycontin-51633956119
(PAYWALL)
From the Article:
Recent revelations and scrutiny from Congress over Facebook's(FB) role in society could lead to major lawsuits against the social-media giant, according to new research that drew comparisons with litigation faced by Big Tobacco or Purdue Pharma.
Facebook (FB) has been under pressure following a series of reports by The Wall Street Journal that made allegations covering Instagram's impact on teenagers' mental health, whether its algorithm encouraged social discord, and how it moderates elites.
A company whistleblower who leaked internal documents to the Journal also testified before Congress last week, as lawmakers turned their attention to the renewed public debate over Facebook's(FB) prominent role in peoples' lives.
Facebook (FB) co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg last week said that "many of the claims don't make any sense," pushing back against allegations that arose in the Journal's reports and the whistleblower's testimony, in a post on social media.
Blair Levin, an analyst at London-based technology industry research group New Street Research, wrote Sunday that " while we have been skeptical that past revelations would lead to government action, we think this time is different and as a result, we think Facebook(FB) may now face a similar challenge from increased litigation as tobacco, or more recently, OxyContin."
Levin served as chief of staff to the chair of the Federal Communications Commission in the 1990s.
The analyst said that while the facts and damages are different for Facebook(FB) than those faced by the tobacco industry or Purdue Pharma -- the maker of opioid medication OxyContin -- the fundamental legal framework is the same.
There is a product with problematic consequences for many people, management knowledge of such, and actions by management "that not only failed to mitigate the harm but arguably increased those problematic consequences," Levin said.
In the same way that public outcry against tobacco and opioid makers led to massive class action and state attorneys general-led lawsuits, Levin said the recent revelations against Facebook(FB) creates similar incentives to bring litigation against the company.
While Facebook(FB) has faced scrutiny before, there is far more att
... keep reading on reddit ➡
Thanks to the pandemic I've been stuck inside. Some spent their time learning something new, I've spent my time binging show after show. It's disgusting.
All of these shows heavily feature smoking, which isn't that strange. What is strange is the way they will allow longer than normal pauses to allow for the cigarette to be hit before cutting to the next scene. Especially egregious in flavor of love s2 episode 10 in one of New Yorks confessionals.
It just makes sense, not being allowed to properly advertise and facing a dwindling youth market the companies used shadow money to have reality show producers to apply extra focus on the act of smoking whenever it appeared.
It's a relatively safe venture as well, because unless the producer decides to incriminate themselves it would likely never get out.
The avg smoker will smoker about $3000 dollars per year. If flavor of love managed to have even .001% of its 7 million viewers buy cigarettes, that would be a revenue of 21 million dollars in a year. (7000 * 3000)
Pay a producer 1 mil on the low and call it a day.
A bit of background: I'm going back to the States from France after for the first time since Covid and I wanted to use the opportunity to buy/try some new tobaccos that are hard to find (or impossible) to find in Paris. I've only be smoking for a few weeks and am loving the hobby, having smoked only Alsbo Ruby and Kentucky Bird till now. I wanted to try at least one English and Virginia, as well as a couple of easy-to-smoke aromatics. Right now I have in my shopping cart at smokingpipes.com:
1 50g tin of Orlik Golden Sliced
1 50g tin of Peterson's Early Morning Pipe
1 4oz tin of Lane Limited 1-Q
1 2oz tin of Seatle Pipe Club's Plum Pudding
(+1 MM corncob, just to try).
I don't know when I'll be able to get back to the States to buy more tobacco, and prices are very high here in France, so I want to make the most of this purchase. Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? Is this a well rounded selection of great, relatively easy-to-smoke tobacco? I'd love to expand my palate and have enough tobacco to last me for most of the year..
We've seen inquiries into Loot boxes from Government, the banning of them in several countries and already we're starting to see smaller loot box class action lawsuit crop up. Over time this is likely to continue developing until we hit a point of singularity; where public outcry and damage to the public will dwarf the lobbyist attempts to keep video game loot boxes de-regulated and in some cases; legal where they're not.
This is extremely reminiscent of what happened with big tobacco when they lied about how cigarettes cause cancer. Big tobacco knew and hid the truth, presenting biased metrics to both Government and the public to continue their gravy train...AAA studios hire psychologists as game designers, just like big tobacco hired scientists. AAA video game corporations have also been hauled in front of multiple government inquiries and made to explain themselves; at which point they've obfuscated the issue entirely in an attempt to continue their gravy train.
I'm not drawing a comparison between getting cancer and going bankrupt; they're both awful but with very different impacts - but the process which delivered the end result is eerily similar.
To that end I believe it's only a matter of time before loot boxes are regulated and when that happens we're likely to see a wave of class action lawsuits decimate the industry.
There is going to be a reckoning for the short sighted wanton greed of manipulative AAA studios. It's not a matter of if; it's a matter of when.
Fuck Big Tobacco. Fuck cigarettes. Fuck it all. Never again. I’m 79 days in and hoping I can stay quit this time. I cant keeping living life for a nic buzz. I’m so proud of everyone in this community. You all help me believe I can do this.
With the substance being legalize everywhere slowly. Why don't these big company diversify into it? I can imagine all those small shops being completely pointless once these big company start selling them at a much lower price point
I started buying Tobacco stock, namely BA Tobacco (LSE), because it pays a 7% yield on dividend, has a P/E ratio of 10.33, revenue & profits are continually improving YoY, has a nice cash balance of 3.14B, are venturing into weed industry and it dominates the vaping (Vuse + Vype) + smokeless tobacco industry (Grizzly).
I am not a smoker and I've hated it all my life because I know how bad it is for your health, despite my whole family and most of my friendship are smokers. I even had a family friend get lung cancer from smoking, thankfully he survived through Merck's immunology drug keytruda (MRK) that I also own shares in but that didn't stop him from smoking.
From this, I know how addicting it is and that demand for the product won't stop despite continual regulations against it. Even though it gets heavily taxed, the company increase their prices to keep margins high and people still buy it and this won't stop.
I understand that I am investing in an industry that fundamentally kills it's consumer, which is probably a stupid idea but despite this, demand continually increases.
If there are better companies or industries to invest in then I am all ears.
