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Marijuana = Big Tobacco 2.0
It's no accident that Marijuana's playbook mirrors Big Tobacco's playbook
It’s a classic case of déjà vu all over again… The marijuana industry is replaying the Big Tobacco playbook before our very eyes. The parallels are stunning.
Just consider the striking resemblances:
| Big Tobacco’s Playbook |
Find out what's happening in Newtonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Marijuana Industry
Find out what's happening in Newtonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Promote a product that is based on an addictive psychoactive substance (nicotine)
Ditto
Portray a toxic product as having a credible function as a benign form of self-medication
Ditto
Market an adult activity to youth, covertly when not permitted to do so overtly
Ditto
Use junk science to reduce the perception of harm and falsely claim product safety
Ditto
Promote smokeless products and vaping when interest in smoking wanes
Ditto
Profit most from lifelong, heavy users and, thus, target the youth market
Ditto
Big money interests use political clout to co-opt the regulatory system, proliferate and then protect a multi-billion-dollar industry that does no objective social good and actually harms the public’s health
Ditto
Portray an inherently worthless, corrosive product as something that actually empowers, betters and liberates its users
Ditto
Demonize opponents as hysterical petty tyrants
Ditto
Remember Big Tobacco? They’re back!
As George Santayana said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
