Philip Morris is calling for a total cigarette ban by the end of this decade

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Jacek Olczak, the CEO of giant tobacco company Philip Morris, has just called on the UK government to ban all cigarettes – yes, including its own Marlboro brand – within a decade, the Guardian reports.

Olczak believes that cigarettes should be treated like gasoline-powered cars, which will be banned in the UK from 2030 to reduce greenhouse gases. “[I] can see the world without cigarettes … and the sooner it happens, the better it is for everyone. “

Many smokers in the UK reportedly believe that cigarette alternatives are worse for lung health than cigarettes, Olczak told the Sunday Telegraph. Therefore, he believes a mandatory state ban would end the confusion of smokers once and for all. “Give them a choice of smoke-free alternatives … with the right regulations and information, this can happen in some countries in 10 years. You can solve the problem once and for all. “

All of this honestly sounds like a bunch of shit. Your head would have to be stuck so far up your ass not to know that cigarettes – what people often refer to as “cancer sticks” – are acutely harmful to human health. Seriously who is confused about this?

Nobody, probably. It turns out that Olczak and the Philip Morris team are actually turning the brand into a “health and wellness” conglomerate. Yes, you read that disturbing sentence correctly. Philip Morris International (PMI) – a company that sells trillions of cigarettes – is jumping into the wellness world. Philip Morris International confirmed this by saying that half of its sales will come from non-smoking products, with executive pay tied to its new mission to “smoke out the world” by phasing out cigarettes.

A separate executive from Philip Morris told Bloomberg earlier this year that the company could potentially add cannabis to its “Beyond Nicotine” smoke-free cannabis line. The logic behind this strategy is to counter declining cigarette sales and diversify the range of products to include botanical sleep aids, energy enhancing or calming smokers. And while the company hasn’t finalized those plans yet, cannabis could easily fit into the picture.

“We are doing all this work and one day we will determine which paths to take,” former CEO Andre Calantzopoulos told Bloomberg in May 2021. “But our priority is what we do with our smoke-free products, and that’s where I would stay with cannabis.”

The conglomerate has come under fire from anti-smoking activists who see the move to “ban cigarettes” in Britain (and eventually the world) as sheer hypocrisy; a smart move to save face and make money by taking other avenues. And they’re not wrong: PMI has made a £ 1 billion takeover bid for Vectura, a UK pharmaceutical company that makes asthma inhalers. Yes, that means Philip Morris now owns a pharmaceutical company that sells inhalers. It’s kind of darker than 1984.

Anti-smoking activists argue that tobacco companies are positioning themselves as part of the smoke-free world solution while continuing to sell and advertise cigarettes. Regardless of whether you inhale smoke directly or sniff secondhand, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), around eight million people die of cigarettes every year.

Tobacco companies have quickly switched to cigarette alternatives such as vapes, e-cigarettes, and cannabis. Fortunately, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s new cannabis legalization bill contains provisions to deter massive alcohol and cigarette companies like Philip Morris from dominating the U.S. cannabis market. It’s a shame that we can’t keep your stinking money out of the grass game entirely.

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