For those of you who know me, I am quite anti-smoking and have several dead and dying relative reasons. Besides, smoke gives me an instant migrane headache and sometimes even the smell gets to me. However, when I get good news I like to pass it on. This good news is for smokers or at the very least their survivors. The Phillip Morris company will probably be ordered to pay more than $130 million to the widow of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer. This could be history in the making as a trail will be blazed for about 8000 other cases with similar circumstances in Florida alone.
So if you've got 'em smoke em and your survivors could make millions. Of course, there are no guarantees and I am not qualified to offer legal advice. This is more like a suggestion.
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They litigated in this Minnesota. We are probably out of luck....Don
I used to smoke 4 packs a day until 10/30/99. I'm now addicted to my nicorette gum. Personally I don't understand how they manage to continue to sue the tobacco companies. What's the excuse I'm to stupid to read, to stupid to hear. WTF.
Just my opinion.
Good Lord! I am almost 40 and I know that, at least as long as I can remember, smoking causes cancer. That, coupled with the fact that it stinks like crazy, guaranteed that I was not every going to smoke. I contend that the easiest way to quit smoking is to never start in the first place. And now, people are going to profit off the fact that their dead relatives decided to keep consuming a product that was more likely than not going to kill them?!
Okay, maybe smoking does cause cancer , we know that, but what about all the other junk the U.S. sells to us and feeds our children that "causes unknown diseases" MSG, Sulfites, Xanthan number 4 yellow etc... i am definately a non-smoker and support you, but what can we do about all the other junk in foodstuff?
I find the lawsuit totally ridiculous..It's like suing Mc Donalds for heart disease...at least the attorney's can retire well.
I am very glad I quit smoking. I cant imagine doing it any more.
Smoke um......just not in St. Louis City. We're trying to get a ban going :)
Kathleen: This award sounds good... but I would not be surprised if the verdict is appealed, and somewhere down the road either the verdict is overturned, or the amount of the award is cut drastically. Very sad.
I am against smoking. However, I am with Mary Douglas. I think we need to take responsibility for our actions and choices we make in life. I never understood the appeal. I always thought smokers had horrible breath in school. That alone made me want to stay away from cigarettes.
Kathleen--I too am a hard core non-smoker. Maybe that new tax they are planning to add to each pack will make more and more join our ranks in the state. You'd think that at $5 a pack in a bad economy people would have to quit!
Kathleen, What I always find interesting is the people saying they have absolutely NO money and on public assistance are always on TV with a cigarette. I wonder how they afford them.
This post reminds me of a flight I took once. The pilot came on and said "This is a non-smoking flight. It will take us 3hrs and 45 min to arrive at our destination. If we have not arrived within this time and you have cigarettes, by-all-means light 'em up folks." It still makes me smile. I am a "reformed" smoker and glad I quit. Private hypnosis was the key for me.
I am a former smoker. No one made me. I knew it was bad for me. My husband still smokes. No way he would smoke inside the house or in a car. I'm glad that most restaurants have become non-smoking establishments. But suing Philip Morris for 130 million for exposure to second hand smoke is completely rediculous. Tort reform? Not gonna happen as we drift further from the fading ideal of personal responsibility.
Hmmm...I have to agree with the others that said the lawsuit is totally ridiculous. People need to quit blaming someone else for their own actions, and just accept the fact that there are consequences to the choices they make.
2¢
That is part of the problem with America, ridiculous lawsuits like that. Our justice system might be the best the world has ever seen, but it is not a justice system at all; it is a legal system for redistributing wealth. Barack Obama should take note of how to redistribute the wealth; just use the legal system -- LOL.
I have seriously mixed feelings about these law suits against tobacco companies. On the one hand, I've read that smoking cigarettes is addictive so it is extremely difficult to quit. From that point of view, people who started way back before it was openly acknowledged that smoking caused cancer were in more of a predicament than those more recently. On the other hand, it can kill you yet you keep doing it and then, when you die, your family can collect hundreds of thousands of dollars because it killed you when you chose to smoke? It is a very slippery slope but I strongly believe there is no right or wrong answer here.
My mother-in-law smokes and has done so for many, many years. Our two oldest kids (now 13 and 10) went to a DARE meeting once at school and they talked about cigarettes. Immediately after that, they started hounding my MIL about smoking and why she should quit. It's actually pretty funny. We never allow her to smoke inside our house or cars (we have small babies and don't want them exposed, not to mention how badly it stinks) but that isn't good enough for the boys. If she goes outside to light up, one of them envariably goes out with her and talks about her lungs and what will happen if she dies and they don't get to see her anymore. They pour it on thick, I tell ya.
~Renae
Hi Kathleen—I'm an ex-smoker. I'm not rabid about it, but I do not want my children or grand children to be around smokers. I personally think the lawsuit is frivolous and should not have been accepted. We are each responsible for our own decisions. No one holds a gun to your head and makes you start smoking.
Congrats to all you ex smokers and never starters I thank you, your friends family and co-workers thank you and your lungs swell with pride (& air).
Now if only my brother and sister would quit!!!! Hi , guys baby sis loves you.
We love how you write and follow your blogs. You rock our world!
My dad was the only smoker in my extended family. He came to visit us when we moved to CO in 1980, and we took him up Pikes Peak. He tried to light up at the summit but all of his energy was being used just to breathe, at that altitude. He would light up, try to take a drag, stomp it out. Light up, try to take a drag....repeat....He quit not long after and has not gone back. He is 79.
Cheryl - That was cetainly a graphic lesson for him on what life and breathing could be like. Glad he is still around -mine made it to 94, may yours do even better.
Kathleen - don't you love that Minnesota is smoke-free? Last summer we stopped at a little Wisconsin tavern just across the St. Croix. I forgot that not every state is as enlightened and we couldn't get out of there fast enough - none of us could stand the smoke. I quit 24 years ago and I still say it was the best (and one of the most difficult) things I've ever done.
Lynn - I do love it . I put myself thru college by waitressing and inhaling others smoke. I still forget and ask to sit in the non -smoking section. Congrats on your longtime resolution - keep it up.
I like your photo choice Kathleen, I am an ex-smoker of about 2 years and until I quit, I don't think I really realized how addictive it is. It was very hard to quit the habit. I started smoking when I was only 13 years old and i know realize just how manipulating the cigarette companies really are, marketing to little children. I'm glad to see them get some of what they deserve.
April - Congratulations to you - if quitting smoking was not so incredibly difficult I am sure that many more would stop. That being said many go through some difficulties and start back up so keep it up. 13 is pretty young to start and it is getting even younger in some areas.
I never smoked, but I love to see those cigarette companies get nailed.