# If I started a new cigarette company… **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 14, 2024, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-started-a-new-cigarette-company/1000292 "2024-04-14T22:01:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Midtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@Midtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Midtown)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2024, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-started-a-new-cigarette-company/1000292/1 "2024-04-14T22:01:17Z")
I used organic tobacco. I wouldn’t advertise to children, or anyone. Maybe just get small retailers to carry my product and hoped to expand over time. I would prominently warn about the health and addiction risks. I would warn that organic tobacco is not healthy either. Would that be a legitimate business? Unlike Phillip Morris et al? Any worse than alcohol? Or any other unhealthy vice? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2024, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-started-a-new-cigarette-company/1000292/2 "2024-04-14T22:03:56Z")
Three Castles Tobacco did something similar 30 years ago. They got out of the American market when all of the tobacco companies were being sued because, you know, tobacco. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2024, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-started-a-new-cigarette-company/1000292/3 "2024-04-14T22:26:15Z")
> [@Midtown](#): > > Would that be a legitimate business? Unlike Phillip Morris et al? Any worse than alcohol? Or any other unhealthy vice? Your users (some of them, at least) would still be subjecting non-smokers to secondhand inhalation of smoke. A “legitimate business”? Sure, there are plenty of businesses that provide harmful products. A defensibly ethical one? Being better than Philip Morris, et al, is a really low bar to vault. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2024, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-started-a-new-cigarette-company/1000292/4 "2024-04-14T22:37:36Z")
Might be worth a bit of inquiry into … > **[Natural American Spirit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_American_Spirit)** > > Natural American Spirit, often referred to simply as American Spirit, is an American brand of cigarettes and other tobacco products, currently owned by Reynolds American and manufactured by the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company. > The company was founded in 1982 by Bill Drake, author of The Cultivator's Handbook of Natural Tobacco; Robert Marion, an acupuncture student at the Kototama Institute in Santa Fe; and Chris Webster, a Santa Fe entrepreneur and Realtor. Startup investments came from Edward... ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2024, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-started-a-new-cigarette-company/1000292/5 "2024-04-14T22:43:19Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Your users (some of them, at least) would still be subjecting non-smokers to secondhand inhalation of smoke. > > A “legitimate business”? Sure, there are plenty of businesses that provide harmful products. A defensibly ethical one? Being better than Philip Morris, et al, is a really low bar to vault. This is what I would have posted, though said more eloquently than I would have managed. The OP’s idea of “organic tobacco,” while simultaneously stating “organic tobacco is not healthy either,” seems to be a bit of trying to have your cake and eat it, too: implying that organic is somehow better than the other stuff (but it’s all bad for you). ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2024, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-started-a-new-cigarette-company/1000292/6 "2024-04-14T22:43:45Z")
I would think that you’d have something of a leg to stand on, having gone into business _after_ the big tobacco settlements. And if you complied with all legal labeling requirements, as well as added extra “Don’t say we didn’t warn you” type things, I’d think you’d be off the hook. I mean, in 2024 who is going to smoke tobacco and blame the company producing it? There’s been ample time and educational effort as well as a series of class action lawsuits, that I’d imagine should push the responsibility onto the consumer. Certainly nobody under their mid-50s is going to be unaware that tobacco causes all sorts of issues, and is dramatically unhealthy. If they’re choosing to smoke at this point, that’s their problem. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2024, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-started-a-new-cigarette-company/1000292/7 "2024-04-14T22:54:37Z")
Have you considered also selling used records? ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2024, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-started-a-new-cigarette-company/1000292/8 "2024-04-14T23:41:14Z")
Is that your vinyl answer? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2024, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-started-a-new-cigarette-company/1000292/9 "2024-04-15T00:11:03Z")
At least used records might have awesome cover art, while cigarette cartons look more like this: [![](https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/http://prod-upp-image-read.ft.com/34649850-3c8b-11e7-ac89-b01cc67cfeec?source=next-barrier-page) ](https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/http://prod-upp-image-read.ft.com/34649850-3c8b-11e7-ac89-b01cc67cfeec?source=next-barrier-page) ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2024, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-started-a-new-cigarette-company/1000292/10 "2024-04-15T01:08:01Z")
that mouth is disgusting ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2024, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-started-a-new-cigarette-company/1000292/11 "2024-04-15T01:08:33Z")
If it is a legal product, then it is a legitimate business…although not being any more worse than other unhealthy vices isn’t the best promotional point you can make. BTW, do you intend on keeping this business, or do you plan to sell it off to the big boys for a profit? ---
**Author:** ![Midtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@Midtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Midtown)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2024, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-started-a-new-cigarette-company/1000292/12 "2024-04-15T01:47:30Z")
I’d just keep it as a family owned business. Put a roof over our heads, put food on the table. Like owning a tavern serving alcohol, or a restaurant serving deep fried food. ---
**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2024, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-started-a-new-cigarette-company/1000292/13 "2024-04-15T01:56:29Z")
Well, not _quite_ like owning a tavern serving alcohol or a restaurant serving deep fried food, since eating and drinking have health benefits that tobacco smoking entirely lacks. It’s not clear exactly what question you want answered. You ask if your intended enterprise would be “a legitimate business . . . unlike Phillip Morris et al”. If “legitimate” means “lawful”, it would be a legitimate business in exactly the way that Philip Morris etc are legitimate businesses. If “legitimate” means something like “ethically acceptable” then it would not be a legitimate business in exactly the way, and for exactly the reasons, that Philip Morris etc are not legitimate businesses. So I think you’re using some non-obvious sense of “legitimate” that you need to explain before you can get a useful answer to your question. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2024, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-started-a-new-cigarette-company/1000292/14 "2024-04-15T04:23:11Z")
> [@Midtown](#): > > Would that be a legitimate business? Unlike Phillip Morris et al? Philip Morris et al are legitimate businesses. Whether it would be moral / ethical is up to you and your conscience.