With Christmas just passed, it’s a good time to take stock and think about morality. In particular, I’ve been thinking about the justice system and the concepts of reformation and retribution and how it applies to Big Tobacco.
So, sit down for a courtroom drama where I will play judge, jury, and perhaps even executioner as we consider how we deal with Big Tobacco.
The case against Big Tobacco
The case against Big Tobacco is pretty solid. They lied about the nature of their product, targeted young people and vulnerable populations, and engaged in nefarious lobbying to keep regulators off their backs. The death and destruction they caused is sickening, callous, and perhaps unforgivable.
But what do we mean when we say the word “unforgivable”? For some people, it’s just a word that could be replaced by reprehensible or deplorable. For others, it’s not something that should be said lightly because it gets at the heart of an important moral issue: How do we deal with people who do terrible things?
What it comes down to
So, it seems like there are three options for how we can deal with Big Tobacco.
The death penalty
I don’t want to get into a whole thing, but I disagree with the death penalty. Others don’t, and that’s fine.
Anyway, the anti-tobacco groups feel that we should administer the metaphorical lethal injection to Big Tobacco. Or maybe they think they should be stoned to death or hung or whatever their preference is.
Opinions that tobacco sales should be banned are pretty commonplace, as seen by the support for Rishi Sunek’s nicotine ban, which would be more like a death of one thousand cuts phasing out of smoking.
So, that’s one option.
Retribution
On the other hand, some people are more in favour of retribution. The thing is, this has already happened in the US during the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.
What has happened to that money is an interesting point of note. Large portions of it have been used to pay annual six-figure salaries for anti-tobacco executives, while more has been squandered on near-pointless ad campaigns, government lobbying, and similar anti-tobacco causes. However, the bulk has gone to the US government and individual states and been swallowed up in various projects.
Of late, some of the money has ironically been used to spread misinformation about smoke-free products, a process with downstream consequences like fooling people into staying on cigarettes.
With this model, Big Tobacco has been paying fines for 25 years, totalling over $200 billion. Now that the punishment is over, are they allowed out of prison?
Reformation
Now, call me a dreamer, but I’m a big fan of reform. It always made sense to me on an ethical level. And it takes me back to that world “unforgivable.” Yes, they did terrible things in the past. But no, those people are no longer there to extract your pound of flesh from. So, what do we do?
If Big Tobacco is making products with vastly reduced risk, such as vapes and pouches, maybe that’s their path to reformation. They have paid for their sins, and now, they’re just one of a bunch of companies out there, like Big Oil, that need to plot a more sustainable and acceptable path by transitioning to more acceptable products.
One thing that we need to think about is employment. Per Philip Morris, about 1.6 million people are employed within the global tobacco industry. While I know there are individuals out there who would be delighted to see these firms go out of business, their employees are people who have families, kids, mortgages, and so on.
Any transition will need to be carefully managed to reduce adverse outcomes on employees and economies.
The sins of the fathers
The thing is, the Big Tobacco chiefs who lobbied governments and squashed evidence of the harms of smoking are long gone. What we have now is a different entity. The tobacco industry has, for all intents and purposes, reformed.
The outrageous practices of the past are not happening. That’s not to say that there aren't a bit of slippery corporate shenanigans at foot. But the cat is out of the bag on the harms of smoking, so I’m not sure if the present-day Big Tobacco should be punished for the sins of their fathers. Is there a point where we need to make peace with the past and move forward?
As anyone who has ever been wronged by a loved one surely understands, forgiveness is not just some word. It’s an ideal. It’s something that must be practised. But most of all, it’s really hard. Yet we do it; we struggle through the pain of it because, on some level, we know that is objectively the right way to live.
I’m not saying we should forgive Big Tobacco. But it should at least be on the table this year alongside the Christmas leftovers, new socks, and a Lynx body spray gift box off your gran.
