I've lost seven friends in the last five years to tobacco-related illnesses. A couple of years ago, a couple of days before Christmas, I sat with one friend of over thiry years as he pulled his last breath, and just last year, and I was joking with another best friend of even longer, the day before he lapsed into a coma and died. These were creative, funny people from own creative environment.
I truly hate the tobacco companies. I think every tobacco exec for the last fifty years should be tried for crimes against humanity for the killer products they continue to market. I watched those lying assholes raise their hands before Congress and swear that tobacco was not addictive or carcinogenic.
A few years ago, California passed an initiatiative that is one of the strongest anti-smoking laws in the country. Despite the tobacco lobby spending a record amount for a private interest to defeat this initiative, it passed by a record margin of 80% - 20% margin. In the very next session of the state legislature, our electec representatives in the State Assembly passed a bill to overturn that initiative. Fortunately, the media stink that followed caused the State Senate to think better of the idea and kill it. I still have to wonder how much money it takes to get over half of a state legilative body to overturn a law passed by 80% of the voters.
If you don't smoke, your buying decisions about tobacco are irrelevant to them. However, you, and those with whom you share the info, below, can have an effect by boycotting tobacco-owned food products, depriving them of income from those sources. Here's a list from Philip Morris' site:
Altoids mints
Athenos Cheeses
Baker's Chocolate and Coconut
Breakstone's Sour Cream, Cottage Cheese, etc.
Breyer's Ice Cream, Yogurt, etc.
Bull's-Eye barbecue and grilling sauces
California Pizza Kitchen pizza
Callard & Bowser Toffees
Calumet Baking Powder
Campbell Soups
Capri Sun
Churny Cheeses
Claussen Pickles
Cool Whip
Country Time (pseudo) Lemonade (They really should call this a kit, instead of a mix.)
Cracker Barrel cheeses
Crystal Light
D-Zerta
Di Giorno Italian foods
General Foods (all products)
Good Seasons Salad Dressing Mixes
Harvest Moon cheeses
Hoffman's cheeses
Jack's Pizza
Jello
Knudsen dairy products
Kool-Aid
Kraft Foods
La Vie De La Vosgienne candies
Louis Rich lunch meats
Maxwell House Coffee
Miller Beer
Minute Rice
Mirácoli pasta
Nabisco products
Oscar Meyer
Oven Fry Coatings
Polly-O Cheeses
Post Cereals
Ragu Sauces, etc.
Sanka Coffee
Sealtest dairy products
Seven Seas Salad Dressings
Shake 'N Bake
Starbucks coffees (Packaged products in stores)
Stove Top Stuffings, etc.
Taco Bell dinner kits, Salsa, etc.
Tang
Terry's candies
Toblerone and Tobler Candies
Tombstone Pizza (Appropriately named :Q)
Yuban Coffee
DEATH to the TOBACCO BORG! :| :| :|