Comments on: Big Tobacco Gets Big Win In High Court

Supreme Court Throws Out $79.5M Punitive Damages Verdict Against Philip Morris

[processor2]

CBS HEADLINE: Supreme Court Justices Throw Out $79.5M Punitive Damages Verdict Against Philip Morris

GOOD FOR THE SUPREME COURT

It says on the cigarette package that smoking will make you sick and cause cancer.

Suing cigarette companies for making people sick would be like suing Playboy for giving people carpal tunnel syndrome.

Neither makes any sense.

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[ckcool192000]

No one forces anyone to smoke. PERIOD. If a person chooses to smoke then it is their choice and their fault when they die of lung cancer, NOT the tobbaco company.

Want an example? A guy eats at McDonalds every day, he gets fat, and has a heart attack.

If we apply the same mentality that most of you are using with the tobbaco companies, McDonalds should be suied for selling him the burgers that caused his heart attack.

These types of lawsuits suggest that the common person cannot think for themselves, that a person is to stupid to realize that smoking is bad for you. They realize it...they just don't care or their addicted to it and can't stop. So stop supporting these lawsuits that basically say that the common man or woman is not capable of thinking for themselves.

[mdc76082]

"Williams, according to his widow, never gave any credence to the surgeon general's health warnings about smoking cigarettes because tobacco companies insisted they were safe. Only after falling sick did Williams tell his wife: "Those *** cigarette people finally did it. They were lying all the time.""

Well, evidently what we have here is a failure to listen! Maybe if he would have taken "credence" to the warning, he may be alive today, maybe gained 5 extra yrs, maybe nothing at all, but at least he would have done something instead of absolutely nothing. I smoked for 30yrs and quit. I enjoyed smoking, I to knew it was deadly, and just plain stupid. It's funny cause I never hear a smoker say, "I want to die of lung cancer when I grow up." All I ever hear is, "It's my choice." "It's my right." Absolutely true in every manner, but you might as well put your lips around the exhaust pipe of your car and inhale. Batting the rights issue on something like this is a lost cause. The health issues will more likely prevail. As for second hand smoke...I just wonder how many toxins we breath in, in every breath we take?

[dredre2k]

Ban Cigarettes sell the patch or gum instead. Smokers just need their nicotine fix.
This way second hand smoke can stop making everyon else sick, and smokers will have healthy lungs. Why breathe in tar?

[c885177]

what concerns me is the supreme court of the united states just set precedent to not allow punitive damages against a corporate defendant except those specifically to the plaintiff.

they have removed punitive damage awards from juries.

now if a company gets caught in a reprehensible situation. they walk away without any fear of monetary loss. in my opinion this will make corporations even more aggressive in all their actions. the chances of ever getting sued, unless it is a class action lawsuit. just became a moot point. the supreme court just took away one of your rights.

[rudy654-2009]

"It says on the cigarette package that smoking will make you sick and cause cancer."

So, why make and sell a product that does that? Did you know that there are people who were exposed to second hand smoke as children, who later grew up and were diagnosed with lung cancer? Too bad they didn't get much say about that stupid lame warning on the package! A plague on big tobacco and their supporters!

[rudy654-2009]

Tobacco companies don't care about anyone other than their own big bank accounts. They sell a product that not only has no benefit, but kills even the innocent. Smokers should realize that it isn't just about what they do to their own bodies. Those with chidlren should known that the money they spend on their habit, is food taken from their children's mouths. I don't care what happens to tobacco companies. I hope they will be punished some day in the future. Until then...

[processor2]

CBS HEADLINE: Supreme Court Justices Throw Out $79.5M Punitive Damages Verdict Against Philip Morris

GOOD FOR THE SUPREME COURT

It says on the cigarette package that smoking will make you sick and cause cancer.

Suing cigarette companies for making people sick would be like suing Playboy for giving people carpal tunnel syndrome.

Neither makes any sense.

....

[bildooreilly]

Keep your freakin brats out of bars then. Freakin stupid people.. nobody is forcing you to go to restaurants that allow smoking. If non smoking is such a great idea open up your own non smoking joints, and your bars full of freakin brats. Fvckin stupid people.

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ozziepooh90

Children who have no "choice" are exposed to secondhand smoke too.

If you have never smoked, or are still smoking and have never tried to quit, you cannot really know how addictive cigarettes are. If you have quit or failed to quit you should.
Posted by jn122736 at 02:49 PM : Feb 20, 2007
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[jn122736]

ozziepooh90

Children who have no "choice" are exposed to secondhand smoke too.

If you have never smoked, or are still smoking and have never tried to quit, you cannot really know how addictive cigarettes are. If you have quit or failed to quit you should.

[bildooreilly]

Ozziepoo, it's completely up to the owner of the business whether or not they want to cater to non smokers or not. Non smokers are free to open up their own non smoking businesses, they don't want to do that though, they just want to tell everyone else how to run theirs. These people have no right to come in and tell people they can't allow a perfectly legal activity in YOUR business. They're nothing but a bunch of fascist control freaks instituting the exact same anti smoking agenda first brought forth by Adolph Hitler in Nazi Germany. Someone needs to take this BS to the supreme court fast.

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bildooreilly
I completely agreed with you . I wrote my governor and ask why if people wanted to, they could have an non-smoking bar and a smoking bar, completly separate and same would go for restaurants. I think that would be fair. And then all the poor little Non-smokers would have their way and wouldn't have to deal with the smoke and smokers could go out again. But do you think i heard back from my governor, no it is all about control.
Posted by ozziepooh90 at 02:32 PM : Feb 20, 2007
+ report this comment

[bildooreilly]

The Peoples Republic Of California is a perfect example. On most clear days in Los Angeles you can't see a mile in front of your face because of all the smog yet it's a crime to let your customers smoke inside YOUR bar. If you want to talk about a health issue you should adress all of that smog, it's a lot worse for you than smoking cigarettes.



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In California its a public health issue. If you want to smoke go outside. If you don't like the state telling you how to run your buisness leave the state. As a smoker I try to be curtious of those who do not wish to inhale the posions I am addicted to. I am pi$$ed off that the tobaco companies have been putting more nicotine in cigarettes as if it wasn't hard enough to quit.
Posted by cbscrash07 at 01:49 PM : Feb 20, 2007
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[ozziepooh90]

bildooreilly
I completely agreed with you . I wrote my governor and ask why if people wanted to, they could have an non-smoking bar and a smoking bar, completly separate and same would go for restaurants. I think that would be fair. And then all the poor little Non-smokers would have their way and wouldn't have to deal with the smoke and smokers could go out again. But do you think i heard back from my governor, no it is all about control.

[heresmy2cent]

We have the best federal court system that money can buy.

[ozziepooh90]

ok jn122736
if nicotine is so adictive and non=-smokers are inhaling all this smoke why aren't they smokers now if it is so additive?
Everyone just needs to get over it already. Every time you turn around something is bad for you and then in the next 1-2 years it's not.
Pollution is just as bad for you if not worse, why don't we shut done all the factories so we won't breathe that?
It's not the companies fault if people choose to start smoking, yeah maybe they do become addicted to it, but it was the person who choose to start in the first place. JUST GET OVER IT!!!!

[agnim]

Thank you for not smoking. LOL

[agnim]

"Agnim, what if it was your "Mere Business" that was shut down? and for selling a legal product! I smoke, but I don't like it. You don't have to smoke if you don't want to.
Posted by gunnerv1 at 12:47 PM : Feb 20, 2007"
If I were in a business that DELIBERATELY GET AMERICANS ADDICTED AND THEM POISON AMERICANS, then please, don't just 'shut down my business'; SHUT ME THE HELL DOWN ALSO because I would have lost my way in life and not fit to be among you!

[jn122736]

If you, as the owner of a bar, decide to ban smoking and someone lights a cigarette in your establishment, you cannot have them arrested unless they violated a regional law. All you can do is tell the person to leave and if they do not then you must throw them out or call the police in each instance. In any case the damage will have already been done from the act of lighting a cigarette in an enclosed room/building.

Many people don%u2019t seem to understand that breathing the smoke from someone else%u2019s cigarette is no different from, and just as deadly as, inhaling directly.
That is the biggest reason most smokers fail in their first few attempts to quit. Nicotine withdrawal is impossible when it is periodically breathed into the lungs, even in small amounts.

If there exists only one Bar, grocery store etc. in the town/area the problem is even more complex.

[Syndicate]

In California its a public health issue. If you want to smoke go outside. If you don't like the state telling you how to run your buisness leave the state. As a smoker I try to be curtious of those who do not wish to inhale the posions I am addicted to. I am pi$$ed off that the tobaco companies have been putting more nicotine in cigarettes as if it wasn't hard enough to quit.

[bildooreilly]

Time to take the fascist neo nazi no smoking in bars and other businesses BS to the supreme court as well, nobody has the right to tell you that you can't allow a completely legal activity inside of your business, if non smokers don't like it they don't have to go there. Every business owner has the right to decide if they want to allow a completely legal activity themselves. All of this anti smoking *** was copied exactly off of Adolph Hitlers anti smoking ***, it's all about controlling the personal lives of the people, mind your own business you little fascist stooges and if you don't like smoking start your own non smoking bars.