I think the jury was ridiculous to award any money to anyone for damages that are self-inflicted. I haven't read the article, but I heard about it on the news.

Everyone knows that smoking is hazardous to one's health. If you choose to do it anyway, then it's your hard luck if you get sick from it. And until they make tobacco illegal, I don't think the tobacco company should have to pay for peoples' bad choices. Smoking IS a choice. No one is forced to smoke. Just like drinking- are alcoholics or victims of cirrhosis suing the liquor companies?

People need to stop trying to get something for nothing and start taking responsibility for their own actions and decisions.

How do you feel about it?
I think it is outrageous!

People die daily due to complications caused by alcoholism. Should companies that produce alcoholic beverages be sued excessively as well? I think not!

People die daily due to complications arising from obesity. Should the manufacturers of fattening foods be sued excessively as well? I think not!

Our tax dollars are being wasted by ambulance chasing lawyers and so many folks wanting to get rich quick. It's pathetic.

I agree! I smoked for many, many years and if I die because of it then that is due to my stupidity, no one held a gun o my head forcing me to do so.

Sadly, Chemocurl, it has already happened. People are 'addicted' to McDonalds or whatever....and we wonder why our country is so screwed up.

I'm sure they'll appeal it for 50 years.
The tobacco companies are the only ones who studied to see how they could make their products more addictive, then put stuff in to make it happen. They lied and covered up the facts for years. Since I doubt the widow will ever see that amount, I have no sympathy for the tobacco company. They have spit on consumers and earned billions by selling death for years, time for them to pay the piper.
JoanMN/FL

And while it is a person's own choice to smoke or not smoke, many started smoking back in the day when we were bombarded with the ads to make us think we would be better off, look better, feel better, make more money, be more desirable, be sexier, be more popular blah blah blah and many people smoked. Cigarettes were cheap and even given away free on airlines, in restaurants, clubs etc etc. I think every smoker thinks that they will be the lucky one and cancer won't get them, everyone else maybe but not them personally. I am a good example of that one...I never smoked a lot but I continued to smoke long after I knew what it could do to me...My fault yes...but the lies and manipulations of the tabacco companies ..and yes the advertisments didn't help and I too believed since I didn't smoke a lot, I'd be ok...and we all know how that one ended...What truly amazes me is that people say they can't stop...they have tried everything...well that's plain old caca, I've been there and done that...truth was, I didn't really want to quit....I don't really know the why of it but one day I decided enough is enough and I quit...today it is hard to remember that I smoked......people do what they want to do, it's as simple as that.....The minute you hear the words Lung Cancer, believe me with rare exception...you find it in yourself to quit. So with that long drawn out tale....my opinion is that if she gets her money, more power to her.

I think the legal system needs to make a choice - either stop the sale of tobacco products or let the tobacco companies off the hook and make the consumers responsible for their choices. It doesn't make sense to me to rule that the companies are causing harm with their products and then the gov't continues to let them sell them. I mean, I know why they do it ($$$) but it's ridiculous. A toy with a sharp edge would get pulled immediately.

I totally agree with you Paula.

SamKaren
your resident DJ

as the article ends....

For decades, tobacco companies almost never lost lawsuits filed by smokers but have had several major judgments against them more recently. Philip Morris, for example, is currently appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court a $79.5 million jury award in an Oregon case; other large damage awards against the industry have often been reversed or reduced on appeal.

so what are the realistic chances they ever see a dime?

For the record, yes, I think it's ridiculous.

Now for a personal observation; my SIL will soon be the widow of a chain smoker. As I write, my BIL is on a lung transplant list. His lung collapsed a few months ago, they have done surgery, etc. but the prognosis is not good. BIL was on the patch and prescription Chantix while in the hospital. Four other family members also opted to try Chantix at that time. I tried it last year and quit within twelve days of starting my prescription. I'm still off the smokes!

One by one each family member had a crisis and went back to smoking. BIL was released from the hospital and started smoking shortly thereafter. My neice says he'll never get the transplant, and I believe she's right, because he still smokes. He is 46.

I love my relatives but...seeing through the eyes of someone who has quit I wonder why stress is an acceptable excuse to start smoking again? I had one of the most stressful weeks of my life shortly after I quit smoking. (Relationship hassles, car troubles, job troubles, legal troubles, fight with spouse) and once I realized that I got through it without smoking I felt so empowered! I just wish everyone could get off the smokes and feel the same.

Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now!

Geesh,,,,,maybe I shouldn't have urged DH to stop smoking!! Kidding....kidding. I am glad for both him and me that he stopped a little over two years ago. What do i think of this law suit? It is on par of the stupid woman who put a scalding cup of coffee between her legs and drove , then was surprised she got burned. The lawyers who take on these frivolous law suits should be disbarred. Dottie

I was a smoker. I smoked three times a day. No one was forcing me to smoke, it's my choice, bad one but still....
If my husband tried to sue the tobacco company after I was dead, I would come back and haunt him. That is just plain crazy.
It seems that any type of certain issue comes to light everyone points a finger or blames someone else for thier own faults or stupidity.
And in my opinion this is one of them.
Susan

Maybe what the jury's should do is award the dollars to cancer research...Lung Cancer research specifically. Lung cancer kills more people than the top three other cancer, Colon Cancer, Breast Cancer, Prostrate Cancer, and a large percentage of people with Lung Cancer have never smoked a cigarette in their lives, and the research for Lung Cancer is the least funded. Too many people have the opinion "they got what they deserved"...they chose to smoke....but statistics show that many many have never smoked at all. Way back when there was talk of payments to the individual states to provide medical care for smokers...wonder what happened to that one?

If you were a doctor would you give a lung transplant to a smoker who won't quit? Especially if it could save the life of someone who hasn't been destroying their lungs.
Don't get me wrong, I smoked for over 20 years and have quit several times, this last time has been several years ago, but I would not foolishly believe that I would be a candidate for a lung transplant...

Wow, it's time to sue Jack Daniels, and Crispy Kreme donuts.

It's been out for quite a while that smoking is bad for the health. To me it wouldn't take a scientist report to make a person think,,hmmm, I wonder if inhaling this tobacco with smoke is good for me? How about Hmmm, I wonder if putting this needle in my arm that has a syringe full of street drugs is bad for my health? Hmm, I wonder if drinking 16 oz. of Jack every night is bad for my health? Ahh, so it never crosses some peoples minds that it might be bad for the health and they're awarded 8 million bucks for being naive??? oh, brother. Some days it pays to be unimformed. I'm gonna be rich!

They need to put a cap on how much these lawsuits can get. We know that the majority of it goes to the lawyers and that's why the enormous amounts, but what is wrong with the jurys these days?

My nephew is and alcoholic. He was on a transplant list for a new liver. He's not on it any more, because he didn't quit drinking. Heck no. You don't waste a good organ on someone who isn't willing to stop using the substance that ruined theirs.
Leslie

There is one other cancer that most Dr's don't tell you about. Bladder cancer. There is a type of bladder cancer that 95% of the smokers will get sometime in their life. It is nodgels inside the bladder that only smokers get. Some are very small and slow growing, others are larger and rapid growing. If caught it is ok, they can take them off as long as they do not go into the bladder walls. Just ask my DH.

I have heard of the bladder cancer too and it is a risk factor with smoking...but just like lung cancer, half the people that get the bladder cancer have never smoked. It's easy to blame all these cancers on smoking because smoking is just not good for you any way you look at it...but it certainly isn't the only risk for bladder cancer....

I have a funny story or at least it was funny at the time...I was in the hospital in MA...Lahey Clinic which is a big hosptial and a teaching hospital. I was in the emergency room in a cubicle and they brought this little old lady in and they were filling out the charts and they got her name and address and statistics like her ht..wgt...etc ... at one point they ask her if she smoked and she said no I quit a long time ago and he said do you remember when and she said 83 and he said 1983 and she said...no I was 83 years old...I'm 85 now...I watched the guy trying to control his laughing...and I was doing the same thing.

LOL Ruthie, that is funny. I love that one.

My aunt had a lung removed and she still wanted a cigarette. It was too late anyways.

She would have loved so many things that came after she died - the internet (especially online shopping), reality television, the newer game shows (she loved Wheel of Fortune). But she missed it all by smoking Pall Malls for decades.

LOl Ruthie!

I have no sympathy for tobacco companies either. My mom died from lung cancer attributed to her smoking. Docs said that it probably contributed to my dad's cancer too. but can't be proven.

It should be outlawed. How many deaths are caused from smoking... thousands, tens of thousands a year??/. How many people are injured from a faulty seatbelt before it's recalled? how many products have been recalled because of one, two, or a hundred injuries. Tobacco is jutt about the only thing, when USED LEGALLY that will kill.

It won't be deemed illegal... TOO much money involved. How many subsidies do the tobacco companies get? tons... how much do they pay lobbyists, lawmakers? tons... how many millions of dollars does our government collect on taxes from ciggies... tons... nope, not gonna be recalled.

and Yes, Ruthie is right on all of her points... but tobacco still p!sses me off! lol

Cigarettes are so addictive, I feel sorry for anyone who is related to a smoker. It's more than will power. If every person hurt by cigs files a claim like this and wins, maybe the cig makers will be put out of business. Taxing them and raising the cost enormously hasn't been much of a deterrent.

I, too, had bladder cancer fifteen years ago. My urogolist said it was almost certainly the result of my having smoked for many years. He also told me that recurrence of bladder cancer is very common. I quit smoking, going "cold turkey",that day because if the cancer did recur after removal and treatment, I didn't want the guilt of thinking "if only I had quit". Fortunately, I have had no recurrence of the cancer. My husband, also a smoker, quit soon after, but fourteen years later, he developed lung cancer and died last July 21st. I am so sorry that we ever lit that first cigarette, but you can't unring a bell.
Veta

I, too, had bladder cancer fifteen years ago. My urogolist said it was almost certainly the result of my having smoked for many years. He also told me that recurrence of bladder cancer is very common. I quit smoking, going "cold turkey",that day because if the cancer did recur after removal and treatment, I didn't want the guilt of thinking "if only I had quit". Fortunately, I have had no recurrence of the cancer. My husband, also a smoker, quit soon after, but fourteen years later, he developed lung cancer and died last July 21st. I am so sorry that we ever lit that first cigarette, but you can't unring a bell.
Veta

This is disgusting. It's simply another example of people feeling they should be rewarded for their own inaction, stupidity, and laziness. I'm so tired of hearing the whining "I can't quit...", "It's ADDICTIVE!" (BULL!) and all the other garbage. Put the cigarettes down, and you won't smoke. Period. I know. I did. I was a chain smoker, over 5 packs a day at my high point and I didn't need patches, hypnotists, drugs, pins in my ear or anything other than saying, that's it, I'm not lighting up. But people have to have something to "force" them since they refuse to do anything for themselves. And it's been over 15 years since I gave them up.

We're in a world of lazy people who have to have an excuse for everything, rather than take responsibility for their own actions. Stress made you pick up and start smoking again? BULL! More laziness than anything. Yes, it takes a little effort to quit, but people have to think laziness is a compensible disease to make them happy.

I'll go you one better Dottie. I think the lawyers should be jailed and forced to pay costs and penalties for filing silly cases. But there too, they won't take any responsibility.

My ex-GF just died a couple weeks ago (from MRSA septic shock) and she was another example of somebody quitting, but then finding an excuse to go back to smoking. No, she wasn't "addicted". She simply didn't have the desire to quit. She enjoyed smoking and just plain didn't WANT to quit. I have no sympathy for people who look for excuses. But I'll respect someone who just plain says, "I enjoy it and don't want to quit". I told her she would never quit until she wanted to quit. RIP my friend. There's a lot of things that cut life short. I know you enjoyed your cigarettes though. And in your case, as with many, cigarettes had nothing to do with your death, a point that is often overlooked.

Stupidly Outrageous!Does that open the door for everybody to start filing suits...What a pathetic country we have become.

See the link below telling of the drunk who fell down and was awarded $2.3 million because it resulted in him getting severely injured. Had he been killed, think of the amount his family could have sued for.

It is outrageous that the courts are even bringing such outlandish cases to trial. Before I read the article, I figured the defendant was likely a brewery, or an establishment such as a tavern or liquor store that sold him the alcohol to get all liquored up with. Maybe those lawsuits will come later after the $2.3 Mil gets squandered and drunk up.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: Stumble drunkenly in front of Subway-Get $2.3 Million

I don't mean that I feel any sympathy at all for the tobacco companies, I surely do not, but I do think that this is just part of our society's problem. We do not take responsibility for our own actions, we blame it on someone or something else and then sue whomever we can blame.

This is incredulous.