‘Stop me before I kill again’: why Philip Morris International needs governments’ help to quit smoking, and why governments need more pressure to do so

Interestingly, PMI's UK initiative website, touted as part of its ad campaign, is not even accessible to those from other countries, possibly because it is apparently focused on what it can learn about building a market for these 'potentially less risky alternatives'. For many years, proposing such an idea was anathema to public health advocates leery of being labelled prohibitionists and nannies, although brave souls proposed it in various forms. 5-7 But now that some countries are seriously discussing how to achieve a tobacco 'endgame', 8 the idea no longer seems so impossible. 9 The 'third rail' of phasing out cigarettes is no longer untouchable. Much better to spend years and money studying alternative distraction sticks while convincing the gormless that you are hastening to be part of the solution (no, really, really, really, this time for sure) than to face the prospect of actually ending your cigarette sales. [...]governments act, many more people will get sick and die from cigarettes.