Philip Morris Managing Director for the United Kingdom, Peter Nixon, was a guest on Good Morning Britain on March 13, 2019, claiming to want to stop selling cigarettes in favor of “less harmful” nicotine addiction products.
The anchors were having none of it, repeatedly asking him why, if Philip Morris is so keen on ending cigarette sales, they don’t simply stop selling cigarettes, and pointing out that Philip Morris continues to market cigarettes aggressively across the globe.
In the final moments of the interview, Piers Morgan asks, “Are you killers?” Mr. Nixon, flummoxed, appears to nod “yes” and agree!
ASH also agrees. The actions of Philip Morris and other tobacco companies amounts to manslaughter, and we’ve been telling prosecutors this for years. Read about our criminal liability program here.
And we’ve demanded that Philip Morris stop selling cigarettes (Read our joint letter to them here). We’re not alone.
Of course, Philip Morris won’t stop, not while there’s a shred of profit to be had. And we can’t wait for tobacco industry executives to grow a conscience.
It’s time for citizens to take matters into their own hands and demand that their governments do what they should have done years ago – phase out the sale of cigarettes, by far the world’s most dangerous consumer product. (Read more about our program to do just that here.)
If the tobacco industry says that cigarettes have to go, how can we disagree?
Donate now to help us phase out the sale of cigarettes and hold tobacco executives criminally liable for the harm their products cause.
