Blowing Smoke

Sometimes when I wake up listening to NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, I hear things and and I'm not sure if I'm still dreaming.

Last Saturday, I caught this statement from Steve Parrish, former vice president of Altria, parent company of Phillip Morris. Now that he's a consultant instead of on the payroll, he was instrumental in getting Altria and other tobacco companies to fall in line with the recent shift to classify tobacco as a drug and finally put it under the control of the FDA. He said:

At the end of the day, we believed it would be better for Phillip Morris if fewer people got sick and died from using our product.

At the beginning of the day, though, they hope people start smoking young and keep smoking until they drop dead.