You Must Be Smoking: Cigarettes, Marijuana Facing Lawsuits

A lot’s changed in the last few decades. Tobacco – once touted as healthy – has been outed as the ultimate bad habit, with major lawsuits filed against tobacco firms on behalf of the millions whose health has been affected by smoking. On the other hand, pot smoking – illegal across the United States for so many years – is now state-approved (and taxed) in Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington, as well as in the cities of Portland and South Portland, Maine. Recreational use is also approved in Washington D.C., though the sale of cannabis is still – to no one’s surprise – being blocked by Congress.

Whichever way you look at it, change is afoot. Smoking is dead – long live smoking.

The oddities and discrepancies of American laws have been highlighted recently by two different lawsuits both concerned with smoking. In the first, a New Mexico tobacco company is facing a class action lawsuit – but, rather than targeting cigarettes themselves, plaintiffs accuse the company of using the “natural” label to mislead consumers.

The suit was filed by a Florida-based law firm after the FDA reportedly warned Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., the maker of American Spirit cigarettes, that its use of “natural” violated federal law. American Spirit cigarettes are currently sold as “100% Additive-Free Natural Tobacco,” although as far back as 2000, the Federal Trade Commission ordered the company to clarify that “additive-free” and “natural” do not mean the cigarettes are any safer to smoke than other brands. Earlier this year, the FDA went a step further, writing to the company that, as FDA authority covered tobacco products with “modified risks,” immediate action was required.

The lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida and describes the company’s claim as “patently false” and a misappropriation of a term that has come to have a clear, health-based meaning. The suit notes that, despite an overall slump in American cigarette sales, American Spirit sales actually increased by an impressive 86% between 2009 and 2014. Reynolds American, the firm’s parent company, has also agreed to sell Japanese rights to the brand for around $5 billion. American Sprit cigarettes, the suit claims, are also sold in health stores and are accompanied by claims linked to leading “natural foods health teachers.” The suit is seeking compensation for consumers who purchased American Spirit cigarettes and a change to the company’s marketing to remove the term “natural” and other associated claims.

So – are smokers being misled by the company’s “natural” claims? It’s possible. As part of an ongoing crackdown on the use of terms such as “natural” and “organic,” lawsuits have been filed against hundreds of leading food items and brands, yet consumer awareness of the terms – and their various definitions and uses – remains, it’s fair to say, somewhat spotty.

From one form of smoking to another – and a different, if not original, complaint. The debate about the benefits and dangers of pot smoking continues, but for plaintiffs in a recently filed lawsuit in Colorado, one thing is clear: companies that use pesticides in their marijuana are just as bad as companies that use pesticides on food products. Brandon Flores and Brandie Larrabee, Colorado residents and (presumably) cannabis aficionados, have filed a class action lawsuit against LivWell Inc., the operator of eleven marijuana dispensaries and a major cannabis farm. The suit alleges that LivWell uses Eagle 20, a branded fungicide that includes myclobutanil, and that the plants may not be as safe as consumers think. Although neither plaintiff is claiming any personal injury, they do claim they threw away their purchased marijuana once they knew about the pesticide use.

At the heart of this lawsuit is a simple, but so far unanswered question: is it safe to use pesticides on marijuana plants? Flores and Larrabee say that when pesticides are used, smokers inevitably end up inhaling the harmful products along with the pot. Eagle 20, meanwhile, is perfectly legal to use in certain food products, but there’s no real data on how it might be passed on to humans if smoked, rather than eaten. Back in April, thousands of LivWell cannabis plants were quarantined by the Denver Department of Environmental Health after concerns were raised about the use of unhealthy pesticides. Although the plants were later released and sold as usual, many people clearly have more questions about the chemicals used on the marijuana they smoke.

Here’s the big problem: marijuana remains illegal at a federal level and, while the government has said that individual states will be allowed to legislate as they wish, the conflict is bound to cause problems. There’s been practically no research into safe pesticide use for growing marijuana and, while federals funds remain locked, it’s up to individual states to decide what the rules should be. In Colorado, for example, the state has issued a list of approved pesticides for marijuana growers, but has yet to release a list of banned pesticides. Eagle 20, by the way, does not appear on the approved list – but, by default, it’s also not banned. See the problem? Lawyers acting on the plaintiffs’ behalf have been open about the fact that this lawsuit is designed to make a point and wake consumers up to the potential dangers of slim regulations. Eagle 20 may, in fact, be perfectly safe – but the fact is, the lawsuit says, we don’t actually know yet.

No matter how things change, it’s always good to ensure consumer laws are followed. They’re made for our protection, after all, and while it might seem strange to accuse tobacco companies of not being healthy or marijuana growers of selling dangerous products, the law is more concerned with truthful marketing and consumer awareness. People are free to buy and smoke what they like, as long as the products are sold with all the relevant information freely available. If people are buying American Spirit because they think it’s comparably healthy, that’s not good. If people are smoking marijuana without realizing it contains pesticides and other chemicals, that’s not good either. If companies are making potentially misleading claims, these warrant investigation. After all, as the saying goes, there’s rarely smoke without fire.