22nd Century Group Inc (XXII)

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/juul-to-stop-sales-of-most-flavored-e-cigarettes-in-retail-stores-1541784238

While I am not sure the FDA's plan to halt methol cigarettes will not go unchallenged by big tobacco...they can mandate nicotine levels but not stop cigarette sales. JUUL's move to remove all their teenage entrapment flavors is a start, as is Altria's move on their e-cigs. Still in limbo is the PM application for iQOS which would get FDA approval in a second with low nicotine tobacco. If our CEO is correct and the FDA's discloses their plans for low nicotine standard cigarettes we should finally see deals and demands for our VLN tobacco.

The above article states JUUL is in the process of hiring some top gun lobby folks to work their money magic with the political masses in Washington. Still to this shareholder, what Senator of Congress person wants to keep a deadly product on the market and use alternative options that will keep killing. The world is not naive. We know what cigarettes can do, but we do not know what the alternatives can do because there were never any clinical trials. The hubris of PM to apply using the sales in Japan as a method of clinical proof was laughed at by the panel in January 2018.

The FDA and Gottlieb know why people smoke. All are addicted by nicotine. Tobacco wants the planet to think people smoke because they want nicotine. Common sense knows people smoke because nicotine makes them smoke. I smoke cigars occasionally because I like the smell and taste of a good Cuban product. One box a year,
not one box a week. You get smokers down to one pack a week then you are saving lives and billions in health care costs.

Twelve articles I read in the last year all confirm 450-480,000 lives are lost every year in the U.S. Health care cost estimates are between $290 and $330 billion. Total worldwide tobacco sales
are a fraction of our countries tobacco related health care spending.

Big tobacco last week had to rethink the FDA message. They way they act they still think the FDA will fold to political pressure and drop their non-addictive campaign. They are quite insane in that thinking as I think Scott Gottlieb et al will carry David Kessler's original thesis of the dangers of smoking to a logical end.

I still think as counter-intuitive as it sounds, more people will return to smoking knowing the addictive properties of the products could be gone. The FDA and maybe the HHS knows revenues from cigarette taxes could fall. However, if you asked the American people..what is more important..taxes of less healthcare spending I am sure the vote would be the latter by a huge margin.

Please reread the transcript from the call. It makes the cause for XXII huge.