I grow weary of smokers who continue abusing cigarette manufacturers via litigation. The latest is a group of smokers suing Philip Morris for the cost of annual CT lung scans. Give me a break.
As a smoker — on again and off again and on again and off again — for 16 years, I have never considered my smoking to be the fault of anyone other than the idiot who lit each cigarette and puffed on it as though it provided some manifestation of coolness to which non-smokers were oblivious.
Like all the other stupid people who have sued before, these smokers demonstrate their lack of self-control and wanton victim complex by claiming they were duped by deceptive marketing, lured into using a deadly product without their knowledge or consent. Apparently incapable of determining their own fates, these greedy and mindless boneheads seek to further abuse a legal system which knows little about the premise of self determination.
Has there not been sufficient evidence to show smoking is bad for most (I would say “all” were it not scientifically and statistically inaccurate)? More importantly, have these people been utterly out of touch to the degree that they do not realize similar litigation has resulted in findings for the tobacco companies?
Tobacco companies have won two other so-called medical monitoring suits that went to trial. In a 2001 case brought against Philip Morris, a West Virginia jury found that the manufacturer had no obligation to provide cancer screening for the state’s healthy and former smokers; a Louisiana jury made a similar finding in 2003.
Yet they press on. Much to their dismay, they will find it exceedingly difficult to win given there is sufficient evidence to show such tests are unreliable and rejected by medical professionals and cancer specialists.
But CT scans also have high false positive rates — a concern that’s kept major cancer research groups from endorsing routine screening.
This suit should be thrown out as frivolous and wasteful of the court’s time. Consequently, Philip Morris should countersue for false prosecution and whatever other legal remedies are at their disposal. People need to learn to be responsible for their own actions rather than playing the victim with no other purpose than to pad their own bank accounts.
Pathetic. For that, they deserve nothing more than the full weight of the law bearing down on them. Oh, and they also need a good smack upside the head in the hopes of engendering a wee bit of common sense, a trait they apparently lack in toto.
[via Kevin, M.D.]