Attorney General: That Organic Cig Will Still Kill You

Sorry, still poisonous...

​You could be forgiven for thinking, somehow, American Spirit cigarettes won't coat your lungs with tar. C'mon, they're "organic!" Plus, there's a Native American chief with a tribal pipe on the cover; a corporate symbol 100 times more trustworthy than a phallic, smirking camel wearing sunglasses.

Yet California Attorney General Jerry Brown is here to burst your bubble. Or at least the haze of organic smoke that has clouded your judgment.

Brown announced today that he has secured an agreement from New Mexico-based Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, Inc. that it print on its advertisements for American Spirit Cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco and pouches that organic tobacco is no safer for smokers than any pesticide-laden tobacco. Thirty-two other state attorney generals and the attorney general of the District of Columbia have signed onto the agreement.

Brown gave the company 30 days to meet the requirements, and to contact all its tobacco retailers to tell them to throw out the old ads that don't feature the death message: "Organic tobacco does NOT mean safer tobacco."

Somewhere, a Santa Fe corporate executive is shedding a tear. 

Photo   |   Walter McClintock, via Ralph