Jump to full article: Corporate Crime Reporter, 2008-06-11
Intro: So, there I was, waiting in line at the Sheetz store in Weston, West Virginia.
On the counter in front of me were about 50 of these little tins laid out on the counter.
They smell like mints.
They looked like mint containers.
And there was a sign next to them that said - free samples.
Young and old could take one.
And no one would object.
The cashier behind the counter looked like a teenager himself. . . .
The slip cover over the mint container says: Camel Snus Trial Offer.
In the container are little pouches of tobacco that you stick under you lip.
Camel Snus is a product of R.J. Reynolds.
And Reynolds is a party to the Master Settlement Agreement between the state Attorneys General and the tobacco companies.
That agreement includes a ban on free tobacco samples.
There is an exception to the ban on free samples, including "the conducting of consumer testing or evaluation of tobacco products with persons who certify that they are adults."
But that clearly wasn't going on at the Sheetz I was at.
The Camel Snus were on the counter. . . .
An attorney at the National Association of Attorneys General said that if Reynolds were giving Camel Snus to retailers as free samples to be handed out, "it would appear to violate the terms of the agreement."
And Eric Lindblom, director for policy research at Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids in Washington, D.C., said that it was clearly a violation of the agreement and did not fit within the consumer testing exception.
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