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I am absolutely persuaded there was a passion in this verdict that resulted in an excessive verdict . . . From the moment I read the verdict and took a deep breath, I have considered that verdict and what I should do.
— Broward County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Streitfeld, on the size of the Naugle/Engle award of Nov. 2009. / Smoker's $300 Million Award to Be Overturned / Law.com, Tuesday, February 9, 2010.

Brand name and expensive cigarettes are always the safest choice for gift giving in China to show respect. Few people, including non-smokers, will openly deny the practice because of health concerns.
— Wu Yiqun, deputy director of the Thinktank Research Center for Health Development, a Beijing-based nongovernmental organization. / Cigarettes top Chinese New Year gift list: Poll / People's Daily (cn), Friday, February 5, 2010.

Respecting Choices
— BAT project to create smoking sections, implemented in many countries worldwide . . . it sez here . . . / BAT Egypt, Egyptian Hotel Association sign public place smoking MoU / Zawya.com (ae), Friday, February 5, 2010.

As a responsible tobacco company, we believe in working with different entities - whether private or government - to ensure that only consenting adult smokers are exposed to tobacco products. We are delighted to have been able to partner with as influential a body as the Egyptian Hotel Association on such a worthy initiative.
— Beverley Spencer-Obatoyinbo, General Manager of BAT Egypt. / BAT Egypt, Egyptian Hotel Association sign public place smoking MoU / Zawya.com (ae), Friday, February 5, 2010.

It is the responsibility of every hospitality organization to provide its guests with various options, whether they are smokers or non-smokers.
— Mr. Waseem Mohiedin, President of the Egyptian Hotel Association (EHA). / BAT Egypt, Egyptian Hotel Association sign public place smoking MoU / Zawya.com (ae), Friday, February 5, 2010.

The whole country is smoking.
— Panayiotis Behrakis, the head of a steering committee set up to oversee the implementation of the Greek smoking ban. / Smoking ban ‘not working’ / Kathimerini (gr), Friday, February 5, 2010.

CTP is concerned that children and adolescents may find dissolvable tobacco products particularly appealing, given the brightly colored packaging, candy-like appearance and easily concealable size of many of these products.
— Dr. Lawrence Deyton, director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products in a letter to RJR and Star about the companies' smokeless products that are consumed like breath mints but made from finely milled tobacco. / FDA concerned dissolvable tobacco appeals to kids / AP, Thursday, February 4, 2010.

Gosh. I step away for a couple of years and there's no telling what's going to happen.
— Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, on the Citizen's United verdict. / Former Justice O’Connor Sees Ill in Election Finance Ruling / New York Times, Wednesday, January 27, 2010.

These two cases [Citizens United and Caperton] should be a warning to states that still choose their judges by popular election. We can anticipate that labor unions and trial lawyers, for instance, might have the financial means to win one particular state judicial election. And maybe tobacco firms and energy companies have enough to win the next one. And if both sides unleash their campaign spending monies without restrictions, then I think mutually-assured destruction is the most likely outcome.
— Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, assuming lawyers and unions can match the firepower of corporations. / Former Justice O’Connor Sees Ill in Election Finance Ruling / New York Times, Wednesday, January 27, 2010.

This ruling opens the floodgates for an unlimited amount of special interest money into our democracy. It gives the special interest lobbyists new leverage to spend millions on advertising to persuade elected officials to vote their way – or to punish those who don't. That means that any public servant who has the courage to stand up to the special interests and stand up for the American people can find himself or herself under assault come election time. . . . I can't think of anything more devastating to the public interest.
— President Obama, on the Supreme Court's campaign finance decision. / ‘Fighting’ Obama hits Supreme Court over campaign finance / Christian Science Monitor, Saturday, January 23, 2010.

Every time they cast a vote, [lawmakers] potentially face multimillion-dollar campaigns against them.
— Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, on Thursday's SCOTUS campaign finance decision. / High Court Decision May Bring ‘Cascade’ of Spending (Update1) / Business Week, Friday, January 22, 2010.

I am debilitated because I cannot move. My life is my bed, my spot in the dining room where I read the newspaper, and from there I do not move. I am to blame for the condition that I am in. I deserve it; I sought it out. I picked up this damn cigarette.
— Latin pop icon Sandro (Roberto Sanchez), who recorded 52 albums and acted in 16 movies. He died Jan. 4 after battling emphysema. / Sandro, known as Argentina's Elvis, dies / AP, Tuesday, January 5, 2010.

I'd like to think there was good that came of it, but there wasn't. I know who the winners are. The losers are the American public.
— 69-year-old Merrell Williams, whose groundbreaking secret document disclosures led to lawsuits and eventually, the MSA. / Whistle-blower in Big Tobacco case seeks quiet life in Dunedin / St. Petersburg (FL) Times, Sunday, January 17, 2010.

This case appears to be yet another example of FDA's aggressive efforts to regulate recreational tobacco products as drugs or devices under the FDCA. Ironically, notwithstanding that Congress has now taken the unprecedented step of granting FDA jurisdiction over those products, FDA remains undeterred. Unfortunately, its tenacious drive to maximize its regulatory power has resulted in its advocacy of an interpretation of the relevant law that I find, at first blush, to be unreasonable and unacceptable.
— U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, in his e-cigarettes decision. / Judge OKs imports of e-cigarettes, blasts FDA / Reuters, Thursday, January 14, 2010.

This is a misguided and mind-boggling decision by the court. Nicotine is an addictive drug, and therefore e-cigarettes are a drug delivery system.
— National Research Center for Women & Families President Diana Zuckerman, on Judge Leon's FDA/e-cigarettes decision. / Judge OKs imports of e-cigarettes, blasts FDA / Reuters, Thursday, January 14, 2010.

Plaintiffs who bring such flawed cases need to consider the risk of having to pay the company's legal fees and costs if they lose at trial. The company is committed to trying to recover the fees and costs it incurs in defending these cases, as Florida law allows.
— Murray Garnick, Altria Client Services senior vice president and associate general counsel, speaking on behalf of Philip Morris USA, on the Engle/Cohen case. / Plaintiff Drops Engle Case to Avoid Having to Pay Company's Legal Fees / Altria Group, Inc., Tuesday, January 12, 2010.

An attack on the Seneca Nation is an attack on the economy of Western New York. . . . We are in the infancy of our economy. Let us use [the tobacco trade] to build on, to diversify.
— J.C. Seneca, a successful tobacco entrepreneur who also is co-chairman of the tribe's Foreign Relations Committee, on the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act, which would bar the U.S. Postal Service from delivering cigarettes. / Senecas confront tobacco roadblock / Buffalo (NY) News, Monday, January 11, 2010.

Do they really expect us to fall for the canard that cigarette tax evasion is an economic-development engine?
— James S. Calvin, president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores, on Seneca Nation opposition to the PACT Act. / Senecas confront tobacco roadblock / Buffalo (NY) News, Monday, January 11, 2010.

This is like someone just put a bunch of plutonium in the water supply.
— Stanton A. Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at UCSF, on Sigourney Weaver's smoking-in-space character. / 'Avatar' Joins Holiday Movies That Fail an Antismoking Test / New York Times, Monday, January 4, 2010.

I don't believe in the dogmatic idea that no one in a movie should smoke. Movies should reflect reality.
— "Avatar" director James Cameron, on Sigourney Weaver's smoking-in-space character. / 'Avatar' Joins Holiday Movies That Fail an Antismoking Test / New York Times, Monday, January 4, 2010.

Nick Naylor: Now, what we need is a smoking role model, a real winner. . . . two packs a day. . . .
Jeff Megall: Sony has a futuristic sci-fi movie they're looking to make.
Nick Naylor: Cigarettes in space?
Jeff Megall: It's the final frontier, Nick.
Nick Naylor: But wouldn't they blow up in an all-oxygen environment?
Jeff Megall: [long pause] Probably. But, you know, it's an easy fix. One line of dialogue: 'Thank God we created the, you know, whatever device.'
— Scene from "Thank You for Smoking" / 'Avatar' Joins Holiday Movies That Fail an Antismoking Test / New York Times, Monday, January 4, 2010.

Even as recently as a decade ago, this was unthinkable.
— Ferrel Guillory, a professor and political expert at UNC Chapel Hill, on the state's smoking b an. / No more lighting up when you're eating out / Charlotte (NC) Observer, Thursday, December 31, 2009.

These mutations are a bit like Russian roulette. Most of the time you will hit an empty chamber and cause a passenger mutation. But every now and again you will hit a bullet and cause a tumour.
— Professor Peter Campbell, who led the team that examined genetic mutations in lung cancer cells. / British scientists crack killer cancer code / Electronic Telegraph (uk), Thursday, December 17, 2009.

The characters and plots would lack depth and expressive force without the hovering smoke on stage, the poignant exhale of a puff of smoke and even the ability or inability to smoke.
— Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hobbs, who in his dissenting opinion called alternative smoking devices "untenable and even laughable" and wrote that onstage smoking is critical to setting mood and developing characters. / Colorado Supreme Court upholds ban of smoking on stage / Denver (CO) Post, Tuesday, December 15, 2009.

Aspire to contribute to society/Tobacco helps you become a talent.
— Slogan on a board at "Tobacco Project Hope Primary School," which was built with money from China Tobacco. / EDITORIAL: Harmful donation? / China Daily (cn), Monday, December 14, 2009.

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