In 2018, the campaigns for and against I-185 made it the most expensive ballot measure race in Montana history. Who was pouring cash into the campaign to defeat the ballot?
Altria Client Services, the lobbying arm of the parent company Altria, made up 98 percent of all the contributions to Montanans Against Tax Hikes, the committee formed to defeat the ballot measure. That was the largest amount of money the company ever spent on any proposed ballot measure nationwide! Why?
Defeating this tax initiative meant killing proposed funding earmarked toward healthcare expansion for the citizens of Montana. It also meant evading a tax hike on cigarettes that were already killing our citizens. For Altria, it was all about profits and nothing about what was good for Montana.
Altria then decided getting into the marijuana industry would be a money-maker. Unfortunately, after they purchased 45% of Cronos, a Canadian pot producing company, the stock tanked. So, what moves did Altria make to try to pivot from the losses?
They applied for patents on vaporizing tools used to smoke marijuana. They also set out to get marijuana legalized in as many states as possible. With cigarette smoking on the decline, they have switched to lighting a more potent product – and they are blowing the smoke into the faces of Montanans in hopes of blinding us before we hit the ballot box.
We need to send a clear message to Altria that Montana is not for sale. We need to let them know that Montana is not California or Colorado, where legalized marijuana has brought its own set of illegal issues that the states now have to deal with.
Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/sep/12/worlds-biggest-tobacco-companies-aim-to-kill-montana-healthcare-initiative
https://www.mtpr.org/post/record-spending-against-montanas-i-185-tobacco-tax
https://www.mtpr.org/post/record-26m-spent-defeated-tobacco-tax-measure-montana
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisroberts/2020/10/02/tobacco-giant-altria-is-securing-technology-in-new-frontier-marijuana/#556647314af9
https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/11/29/heres-how-much-altria-has-lost-on-its-cronos-inves.aspx
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