Phillip Morris.... Tax Deductible?

Philip Morris - Tax Deductible??                   - 10/10/2002

So, I'm watching the news and I see this lady in California got $28 billion dollars from Philip Morris for smoking and now she has terminal cancer of the lungs and liver.  I'm thinking, "hmmmm.... I should probably stop smoking"....  And then I grabbed my pack of Marlboros...  So, am I logical to think that because I smoke cigarettes made by Philip Morris therefore paying off this $28 billion dollar judgment to this woman, who is then going to give the money to go to helping keep children from smoking and stuff like that....  Well, I don't really want kids smoking either - it's a bad habit to have.  Believe me, I know.  I'm 23 with the lungs of an unhealthy 60-year old... So, I'm wondering if maybe I am in effect contributing to charity...and can I claim this on my taxes?  If so, that means I can write off my cigarettes... I smoke over a pack a day...  That amounts to a lot of money, that is for sure.  I wonder.....  well, logically it works, but legally it probably doesn't.  Maybe I should ask H&R Block.  They'll probably think I'm crazy, but hell, the IRS gave out fucking a shitload of money to some black people for a slave clause in the tax law that never even existed.... How retarded are those people up there, I wonder... if they do that sort of thing, surely they can let me write off my cigarettes... jeez... it's not THAT much...  If that got out there though, and they had to do that for all the smokers out there - apparently around 46 million adults - then I'd be willing to bet somehow Congress would have to step in because that would be screwing around with their money (tax dollars)... Then cigarettes would be outlawed, like prohibition..... 

I did think it was funny though that there was the testimony of the CEO of Philip Morris in 1998 saying if someone would prove to him that smoking cigarettes had caused one person to die, then he'd shut down the doors to his factories.  Yeah, right, isn't Marlboro the #1 kind of cigarette in the country...??? That is a huge company, making tons and tons of $$$$$$.  They own KRAFT, I think.  As in Kraft Macaroni & Cheese... hahahaha....

It would be a nice tax right off though... It's a thought, damnit....