You are kind of making it up as you go. Big Tobacco has spent over $20 BILLION investing in the vaping business. That is more than just "studying"... that is relocating their business. I do not necessarily disagree with most of what you have said, but when you start with easily disproved nonsense... it casts doubt on your following statements..
No- not making it up- it is what is happening, and not happy about it at all, from a clinical perspective (pharmacology/biochemistry/forensics).
20 billion is minor compared to the cannabis investment upside— and they are heavy into that, as you have observed. FWIW i have excellent sources in regards to vaping patents and marijuana cigarettes/vaping — it is the intent of the “legalization” cannabis effort of several large tobacco firms lobbyists to dominate the pot market, at the same time take back world market losses due to the advent of vaping of nicotine salts in particular. This includes Phillip Morris, Lorillard, and RJ Reynolds, whose warehouses in Brazil friends witnessed stocked with shrink wrapped pallets of cannabis, stacked to the ceiling in temperature controlled rooms ready for cigarette rolling machines. Not hemp, Not CBD only varietals the Israelis have patented—but high THC marijuana)
Here’s one example from last year: https://learnaboutsam.org/altria-philip-morris-big-tobacco-investing-in-marijuana/
And this, about juul,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juul#Investors
35%/12 Billion invested/owned by Altria/Phillip Morris. Have a real problem with the super concentration of nicotine salts, the glycerin, propylene glycol and flavorings-— there was and is no consideration of marketing this as something to be be used to stop smoking. It’s just the opposite, and has its eyes spot on with the fraud that is “medical marijuana”. Have been castigated here by a lot of people who don’t know any pharmacology at all, nor the actual trials, in re: CBD oil for vaping.... vs. the fraud that is THC/marijuana has having “clinical value”. It doesn’t- CBD/hemp does. Gonna stop here— the clinical data are incontrovertible, especially on the genetic mapped regions in re: schizophrenia markers and is why the DEA still has marijuana/THC as a Schedule I agent.
It is RJ Reynolds (and several others) who get their burley tobacco (for chewing tobacco) not from US growers anymore— but from Zimbabwe (and for decades the corrupt commie Mugabe raked off the concessions to his Swiss accounts). Just amazing the lengths they will go for a buck. All for now. Appreciate your comments.