Launch? No, the "conspiracy" was launched a long time ago...about the same time the multinational pharmaceutical companies climbed in bed with the antis in a global plan to capture the nicotine market. Actually, it started long before that, but the multi-billion-dollar contract between WHO and the Big 3 drug companies that manufacture "smoking cessation" devices and products has fueled it to its current height.
There's money on both sides.
So-called Big Tobacco's war chest is dwarfed by that on the other side which includes the Charity Cartel, the pharmaceuticals, and Big Government.
The posters here have, for the most part, been debating health as well as rights.
I'm well aware of what the posters here debate. Both issues are made more complex than they need to be by the inside workings of the behemoths on all sides. Simply put healthwise, direct smoking is a risk and about 1/3 of lifetime smokers will suffer a "smoking-related" illness, about half of them will succumb to those illnesses past the age of 75; nearly 20% after age 85. Many nonsmokers suffer those same illnesses or variations thereof. Many other factors determine whether or not that will happen, including genetics. Human beings do a lot of things that may not be "good for" them, but they have the absolute right--or SHOULD have--to do so. A group of healthists led by C. Everett Koop said, in essence, we see no value in smoking and it's hurting a lot of people, and everyone knows how corrupt the tobacco industry is, so we'll tell people smoking is bad for them and they'll stop.
Problem was that people didn't stop. Well, about half of them did, the rest the antis call "hardcore" smokers and they/we require "special measures." That realization sent the anti-smoker cabal back to the drawing board and they determined the only way to force these recalcitrant scofflaws who continued to smoke into quitting was to make others think the smoke hurt them. The State of Minnesota in their 1984 Plan for Nonsmoking: "Any means necessary must be used to de-socialize smokers,smoking must be equated with drugs sex and violence, the smoker must be isolated from the rest of society... high taxation on tobacco products will make the price unacceptable."
There are 32.000+ anti-smoker groups sucking at the public teat and they are all very well fed. To call the current systematic destruction of liberties in the guise of public health a "conspiracy" is true but not necessarily accurate. And I'm too tired tonight to explain the difference.
If there are "doctors" here, and they're honest, they'll point to studies and avoid the conspiracy theories.
They are not mutually exclusive. If you actually studied the "studies" and were honest about it, you'd be hard pressed to call it anything BUT a conspiracy.