But why would they do such a thing? Why would they play a part in reducing sales of its own products?

Marketing & publicity isn't all about showing the next new "Coca-Cola" product, or linking a rich footballer to a particular brand of car. There's another side to public relations.

A side which the tobacco industry is all too familiar with after the last decade or so of "anti-cigarette" culture.

When Chelsea and England footballer Ashley Cole was caught recently with his trousers down, you can be sure his management team will have employed the very best 'Public Relations' talent money can buy.

Their job has nothing to do with showing the talented left-back in a good light. Its all about "Damage Limitation", and they will release "news" which says what it needs to say, because thats how it works.

Whilst tobacco by its very nature, guarantee's a large portion of newspaper column inch's, more recently the cannabis debate has taken up the lions share of the press, and its a fair bet the tobacco industry, or rather its powerful government lobby, has played its part in this.

Lobbies from the tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceutical industries spend a fortune lobbying Parliament, or rather, lobbying the politicians. Literally millions of pounds every year in champers-fueled junkets, and you can be absolutely sure, cannabis is discussed often, as together these three industries stand to lost trillions of pounds sterling if cannabis is decriminalised for personal use.

Over night.

So its a sure bet a lot of those newspaper reports are penned by people with conflicting interests, between public health, and personal gains.

So all the while, the tobacco industry is playing ball and "helping" reduce cigarette sales, whilst helping keep cannabis in the news with ridiculous claim after claim concerning trumped up health issues.

In the meantime, while the loud and public anti-cannabis diversion carries on in the press, sales of other types of tobacco — such as snuff, roll-your-own tobacco and small cigars — increased by the equivalent of 1.1 billion packs of cigarettes based on tobacco and nicotine content.

So while the amount of cigarettes may be down, the tobacco industry is actually "building back up" the amount of nicotine it sells. Nicotine as we know, is the most addictive of all drugs, bar-none.

The fear, is the increase of the other types of tobacco might have offset any public health gains of the reduced cigarette sales and its exactly the same situation with alcohol.

Carrots & Sticks
Whilst government and the alcohol industry are seen to be making all the right noises, the fact is the Great British public is so strung out on their booze-fix (and this from a recovering alcoholic), that the supermarkets are using price-capping tactics, by absorbing any tax-rises themselves, essentially taking a hit on the alcohol, but selling more tins of beans as a result, as the punters stock up on both at the same time. 

Nett result, is the price of alcohol hardly changes after a budget, PLUS, they sell a lot of beans.

Add to that all the press on the way up to a budget, and it all adds up to an hugely effective marketing campaign which actually increases alcohol sales.

Now thats clever marketing.

The fact is once cannabis is decriminalised for personal use, it too, will form a government lobby. There-after the decades of anti-cannabis lies the world has been subjected to, will be systematically dismantled, as the truth, as is inevitable, gets out.

Whether you like it or not, cannabis is a highly versatile and massively beneficial plant to us as a species.

Unless the Liberal Democrats win the next general election, (they are the only party offering to "decriminalise" cannabis for personal use, whilst maintaining its controlled, "class C" status - a great policy), a change in the law isn't likely to happen anytime soon, as both the Labour and Conservative party are quite determined in their anti-cannabis stance.

But once the next generation of politicians stops abusing itself with drugs whilst in university, and breaks through into main-stream politics, then the inevitable WILL happen, when literally millions turn their backs on tobacco, alcohol, plus a lot of "generic" over the counter pain-killers, once and for all.

Now ask yourself again - why exactly, is cannabis illegal?

Thought of the day;
How is it so many jounalists have such strong views on cannabis, yet none of them actually use it? I think one or two may well be telling fibs, don't you?

Canna Zine - Daily zine for the global cannabis scene - Join us!

Set up in February 2007, the Canna Zine is the first-in-the-world news agency dedicated to the global issues surrounding cannabis and hemp. To post your free cannabis or hemp press release, sign up for a free account on http://pr.cannazine.co.uk , post your news release, and the Canna Zine will do the rest.

Canna Zine - more 'evolution' than revolution! A new era in postitive response communications.

Got a story to tell?
Let us help you tell it to as many people as possible, via the PR Canna Zine press portal - a sure way of getting your press release read by the people who make decisions, including Politicians, Police Chief's and News Editors from around the globe.

Notes to Editors;
If you would like to give your newspaper readers the benefit of some balanced and objective cannabis news reports, we have UK citizens, young and old, who are ready to give their reasons for breaking the law. For many, its the first law they have ever broken.