RICHMOND, Va. Philip Morris International Inc. said Wednesday it plans to enter the growing electronic cigarette business late next year and accelerate the launch of its reduced risk products.

How e cigarettes have become a very wild west industry in Canada

E cigarettes have become an exploding industry, worth nearly $2 billion in the U.S. alone, a market that some analysts project will eventually surpass that of traditional cigarettes.

But here, Health Canada has not approved nicotine e cigarettes, creating a regulatory grey zone.

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The seller of Marlboro and other cigarette brands overseas is joining many tobacco companies venturing into smokeless tobacco and other nicotine products to diversify beyond the declining traditional cigarette business as tax increases, health concerns, smoking bans and stigma cut into demand.

Electronic cigarettes are battery powered devices that heat a liquid nicotine solution, creating vapour that users inhale. The category has grown from thousands of users in 2006 to several million worldwide.

Philip Morris International s first foray into the electronic cigarette business will be similar to current products on the market but will offer an an improved taste, CEO Andre Calantzopoulos said Wednesday at the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer Conference in New York. Calantzopoulos said the company is entering the market to get first hand understanding of the category and help shape the regulatory debate.

Company executives in July had dismissed electronic cigarettes, saying they aren t a product that s very close to a traditional cigarette and said it was much more the phenomena of the price than anything else.

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While the future of e cigarettes should be an attractive category for adult consumers, the company believes its next generation products will be more attractive to cigarette smokers, Calantzopoulos said.

The company is developing products that heat tobacco in a cigarette with a controlled heating mechanism or an aerosol nicotine delivery system. It plans to pilot test its next generation products late next year and launch a product that heats tobacco instead of burning it in 2015, ahead of its previously expected launch between 2016 and 2017.

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Our first objective is the development of a series of reduced risk products that provide adult smokers with the taste, sensory experience, nicotine delivery profile and ritual characteristics that match as close as possible those of cigarettes, Calantzopoulos said, adding that the company recently conducted a consumer test in Asia that showed broad appeal for different adult smokers in term of price and taste.

Philip Morris International, based in New York and Switzerland, is the world s second biggest cigarette seller behind state controlled China National Tobacco Corp.

Altria Group Inc. in Richmond, Va., the owner of Philip Morris USA, spun off Philip Morris International as a separate company in 2008. Altria is the largest U.S. cigarette seller.

The Associated Press

Marlboro marijuana cigarettes? phillip morris ‘marlboro m’ colorado article satire goes viral; not real

Packets of ten cigarettes and menthol flavours banned under new eu rules

An article saying Philip Morris has introduced Marlboro M cigarettes filled with marijuana is from a satire news site, but it appears many believed it was real.

The article, published on satire news site Abril Uno, has 1.3 million likes on Facebook.

Phillip Morris, the world s biggest cigarette producer, announced today that they will join the marijuana legalization bandwagon and start producing marijuana cigarettes. Marketed under the brand Marlboro M , the cigarettes will be made available for sale through marijuana licensed outlets in the state of Colorado, and the state of Washington when it becomes commercially legal there later this year, the article reads.

It added that the company have begun contacting former drug lords in Mexico and Paraguay.

But at the bottom of the website, it indicates that it s satire.

The disclaimer reads, Abril Uno (April One, or April Fools in English) is a satire, parody and spoof web publication. Abril Uno uses invented names in all its stories, except in cases where public figures or companies are being satirized, parodied or spoofed. Any resemblance to the truth, actual events, actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and is intended purely as a satire, parody or spoof. All articles contained herein are fiction (“fake”), untrue, and for entertainment only.

A good number of people believed it, but many also pointed out that it s satire.

It’s already treated with chemicals you dummies, just because the cigarette companies are getting involved doesn’t mean that they are going to treat it with more chemicals! You pothead are really dumb now, I can’t imagine how stupid y’all will be when they legalize it everywhere, one commenter said in the website s comments section.

Added another, Only problem is is it just Marijuana or is is a mix of all the crap that is in normal cigs. I dont spoke at all, but if anyone reads i would recommend just getting your marijuana from some were else not a Cigarette company. They are gonna make the non addicting drug, the most addicting.

Despite the website’s claims that it publishes satire, some thought the article simply wasn’t funny or clever.

“1. This story is obviously a spoof. 2. It is amazingly unfunny. All of the Onion wanna bes should just stop it,” said one commenter.