CIGARETTE CHEMIST DEVISED WACKY TOBACCY WITH ODOR OF POT

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Brown & Williamson Tobacco, seeking ways to cash in
on the popularity of marijuana in the 1970s, developed a cigarette
that mimicked the drug's smell, according to industry documents.

A company chemist noted in a June 3, 1974, memo that mixing Virginia
and Turkish tobaccos, pekoe teas, alfalfa and oregano produced "a
foreign taste, liked by some, with a sidestream aroma easily mistaken
for marijuana."

The tobacco "should have great appeal to marijuana smokers," the
chemist wrote. "Alternate uses might include a curiosity item,
research placebo or educational tool."

Company spokesman Mark Smith told the Saint Paul Pioneer Press that
the idea went nowhere. Smith said it was "independent thinking" by an
employee and the kind of ill-conceived idea that could show up in the
files of any industry.

"The proof of whether a company's responsible or not lies in the fact
that these ideas never went very far," Smith said.

Smith said that the company has "absolutely zero interest in
marijuana" and that he had no information on what happened to the chemist.

The memo was among confidential industry documents made public as a
result of the state's $6.6 billion legal settlement with the cigarette
makers.