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  • 2014-01-22 (xsd:date)
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  • Has Phillip Morris Introduced 'Marlboro M' Marijuana Cigarettes? (en)
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  • At least as far back as the 1960s, rumors have circulated that major tobacco companies were preparing to enter the marijuana cigarette market in anticipation of the imminent legalization of pot in the U.S., buying up marijuana fields in Mexico, designing new cigarette packages, and trademarking potential brand names such as Panama Red and Acapulco Gold. Such rumors were nothing more than the product of fanciful imagination and wishful thinking, but now that state of Colorado has legalized marijuana use, and more states are sure to follow, those claims no longer sound quite so far-fetched. Those rumors of old were played upon in an article published on 21 January 2014 (and republished on 30 March 2015) by the web site Abril Uno, positing that tobacco giant Phillip Morris had announced the company would be entering the marijuana cigarette market with a brand called Marlboro M: By the following day links and excerpts referencing this article were being circulated via social media and re-posted on other web sites, with many of those who encountered it mistaking it for a genuine news item. However, this article was just a spoof from the Abril Uno web site, whose name translates as April One (i.e., April Fool's Day). Disclaimers on the web site's pages note that: On 26 October 2015 the fake news site Now8News stole Abril Uno's concept and published an article headlined Philip Morris Marlboro ‘M’ Brand Marijuana Cigarettes Now For Sale In Four U.S. States, similarly (and falsely) reporting that: The web site Top Rated VIRAL republished the Now8News article verbatim, with updated dates, in September 2016. (en)
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