The tobacco industry will sell you the disease and now will sell you the cure.

This came out a couple of weeks ago and apparently this week it became official. Juul, those cutesey little e-cigs that plug into laptop computer and look just like a flash drive, came to completely dominate the e-cig industry incredibly quickly, eating up 75 percent of the market in less than two years.

Altria just invested $13.5 BILLION into Juul, taking ownership of 35 percent of the company.

Juuls sort of advertised themselves as an indie company against the tide of Big Tobacco. No more. Juul IS BIG TOBACCO now, baby. Altria, formerly known as Philip Morris, makers of Marlboro cigarettes.

Here’s the shit that actually pisses me off. From an AP story:

Juul will remain an independent company, but it gains access to Altria’s massive infrastructure and reach. Namely, Altria will help Juul secure space on store shelves beside traditional cigarettes. It will also help Juul reach smokers via cigarette pack inserts and mailings.

Yeah, fuck you, Juul. You’ve been one of the biggest guilty parties, if not THE biggest guilty party, in marketing e-cigs to kids. Now that you’ve got these teenagers hooked on nicotine, you get Altria’s [quote] “massive infrastructure and reach.”