While it s the biggest tobacco company, Altria whose dozens of products include Parliament, Virginia Slims and Skoal was late in jumping into what s become a billion dollar industry. Sales have been growing every year since e cigarettes were introduced in the U.S. around 2007.

RJ Reynolds, the maker of Camel, Kool and Winston, began selling its e cig, Vuse, last year in limited markets.

Last week Reynolds said it would launch a new version of Vuse in Colorado this summer ahead of a national rollout.

Lorillard, the third largest U.S. tobacco company and maker of Newport and Kent, last year bought the company that makes BlueCigs. The brand has been advertised on TV since October in commercials featuring actor Steven Dorff.

Altria s entry really lends credence to the attractiveness of the category, Vivien Azer, tobacco industry analyst at Citigroup, told the Daily News.

Marlboro m? philip morris marlboro marijuana cigarettes ‘report’ is a hoax

Ammonia the key to marlboro’s success – cigarette forum & smokers community

An article titled Phillip Morris Introduces Marlboro Marijuana Cigarettes is from a satirical news website, but that didn t prevent numerous people from sharing it on Facebook as if it were a real thing.

Norcik added that they have begun contacting former drug lords in Mexico and Paraguay, currently the largest marijuana producing countries in the world, for the possibility of setting up a distribution ring across the North and South American continents, to streamline the supply lines, the article reads, while also spelling “Philip Morris” incorrectly.

On the bottom of the article from the website Abril Uno it reads fake news, fictional news as well as satire, spoof.

Abril Uno. All rights reserved. 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, reads a disclaimer at the bottom of the site.

There s other satirical pieces including “Bin Laden s Lair Now a Tourist Attraction, even though the slain al Qaeda leader s home was destroyed years ago, and Facebook Discontinues Fan Pages Users Will Soon Pay to See Friends Posts, which isn t true.

But a large number of people thought the marijuana article was real.

This story is so ignorant it hurts!!! I was quit interested until I got to the part where it told about Phillip Morris being in contact with former drug lords for a possible distribution ring&#8230 .OMG!!! said one commenter.

Added another, Damn I called this in 01&#8242 .

Several weeks ago, a satire site called the Daily Currant posted an article about marijuana in Colorado killing several dozen people, which many people shared and tweeted, getting more than 1.5 million “likes” on Facebook.