Remember the Marlboro Man? Joe Camel? Fred Flintstone selling cigarettes on television? 

Those ads now look almost absurd because Americans eventually learned how aggressively the tobacco industry marketed an addictive product—and responded by restricting the kinds of advertising that once made smoking seem normal, harmless, and even cool. In the newest episode of High Stakes, Dr. Kevin Sabet argues that the same basic playbook is resurfacing as powerful companies look for new ways to profit from addiction. 

Kevin is joined by historian and addiction expert David Courtwright, author of The Age of Addiction: How Bad Habits Became Big Business. Courtwright has spent decades studying drugs, addiction, and the industries built around them. His work popularized the term “limbic capitalism”: a system in which companies increasingly design, market, and distribute products that exploit the brain’s reward pathways and turn repeated consumption into profit. 

Their conversation examines what the history of tobacco can teach us about today’s marijuana industry, why businesses built around addictive products depend so heavily on frequent users, and what happens when commercial incentives collide with public health. 

• Tobacco Harm Reduction?
• EXPLAINER: How rescheduling marijuana hands Mexican and Chinese cartels a giant financial incentive
• Why Big Tobacco, Big Alcohol, and Big Pharma are all in on weed
• Are the Tobacco and Alcohol Industries Teaching the Marijuana Industry How to Market to Kids?
• Friday Fact: Individuals who co-used marijuana and tobacco were 2.93 times more likely to develop psychosis than individuals who did not use either substance.