My memory

When I was a freshman in high-school, our class had a rare opportunity to meet one of the scientists who was on the verge of creating a breakthrough with his research. His team was contracted by big tobacco companies approximately between the 60's and 80's to create a safer, non-addictive, alternative version of cigarettes. At the time, the tobacco companies fear the health risks that the products are causing their consumers. More specifically, they were afraid of the potential lawsuits that was coming their way. After countless failures with the lab rats, they finally created a batch of non-cancerous chemicals to replace the ones that was found in cigarettes. After reporting the results to their boss, the tobacco companies decided to abruptly halt the research. Some of the researchers were not happy. Those who weren't happy, were fired. Effective immediately. They were ordered to killed all the rats, hand over their research, and shut down the lab. One man, the person who was giving us the presentation, decided to sneak into the lab and retrieve his research...along with one rat. He immediately went home and decided to hire a lawyer to protect himself. Bad mistake. After gaining the researcher's trust, the lawyer ransacked the home and stole the research. A message was left to the researcher. I can't recalled the message, but it was probably somewhere along the line of "FUCK YOU". Apparently, the lawyer was working for the big tobacco companies the whole time. At the end of the presentation, the guest speaker held out a plastic bag with a dead rat in it. It was the only thing left of his research.

My research

Years later, his story was ingrained in my head. I didn't know why, but the story resonated with me. I decided to do some research to see if he's the real deal or just some wacko that my school had hired. I typed in "nicotine+tobacco+1994+rats+lab+research"and I found a newspaper article. This is what I got...