These people are just PR for a series of evil corporations.

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Spiked

> The genetic fallacy (also known as the fallacy of origins or fallacy of virtue)[1] is a fallacy of irrelevance in which arguments or information are dismissed or validated based solely on their source of origin rather than their content. In other words, a claim is ignored or given credibility based on its source rather than the claim itself.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_fallacy

This must be why they spend so much time and effort disguising their funding sources. They're just worried that people will dismiss it as corporate propaganda if they don't, and they really want their arguments to be evaluated on their rhetorical strength alone.

It probably states that in the secret contracts they sign with their secret funders. No way to know for sure of course.

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Institute_of_Economic_Affairs

When cannabis was first outlawed, there were all sorts of supporting arguments. Those were later re-evaluated and found wanting.

We can see the flaws in the current arguments for outlawing tobacco; but "this time its different" so we'll do the same stupid shit once again.