La Tour de Garde du 1er juin 1973 a décidé que les Témoins baptisés qui refusaient de renoncer au tabac « should therefore be removed from the congregation », et que les personnes qui continuaient à en consommer ne remplissaient pas les conditions pour être baptisées.

“If persons already baptized are not willing to abandon their addiction to damaging and enslaving products, what then? Then they show that, like Esau, they do not ‘appreciate sacred things,’ preferring such habits to the privilege of being part of Jehovah’s clean people. They should therefore be removed from the congregation due to such conduct unbecoming a Christian.”

“In 1935, The Watchtower called tobacco “the filthy weed” and noted that no one who chose to chew it or smoke it could remain a member of the Bethel family or serve as a representative of God’s organization in the pioneer work or the traveling ministry. In 1973 a further moral refinement came. … Those who refused to give up the misuse of tobacco were to be disfellowshipped.”