If it were broadly accepted out that smoking is genuinely protective from CV, it would break the American public health establishment, which is basically an anti-smoking lobby. Of course, they're more likely to ignore any evidence in that direction as long as they possibly can.

Maybe we'll just get expert-promoted Reefer Madness rather than the Surgeon General appearing on stage with the Marlboro Man. "Post hoc analyses revealed lifetime marijuana only users had significantly lower IL-6 levels (M=2.20 pg/mL, SD=1.93)" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24799289