This tax proposal does just the opposite for the thousands of small farm families and rural communities that rely on tobacco crops for income. Yet as a practical matter public health advocates should welcome such a move. Criminal liability is an ineffective means of getting makers of legal goods like cigarettes and guns to change their behavior. Both the laws and their enforcement are often inadequate in such cases. The law of product liability, by contrast, is flexible enough to make adequate enforcement a real possibility. . . .
Cigarettes seem a prime candidate for civil liability.
Companies continue to make tobacco products despite knowing that consumers cannot use them safely. Yet the only victim here is the tobacco industry. As the Government forces the industry to pay more for selling a legal product, one has to wonder how much is enough. . . . The Government's argument that it should be reimbursed for Medicare costs is ludicrous when you consider that smokers paid the price of health care by paying taxes on cigarettes.