Abandoned by tobacco One of the stranger lawsuits in the litigious frenzy over tobacco has to be the one threatened by more than 4,000 tobacco growers in 14 states, including Florida and Georgia. The industry, naturally, denies the allegation that it is a foster parent for U.S. tobacco farmers. The farmers' beef actually is with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, not cigarette-makers.
Bureaucrats determine how much leaf tobacco farmers can grow.
Quotas have been slashed by more than a third and the lawsuit alleges that the government's formula factors in the fact that domestic tobacco use is down. The tobacco industry also is defendant in a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department, alleging the industry conspired for years to hide the health effects of smoking from the public. In December, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a dispute between cigarette-makers and the Food and Drug Administration, which wants to regulate nicotine as a drug. Cigarette wholesalers filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that cigarette-makers illegally have fixed prices since the 1980s. Since the trial lawyers and state attorneys general struck it rich with lawsuits against the industry, there has been a rush to the courthouse by a variety of plaintiffs, ranging from those seeking a continuing source of income to those who simply want to kill the industry.