If a settlement materializes that grants legal immunity to the tobacco companies, their stocks would soar. This would decrease demand and provide for a significant share of smoking-related healthcare expenses. There is not even a hint of Daynard's tough position in the Liggett settlement agreements. Thus, settling plaintiffs have become de facto partners of the cigarette company, and the company has attained the status of a regulated industry. The Alabama settlement disturbs some of the state attorneys general.
Cigarettes are ultra-hazardous products.
They're dangerous when they are used as they're intended to be used. Yet the Liggett agreements do protect at least that one company. A busted small-time drug dealer may avoid incarceration if he turns in the drug cartel, but he won't gain the right to resume selling drugs. Anti-tobacco forces have mounted hundreds of lawsuits. The federal government has proposed regulating tobacco through the Food and Drug Administration.