This week's agreement with the industry is designed to cover 46 states. And if Congress had tried to impose restrictions on the advertising of what is still a legal product, it could have run afoul of the First Amendment's free-speech guarantees. Still, we're left with a nagging sense that a desirable social objective will be achieved through the back door. As we have observed before, Congress always had the authority to tax tobacco consumption, to classify nicotine as a drug and even to outlaw cigarettes if it so chose. But the political will has been lacking, and the states and the Food and Drug Administration have moved into the vacuum, sometimes with more zeal than plausibility.
Smoking is indeed a public-health issue and a national issue, at that.
Taxing and regulating tobacco are within the purview of Congress, which has jurisdiction over interstate commerce and the general welfare.