Tobacco.org

Court Butts Out Cigarette Ruling 

In "Tobacco, Smoking, and Insider Trading," Cato senior fellow Robert A. Levy writes, "The purpose of cigarette ads, like automobile ads, is to encourage consumers to switch brands. Ads are not the cause of the problem.

"That said, if the plaintiffs in a tobacco suit can prove that they were defrauded, that they became addicted prior to age 18 by the industry's deception, and if tobacco indeed caused their illness, then they may have a decent legal argument. But if they're not addicted by age 18, at that point they're adults. They're the same adults who are allowed to go to war and kill people, allowed to vote and decide who is going to run the country, to get married, to get divorced, to have an abortion, and those decisions are no less weighty than the decision to smoke cigarettes."

Levy concludes, "If an adult can choose to stop and he doesn't, then he assumes the risk. And we can't hold the tobacco companies responsible, least of all on a retroactive basis."

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