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Tom Lyons: Partnering for profit with cigarette firms 

it struck me as funny when then-Speaker of the House Marco Rubio said, back when the tax bill was coming up for a vote, that though he was a staunchly anti-tax guy, he leaned toward voting for this one.

"I'm not against it if it's designed to get people to stop smoking," he explained.

Heck, that leaves me worried about the rich. Those who can't feel the pain of a little dollar-a-pack tax increase won't get the benefits of this tax-enforced social engineering. And why should the wealthy be left behind as state lawmakers save thousands of not-so-affluent Floridians from an early death?

Actually, the experts agree that most smokers who haven't already quit despite previous tax increases and decades of health warnings are mostly the solidly addicted who will not stop now, either. . . .

Florida, despite its stated anti-smoking efforts, is just becoming a bigger stakeholder in the tobacco industry. More than ever, state government will now share the industry's profit-hungry motive to keep cigarette sales legal and profitable.

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