Smokers’ Illnesses

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For more than three decades, every pack of cigarettes sold in the United States has borne an inscription that says, in effect, “These things will kill you.” Long before the inclusion of the surgeon general’s warning, smokers with even a modicum of intelligence knew that cigarettes weren’t good for them.

Despite the incontrovertible evidence of the dangers of tobacco, it has remained a legal product. Rather than attempt the politically impossible task of banning tobacco in the interest of public health and safety, the government has instead highly regulated it and made it one of the highest-taxed commodities in America.

Are we to believe, then, that a group of sick Florida smokers who filed a lawsuit against the tobacco industry for allegedly dispensing a “defective product” indulged in their habit without any clue that they were jeopardizing their health? Did a Florida jury exact justice when it awarded plaintiffs in the class action punitive damages totaling $145 billion? (Yes, that’s billion, with a “b”.)

On both counts, no way. When this ludicrous verdict is appealed in state and federal courts, it should be summarily overturned.

Anyone whose health has been ruined by an addiction to tobacco deserves sympathy. But the Florida plaintiffs –– and their lawyers, operating on contingency fees –– should not be permitted to profit from their sickness. Big Tobacco did not foist off on them a deadly product under false pretenses. The Florida case is a classic example of the legal concept of contributory negligence. The plaintiffs puffed on their cigarettes with the full knowledge that such behavior was self-destructive.

This is not the first time that a state court has assessed actual and punitive damages against tobacco companies, although none of the previous verdicts approached this one in terms of dollars. Not one of those cases survived the appeal process, and the tobacco companies have escaped paying out a cent in damages. In every instance, appellate courts ruled that plaintiffs knew what they were doing when they lit up and were thus not legally entitled to a monetary award.

In the unlikely event that an appeal results in an affirmation of the Florida judgment, the tobacco industry will of course be destroyed. And destruction of this, the most politically incorrect of businesses, is part and parcel a motive for the lawsuit.

But even more important, no business in America will be safe from its alleged victims. It will just be a matter of time before alcoholics file a class action against brewers and distillers, before those injured by their handling of guns go after the firearms industry, before people who gamble away their savings haul the Las Vegas casinos into court, before the cholesterally challenged sue those evil, egg-laying chickens.

Tobacco is indeed a menace to public health. It would be more appropriate then, for Congress to simply muster the political courage to ban the growing of the golden leaf and the manufacture and consumption of cigarettes. To attempt to destroy the tobacco industry through litigation is backdoor hypocrisy.

The Florida plaintiffs are engaging in what has become one of America’s favorite pastimes, casting oneself as a victim and looking for somebody else, anybody else, to blame. And the plaintiffs are indeed victims –– victims of their own premeditated stupidity. They don’t deserve to cash in on it.

Pro Sports’ Dark Side

Carolina Panther Rae Curruth is charged with the murder of his pregnant girlfriend. Charlotte Hornet Bobby Phils dies in an auto accident caused by his racing with teammate David Wesley. Former Panther Fred Lane’s wife shoots him to death by his wife in a domestic dispute. Hornet Anthony Mason faces charges of inciting a riot and assaulting a police officer. Hornet Derrick Coleman has one run-in with the law after another.