To the Editor:
Holman Jenkins has certainly captured the irony involved in the states' de facto partnership with the tobacco industry, ostensibly to protect the continuing influx of settlement dollars into state coffers ("Look Who's Falling in Love...", April 26). However, he is wrong about a few points:
He agrees with the tobacco industry's favorite argument, that "everyone knows cigarettes are bad," so smokers ask for what they get, i.e., cancer and emphysema. No other industry is held to such a lax standard of informing their customers of the inherent risks of using their product. Studies have shown that smokers have only the vaguest notion of the spectrum of diseases and disabilities produced by smoking, nor are they aware that these dangers persist for many years after quitting--for those few who are able to kick the nicotine habit.
Why should Mr. Jenkins be "surprised" that the billions of dollars the tobacco ad agencies spend annually on "obfuscation" has convinced millions of the benefits of joining the tobacco club? Could they know something about the psychology of marketing that he doesn't?
The law and the market will never permit the cigarette companies to go bankrupt, despite their cleverly timed, dire predictions. Even if such a punitive award were decided upon by the Engle jury, it could not stand, as the law does not permit such a devastating effect, even if richly deserved.