Robert J. Samuelson

About the author: Robert J. Samuelson is a nationally syndicated columnist.

The 1998 tobacco settlement, in which tobacco companies have agreed to pay partial compensation to states for the health care costs of treating smoking-related illnesses, is counterproductive. For one thing, the resulting increase in cigarette prices will unfairly tax smokers, many of whom are poor. Furthermore, the agreement will further confuse the public about who should bear the ultimate responsibility for the consequences of smoking: the individual, the government, or the tobacco industry. Unfortunately, moreover, the success of the antismoking campaign of the 1990s is likely to encourage misguided attacks on the manufacturers of other legal but risky products such as alcohol and high-fat food.

We may have closure—at least temporarily—to the anti-smoking crusade of the 1990s. The agreement...