The tobacco industry spent decades lying to the public about the health effects of its products and waging sophisticated marketing campaigns targeting children and low-income populations. As late as 1996, more than three decades after the original Surgeon General's report, tobacco industry executives famously testified -- under oath -- that nicotine isn't addictive and smoking doesn't kill.
Then in 2006, a federal judge found the major cigarette companies guilty of intentionally defrauding smokers and potential smokers for financial gain. Because the evidence established that the industry was likely to engage in continued fraud, the judge ordered the large tobacco companies to make "corrective statements" admitting their wrongdoing.
We have a long way to go to end suffering and death from tobacco use. Smoking will kill nearly half a million people in America this year and cost the country a staggering $130 billion in health care costs and lost productivity.