“We ‘re going to take the Marlboro Man to court. “
— Florida Governor Lawton Chiles
Despite overwhelming epidemiological evidence that cigarette smoking causes cancer, and that addictive nicotine in tobacco keeps smokers smoking, our legal system has yet to allow a recovery against the tobacco industry for the massive harms it knowingly causes. Plaintiff smokers have sought recovery, only to be thwarted by affirmative defenses of assumption of the risk and contributory negligence, preemption of their claims by federal cigarette labeling laws, the difficulty of proving that cigarette smoking causes cancer, and the enormous resources of the $45 billion per year tobacco industry.
After forty years of unsuccessful lawsuits against the tobacco industry, a new plaintiff has come forward. In 1994, Florida and Massachusetts passed legislation enabling the states to bring suit against the tobacco industry to recover Medicaid costs of treating smoking-related illnesses.