This tobacco "settlement" proves this fact: if they were so concerned about the alleged health dangers of smoking, they would not become a "stockholder," in effect, of these tobacco companies, "stockholders" who will financially benefit from the future sale of cigarettes, bringing them the billions of dollars in extorted booty, billions which will come at the price of the health and well-being of millions who statists claim are being damaged by smoking.
There are those who advise us to follow the money trail to explain the motives of statists in their attacks against tobacco, but money isn’t what they are after either.
Ultimately and fundamentally, they are only interested in power, power over you. Money looted from the treasuries of such companies as tobacco manufacturers has only one interest to statists: it helps fund their efforts to gain more power. They will eventually arrive at some point in the future where they will have the political support, if our current trend continues, to shut these tobacco companies down, long before they collect all of the billions coming to them, and they will do so with great glee, cheerfully surrendering the billions, because it will mean they will have finally arrived at the point where their supremacy and power will be virtually unchallenged and unstoppable.
How many other products do individuals consume or use on a habitual basis, the consumption or use of which would be difficult for them to stop? Depending on the individual, there are all sorts of habits which might be difficult to break: drinking coffee, drinking alcohol, eating chocolate, eating too much food, watching TV, surfing the Internet and the list can go on endlessly. Are these products or activities going to someday become the target of some statist? Yes, if statists have their way. They will attempt to regulate any activity in your life that might be called "addictive."
LINK to entire essay these excerpts are from. Very long but worthy read.