[mg39]

What savings? It's the TAXES that are forcing people to purchase cigarettes elsewhere. It's the TAXES that are outrageous. Taxes are a separate issue. There would obviously be savings to cigarette companies if it cost them less to aquire the tobacco they use in their cigarettes. It is this saving in cost which Philip Morris, et al, could in theory pass along to their customers. Again, that is a separate issue from taxes. By the way, the tax issue is yet another reason you have little to fear in the way of FDA banning cigarettes.

[bjs1779]

Taxes are a separate issue.

Maybe, maybe not. Big tobacco is losing LOTS of money because people are finding ways to avoid the taxes and the cost of their liability settlements. By agreeing to letting the FDA regulate them, it's a cinch that little tobacco will be effectivly outlawed. That's the way the money trail looks to me anyway.