I was under the assumption that conservatives were against using the government to control prices and transfer wealth.
I believe that free traders may or may not also be conservatives. I personally have no problem when business wants to compete in the political market place to forward their issues and concerns. I may not like it when the win but I believe they have the same right to push their agenda as do the smokers.
Unfortunately for the smokers they have the deck stacked against them. The combined forces of economics, "smoking nazi's", and the current culture that rails against smokers puts them at a sever disadvantage in the political market. Prior to the restaurant associations taking a stand on smoking the smokers at least had a fighting chance but know that the trend is for support on smoking bans from restaurants then the battle is lost. The smokers will never gain ground on this issue once the economics is against them.