Two years ago, we wrote about the perverse incentives that would be created by linking states income to the success of the cigarette industry. Now several states are helping the most powerful cigarette corporation stay in business to addict more new customers to the worlds most widely fatal drug. State governments, once among the tobacco industrys ercest foes, now find themselves in an unusual position: They are poised to try to rescue the countrys biggest cigarette maker in one of its darkest hours. In 1996, Washington state ttorney General Christine Gregoire sued the countrys biggest cigarette companies, entually extracting hundreds of millions of dollars in settlement money for her states citizens. The tobacco industry has targeted our kids, withheld safer products and deliberately misled the public about the safety of smoking, Ms. Gregoire said at the time. er efforts, along with those of other state attorneys general, constituted the firs

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