Ryan Arms, 24, shows his take of free cigarettes Tuesday, June 11, 2002, at the Back Door Lounge in Louisville, Ky., from representatives of R.J. Reynolds, maker of Camel, Winston and Salem brands. The representatives show up twice a week to hand out two free packs to anyone willing to show ID, answer a couple of consumer questions and sign a waiver promising not to sue. (AP Photo/Brian Bohannon)
meanwhile ...
June 11 -- $5,133.47 a cigarette. That's how much the jury awarded plaintiff Richard Boeken last week when it told Philip Morris to pay him $3 billion for having enabled his smoking habit, according to calculations by reader Nathan Clark by WSJ OpinionJournal "Best of the Web" (June 8). "Based on Boeken's claim that he smoked two packs a day for 40 years, Clark figured Boeken had smoked 584,000 cigarettes", which divided into $3 billion "comes to $5,133.47 per cigarette Boeken smoked. Look for a big increase in teen smoking as word gets around the schoolyards that it's a ticket to untold wealth."