Nicely put: Apt insights from the tobacco control community and others

For our first entry we go back a quarter of a century, and over to the auto industry. Ford's cardiovascular intervention program was meant to encourage its employees to adopt healthier behaviours, like quitting smoking. When Philip Morris heard of the program, a meeting was arranged between the program's coordinator and as high a personage as Dr William L Dunn, who suggested a certain modification. After the meeting, the coordinator wrote to Dunn :

“As to your offer to supply cigarettes to those in the program who find it hard or impossible to quit at reduced prices with varying levels of tar and nicotine, I believe that you have misunderstood the purpose of the program. The intent is not to provide volunteers with alternative ways of maintaining those habits which elevate one's probable risk of heart disease. Our goal is to extinguish such habits.

March 21, 1974. Letter from Donald I Beard, coordinator, cardiovascular intervention program (Ford Motor Company), to Dr William L Dunn, associate principal scientist, Philip Morris, USA. URL: http://www.pmdocs.com/getimg.asp?docid=1003288771 . Source: Anne Landman's Daily Document: Ford Motor Company. “Tobacco BBS” 1999 August 18. URL: http://www.tobacco.org/Documents/dailydoc/990818ddford.html

In the USA, the powerful libertarian movement espouses a philosophy of laissez faire, with a special focus …