We didn't have a federal law in the US for age restriction on tobacco until the 90s. As far as I can tell tobacco wasn't regulated at all until after the cigare

We didn't have a federal law in the US for age restriction on tobacco until the 90s. As far as I can tell tobacco wasn't regulated at all until after the cigarette roller was invented (1881) and tobacco was pushed onto society in massive quantities. Even then it took 2 years for a single state to pass age restrictions on cigarettes and it wasn't until 1939 that all states had a law. Some states even removed the law before it was federally unforced in the 90s. My point is that if an industry has enough money and influence it doesn't actually matter if it's bad for people. Businesses will sell anything to anyone as long as it's profitable. We've known tobacco can cause cancer for almost as long as cigarettes have existed. source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4902755/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4902755/