The cigarette makers eventually settled with the state for about $17.6 billion.

Big Tobacco is still paying that settlement and it hasn’t been too much of a burden. They just increased the price of cigarettes and went on to deal with other states and the federal government with the money forked over by millions of smokers. In the end, government and lawyers raked in the cash. The tobacco industry did have to change its marketing strategy a bit, but the same cigarettes are still available just about everywhere—selling well enough to generate record profits for the top tobacco companies—and smokers are still getting sick, still dying. …