The price that America pays for nicotine is too high. According to the CDC, smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the US, causing 443,000 or about 1 of every 5 deaths annually. According to the American Lung Association, smoking cost the United States over $193 billion in 2004.
Nicotine is an addictive poison, it feels good at first then increasing amounts are needed to prevent withdrawal symptoms, just like narcotics.
It is unacceptable in our "civil" nation that there are companies thriving on selling addictive poisons to people. Legislation should not be impacted by lobbyists for the tobacco industry. It is the duty of the US government to protect the public from poisonous nicotine. Make the commercial manufacturing and selling of tobacco products illegal.