After a Maryland judge ruled that the state had to present a series of individual victims rather than broad statistical evidence in its case against tobacco firms, the legislature passed a law that would directly assist the state's case, overturning the judge's ruling. The new legislation also barred tobacco companies from arguing that smokers caused their own illnesses by choosing to smoke. Some other states, such as Vermont, have passed similar laws.

In Minnesota, Judge Kenneth J. Fitzpatrick instructed a jury that the state did not even have to show that Medicaid expenses it was blaming on the tobacco industry were actually caused by smoking. A statistician had testified that the state's $1.8 billion damage estimate included costs for treating hemorrhoids, schizophrenia, bone fractures, and other conditions not commonly associated with tobacco use.

[Ed.: It is widely stated in advertisements and public service announcements that secondhand smoke kills 50,000 Americans each year. If, on the other hand, a firm were to claim similarly fraudulent benefits for that number of people on behalf of its product, it would be subject to truth-in-advertising laws.]

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