"sin" tax. This tax would effectively increase the price of these items and may cause the quantity demanded to decrease from premium priced brands to lower-priced brands. Such a move in domestic demand would cause revenues to decrease and would affect the company's ability to continue its pattern of growth through acquisition (Adelman, 1993, p. 1).
The tobacco industry has also been named in several lawsuits by survivors of smokers who died from lung cancer. During early 1993, one judge ruled that cigarettes are defective and unreasonably dangerous for human consumption as a matter of law. He also ruled that the plaintiff was not negligent because he did not misuse or alter the product and used it as intended. In Mississippi, a new tort reform law (effective July 1, 1994) requires that plaintiffs must prove to the jury in a design effect case (under which most suits are brought) that there was an alternative way to make the product in question. Further, this alternative method must be shown to have eliminated the unsafe aspect of the product (Adelman, 1993,
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