Sometimes two "wrongs" make a right.

We've all seen the anti-smoking ads that criticize tobacco corporations. But the government is holding these companies less and less responsible for selling tobacco products and shifting the responsibility where it should have been all along: on the consumers.

On Feb. 20, the Supreme Court overturned a $79.5 million ruling by an Oregon jury over a lawsuit against Philip Morris.

Gov. Phil Bredesen is promoting a cigarette tax-hike to support education in Tennessee. Now bad habits like smoking or buying lottery tickets ultimately are used for the good of the community.

The ruling and the tax-hike discourage damaging habits. Smoking needs to be inconvenient in every way possible so it disappears.

The responsibility for bad health should be a personal burden, not a burden on big corporations trying to sell a product.But people make their own decisions-and they should face the consequences. If the state wants to tax bad habits like smoking to highlight the dangers consumers will ultimately face, then consumers will have to adjust their actions accordingly.

Now Tennessee tobacco users not only have to pay extra for their habits, but they are left without a scapegoat. The Supreme Court's 5–4 decision means that consumers are limited in the amount of punitive damages they can collect when suing a company that sells products ultimately damaging to their health.

The original Oregon ruling was overturned on the grounds that jurors based their vote on the harm cigarettes brought smokers other than Jesse Williams. But their concern is not wholly justified. The responsibility for bad health should be a personal burden, not a burden on big corporations trying to sell a product.

Rulings like this are fair and beneficial-as long as the company has told customers the harm products like tobacco have on health.

The original lawsuit was brought in 1999 by Mayola Williams, whose husband Jesse died of lung cancer after smoking two packs of cigarettes a day for 45 years. Williams' lawyer asked the jury to consider how many other Jesse Williamses there have been in the last 40 years in Oregon.

No doubt countless others, but that doesn't mean tobacco companies should shell out thousands — sometimes millions — of dollars for each one.

We all should know the dangers. Punishing tobacco companies (though they are hardly the good guys) does nothing to change the major problem.

Temptation is a part of life, and it cannot effectively be eliminated. Instead it must be resisted. The cigarette tax hike does just as much if not more than the Supreme Court ruling to reduce cigarette use. It not only helps education but offers monetary discouragement to those purchasing cigarettes.

A multiple-pack-a-day habit isn't cheap.