Are you in America? I only ask because this mindset, that lobbyists are capable of squashing any law they dislike, is not internationally universal.

Not to say lobbyists don’t have an effect in the UK, they do. But the US has a particularly egregious setup.

There is no country in the world where the ultra wealthy don't weild influence over the government.

The cigarette lobbyists are not what they used to be. A pack is £15+ of mostly tax, beige green colour, and has gruesome health warning images. They "let" all that happen.

I assume all the ones who were young enough to have worked tobacco at its peak are now working for Meta, OpenAI or Flutter.

The real story may be that even despite heavy lobbying, they are trying to do something that has the potential to benefit the population, with the added benefit of reducing some of the load on health care system caused by this.

As we know, smoking can cause lots of problems, including for babies if the mother smokes during pregnancy.

They probable have better margins on vapes so they don't care.

this