ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement

The tobacco master settlement agreement is like an agreement between some really important people who wanted to make sure that something bad doesn't happen to kids because of smoking.

See, smoking is really bad for your health and can make you really sick. And some grown-ups who make and sell tobacco products knew this but still did things to make smoking seem cool or like it wasn't that bad. They even tried to make it easier for kids to start smoking.

So, some important people from different states in the United States of America decided to come together and make an agreement. They made it so that the grown-ups who make and sell tobacco products would have to do things differently to make sure that kids don't start smoking.

This agreement also meant that the tobacco companies would have to pay a lot of money to the states every year for a very long time. The states would use this money to help people who got sick because of smoking or to make sure that kids are educated about how bad smoking is.

And that's kind of what the tobacco master settlement agreement is all about - making sure that smoking doesn't hurt people, especially kids.