I don't think we could have made the progress with smoking in the US now like we did back then. Would have turned into a partisan issue about freedoms and all that.
Oh, there were plenty of people throwing a fit about it back in the 90s too. The only difference is no one had social media to go find one another and rile each other up. The few foaming at the month couldn't shout loud enough. You should have heard my bio dad at the time frothing he couldn't walk into the grocery with a lit cigarette. Apparently the communists had won.