A MINOR PROBLEM

Five major cigarette companies accused the Food and Drug Administration of an "illegal power grab" with new efforts to curb teen smoking that the firms contend would cost them $1 billion a year. Tuesday, the deadline for public comment on the plan, they filed 2,000 pages of arguments and additional 45,000 pages of research. The new rules, which President Clinton requested last summer, would ban vending machine sales of cigarettes, restrict advertising in areas frequented by minors and force cigarette makers to pay for a $150 million annual advertising campaign directed at young people. Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown and Williamson, Lorillard Tobacco, and Liggett Group argue that the rules aren't needed since states already ban cigarette sales to minors. Moreover, they say, nicotine is not a drug as defined by law nor do its effects fall under the legal classification of addiction. Expect a bitter, no-holds-barred court fight after the rules are finalized, says TIME's Elaine Shannon. "Fleets of law firms are being retained merely to collect documents. This is a very powerful industry that pursues its interests with a vengeance."