COLUMBUS — Attorneys for the state say allowing tobacco companies to advertise on matchbooks violates the spirit of the settlement the companies reached with 46 states in 1998.

        The companies say the match books aren't included in the settlement's ban on merchandise that promotes cigarettes because they are free and are not part of a retailer's inventory. The settlement did not ban all tobacco advertising.

        The sides made their argu ments Friday before Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Nodine Miller, hearing a lawsuit filed in March by the Ohio attorney general's office. It asks that all tobacco promotion in Ohio be stopped.

        Mike Renner, the office's chief counsel, said the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. alone distributes 1.25 billion matchbooks annually.

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