TOBACCO

Massachusetts to File Suit: The state attorney general’s office is preparing a lawsuit against United States Tobacco Co. after a sting operation caught the company distributing smokeless tobacco products to minors. Thirty minors, at the request of the attorney general’s office, filled out coupons from magazines and promotional displays offering free samples of Skoal chewing tobacco. “Where it asked for their age, they put down that they were 18 or older,” an attorney general’s spokeswoman said. “There was apparently no effort made” to verify their age. Twenty-two of the minors received the free samples of Skoal. Officials of U.S. Tobacco in Greenwich, Conn., were unavailable for comment. The attorney general will seek fines of $5,000 for each instance of illegal distribution.