The Oregonian (6/20, Green, 237K) reports that the Oregon Court of Appeals  “opened the door” for two Portland-area women and other smokers in the state to “seek as much as $1 billion from Philip Morris for allegedly defrauding them into believing Marlboro Lights weren’t as bad as regular cigarettes because they contained less tar and nicotine.” The attorneys for Marilyn C. Pearson and Laura Grandin “contend that in practical use, many Marlboro Lights smokers inhaled just as much tar and nicotine as from regular cigarettes.” Pearson and Grandin’s 2002 lawsuit had been thrown out by a Multnomah County Circuit judge, but their attorneys – Scott Shorr and Chuck Tauman – “appealed to the Court of Appeals, which not only resuscitated their case Wednesday, but said the lower court judge was wrong not to allow potentially 100,000 others to join the women’s litigation in a class-action suit.”