The sugar industry has been powerful for a long time. The first slaves were sugar workers. Back then the powers settled wars by trading islands with sugar.
Sugar has and will be more powerful than cigarettes evet were.
s/cigarettes/tobacco/ and it's still a crapshoot as to which is more powerful.
Both are plantation crops and benefitted from slave labor.
Sugar is also a major ingredient in cigarettes. In some brands it is the #2 ingredient by weight.