Photo by Richard R. Schünemann
Despite the media’s blind optimism that the Biden-Harris regime will finally end the decades-long War on Drugs, the current administration has taken a hard stance on a more unsuspecting substance: menthol tobacco products. For years the administration has attacked the menthol market through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but they’ve recently taken a step back from their crusade after “immense” public concern. It seems that the candidates are realizing this issue could have a marked impact on the outcome of the 2024 presidential election as the American public becomes less amenable to attacks on their personal freedoms. And much to my chagrin, Donald Trump and I have some common ground here.
In case you haven’t been following tobacco news the past few years, the Biden-Harris administration has made headlines claiming that they aim to prohibit the sale and purchase of menthol flavored tobacco and nicotine products. A final rule has failed to be published by the FDA and has led to public confusion over whether menthol-flavored products will be banned or not.
While the attempts to ban menthol products have stalled this year, consumers should still be worried. Just last month, the Director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products noted, “I just want to start and reinforce that FDA has not abandoned the menthol product standard,” in a hearing with the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The administration’s continued misguided assault on menthol products is worrisome.
In response to the Biden-Harris’s administration’s attack on menthol tobacco products, Donald Trump took to Truth Social to note that he “saved Flavored Vaping in 2019…[and he will] save Vaping again!”
For all his faults, Trump is right on this one: His administration fought back against immense pressure to completely ban flavored electronic cigarettes. That said, their vaping policies were far from perfect. Juul, an incredibly popular vape company, took a proverbial bullet for the tobacco harm reduction movement and was largely banned throughout the country in 2022. The relative disappearance of Juul from the marketplace left an empty space for more dangerous (and usually unregulated) disposable vape products to take over and skyrocket in usership. But, Trump’s approach was less aggressive than the current agenda laid out by the Biden-Harris administration, meaning consumers would likely have greater access to safer smoking products and be less inclined to seek out the risky black market if Trump were to be reelected this year.
The left’s continued assault on nicotine products, even as they become more safe, is worrisome. At the beginning of this year, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer went on a tirade against Zyn, a newer and safer nicotine product. There is understandable concern around nicotine pouch products like Zyn — after all, they are addictive — but the lack of tobacco and combustion means there is no longer a risk of cancer or lung disease. The lack of attention to science and data on tobacco issues from the Democratic party is unfortunate and their penchant for prohibitory policies has the potential to turn off voters.
The word “freedom” has gained a lot of traction on both sides of the aisle as of late, but the interpretations of the word could not be any more different. Democrats typically fixate on positive freedoms (like the right to regulate one’s own body), while Republicans tend to emphasize negative freedoms (such as the right to live free from government interference). In reality, both positive and negative freedoms are integral to the foundations of a free society and have an immense impact on the tobacco market. Lawmakers on all sides of the political spectrum should heed their party’s advice when it comes to the understanding of freedom to allow the market to decide what is sold and allow consumers to choose how they treat their bodies.
I am by no means a fan of tobacco — heck, I’ve never even vaped let alone smoked a cigarette — but I do believe that adults have the freedom to choose what they do with their bodies. And I don’t think that personal freedom should end with something as trivial as a cigarette. The possible negative health impacts of tobacco products will never outweigh the horrors that the War on Drugs and other prohibition policies have created.
No matter who heads the White House in January, Americans will unfortunately be living with the poor tobacco policies that have left them with less safe products. The next administration will have the power to allow consumers to have access to safer choices — but that cannot be achieved through a ban of any sort. The true and tried way to make the market safer for consumers is to empower entrepreneurs to produce less risky products.
