Policy makers are acting as if saving the lives of smokers via harm-reducing alternatives counts for nothing.
Electronic cigarettes, which deliver nicotine without tobacco or combustion, are the most important harm-reducing alternative to smoking ever developed, one that could prevent millions of premature deaths in the U.S. alone.
Yet bureaucrats and politicians seem determined to negate that historic opportunity through regulations and taxes that threaten to cripple the industry.
In October, seven years after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officially declared its intention to regulate “electronic nicotine delivery systems” (ENDS), the agency finally approved one such product. But the FDA, which has rejected applications for millions of other vaping products, still seems inclined to ban the e-liquid flavors that former smokers overwhelmingly prefer. Why? Because teenagers also like them.
Jacob Sullum – Reason.com – 2021-12-07.