Last July marked the first anniversary of the Food and Drug Administration’s Comprehensive Tobacco Plan, intended to weaken the desire for nicotine’s most dangerous delivery device: the cigarette. Described as a “multi-year roadmap to better protect youth and help addicted adult smokers quit,” the FDA’s actions to date indicate, paradoxically, they are moving in the opposite direction of that goal, and instead strengthening the relationship smokers have with cigarettes.

It is no surprise that cigarette companies’ stock sharply rose following the FDA’s shocking announcement Wednesday to consider a complete ban of all flavored vapor products. This translates to a maddening $20 billion infusion for the major cigarette companies. Although the FDA’s plan claims to be science-based, its major tenets conflict with the best available science and are fully consistent with the prohibitionist approach of the tobacco control community, including Bloomberg-funded public health advocates Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and the Truth Initiative. From alcohol to abstinence-only sex education, history has given us several examples of why this might not be the best approach.