President Trump has styled himself as a slasher of red tape, signing an order the month he took office requiring executive agencies to cut two regulations for every new one they implement. Despite this, one agency that is looking to be successful in expanding its nanny state authority in the age of Trump is the Food and Drug Administration.
In March, the FDA released an advanced notice of rulemaking for reducing the level of nicotine in cigarettes and regulating flavored tobacco products like e-cigarettes. Should the agency take action on either issue, there will undoubtedly be unintended consequences.
First, it’s hard to imagine that nicotine addicts will consume the same quantity of cigarettes if the quality is weaker. In fact, one randomized trial reported in the New England Journal of Medicine found that heavy smokers compensated with low-nicotine cigarettes “by blocking the ventilation holes and inhaling longer, harder, and more frequently to get enough nicotine,” thereby inhaling “more tar than they would inhale with regular cigarettes.” Another likelihood is that low-nicotine cigarettes will only drive smokers to smoke more, buying more cigarettes or other tobacco products to get their fix.
As Reason’s J.D. Tuccille points out, this song’s been heard before:
Consumers are not dumb. They respond to the state’s silly efforts to change their lifestyle. In New York City, a whopping 56.8 percent of cigarettes are estimated to come from the black market. Bootleggers will take advantage of the FDA’s low-nicotine scheme by smuggling cigarettes with higher nicotine levels across the border. Or, they might even manufacture their very own illicit cigarettes, free from public health checks, right here in the U.S.
As for regulating flavored tobacco products like e-cigarettes, the intent of the FDA’s effort is to make smoking less attractive to minors and young adults. However, this logic ignores a big group that uses flavored products to wean themselves off of smoking. One 2013 survey of former smokers published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that flavored tobacco products were critical to helping them quit:
The FDA may think it’s doing the noble thing by aiming to curb and prevent addiction to nicotine. But, as the old proverb goes, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Requiring tobacco companies to reduce the level of nicotine in cigarettes will have little effect on heavy smokers, instead pushing them to consume more. Moreover, regulating flavored tobacco products like e-cigarettes could discourage heavy smokers from quitting their habit.
It’s a classic tale of unintended consequences.
Casey Given (@CaseyJGiven) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is the executive director of Young Voices.
