In a striking blow to common sense and the well-being of millions of people, President Trump announced Wednesday that his administration would be moving forward on rules to prohibit the sale of all flavored e-cigarettes. This misguided move will kill more than 10,000 small businesses, eliminate nearly 90,000 jobs, and force millions of adults who use e-cigarettes to reduce and eliminate their dependence on harmful cigarettes to seek out vaping products on the unregulated black market or return to smoking. Even more, this march toward prohibition will do irreparable harm to the coalition needed by Republicans to secure victory in 2020.

On the basis of public health alone, limiting the ability of adults to access reduced-risk and proven-effective alternatives to cigarettes is an unjust assault on consumer freedom. The global scientific consensus is that when an adult vapes nicotine instead of smoking a cigarette to get nicotine, the commercially available e-cigarette reduces the harm associated with smoking by at least 95%. Without combustion, there is no tar. Smoking is deadly because of the byproduct of lighting something on fire. Even skeptics such as former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and current Center for Tobacco Products Director Mitch Zeller agree with this assessment on the potential health benefit of adults making the switch.