As it enters its final days, Joe Biden’s administration is targeting millions of Americans with a ridiculous regulatory rule.
As per Fox News, the federal government is seeking to implement tough restrictions on smokers by limiting the amount of nicotine in each cigarette. The theory behind the proposal would be that a lower amount of nicotine would lower the addictiveness of smoking for new smokers, but raises questions as to whether smokers would merely light up more often throughout the day to compensate. After all, if the amount of nicotine per cigarette were cut in half, why wouldn’t smokers just smoke twice as much? Which budget constraints wouldn’t allow every smoker to do that, it’s still an obvious unintended consequence.
Of note, nicotine itself is the least harmful part of cigarettes.
“The proposed rule, ‘Tobacco Product Standard for Nicotine Level of Certain Tobacco Products,’ is displaying in the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Reducing Outdoor Contaminants in Indoor Spaces (ROCIS) system as having completed regulatory review on January 3,” a spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) told Fox News. “As the FDA has previously said, a proposed product standard to establish a maximum nicotine level to reduce the addictiveness of cigarettes and certain other combusted tobacco products, when finalized, is estimated to be among the most impactful population-level actions in the history of U.S. tobacco product regulation.”
Given the administration is set to be dissolved in a matter of days, concerns have been raised that the proposal is rushed, without scientific analysis and a restriction on civil liberties. Such a move could also open up a black market as smokers seek stronger cigarettes for a lower cost.
Some on social media also questioned whether the administration had its priorities right.
It’s not the first time that the Biden administration has targeted smokers. In 2024, the federal government scrapped an attempt to ban menthol cigarettes outright, citing “feedback” as a reason for the policy shift – though other credible sources such as Barron’s reported that it was out of fear that it would reduce his share of the black vote.
