This segment of What’s Ahead challenges the White House’s approach to reducing cigarette smoking.
Democrats are pushing massive increases—15-fold or more—in federal taxes on far less lethal tobacco products, such as snuff, snus, cigars and pipes. Why in the world would you make safer alternatives to cigarettes so expensive?
Worse, the President’s proposed new head of the FDA, Robert Califf, wants to ban the sale of e-cigarettes—unless you have a doctor’s prescription—even though vaping is 95% less damaging to users than are traditional cigarettes. In fact, such countries as Britain and France encourage vaping as a highly effective way to quit smoking.
The FDA also wants to ban menthol cigarettes. Califf advocates reducing the nicotine levels in cigarettes, even though the real problem is all the other ingredients. Will he also ban nicotine patches and gums, which are aids in the reduction of smoking?