The FDA’s Plan To Ban Flavored E-Cigarettes From Most Stores Is Unfair And Dangerous
Reason cited CEI’s Senior Fellow Michelle Minton on the FDA’s ban of flavored e-cigarettes.
In an effort to curtail underage vaping, the Food and Drug Administration reportedly plans to ban the sale of most flavored e-cigarettes in stores that admit minors. This misguided, morally dubious policy will impede the shift from smoking to vaping, thereby endangering millions of Americans who might otherwise have made that potentially lifesaving switch.
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“If the FDA bans or restricts e-cigarette sales in easily accessible places like gas stations and convenience stores, that is the sort of regulation that will hurt older and lower-income smokers more than anyone,” notes Competitive Enterprise Institute consumer policy specialist Michelle Minton. “While traditional cigarettes remain conveniently accessible, if heavily taxed, the FDA’s action erects new barriers to smokers obtaining harm-reducing alternatives. It simply means that fewer smokers will switch and, unfortunately, may mean an increase in smoking-related illness. This hasty, ill-considered action seems motivated more by politics than scientific evidence, sound policy, or a desire to actually save lives.”