Cigarettes

Why are lawmakers working so feverishly to limit their access to tobacco harm reduction products like e-cigarettes? The hypocrisy is seemingly endless.

Tobacco prohibitionists have objected to tobacco flavors for years.

Government agencies populated with scientists people are pleased to call “experts” are often thought to be above the ordinary give-and-take of politics and, especially, immune to the clarion calls of activists and pressure of public opinion.

The ongoing controversy over e-cigarettes and youth smoking has hit a proverbial regulatory wall.

The FDA recently announced a plan to move forward to develop a regulation that would mandate a reduction in nicotine in combustible cigarettes to a very low level. The FDA justified the move by stating that such a mandate could help current smokers quit, and prevent experimental users from becoming regular smokers.

Voters in South Dakota may soon be considering a new proposal to dramatically increase the state’s tobacco tax.

A research letter published last week in JAMA asserts that teens who used e-cigarettes became “heavy” smokers.  The research appears to have been engineered to produce that result. The lead…

Lindsey Stroud and Jesse Hathaway speak with Jeff Stier about the government’s misguided war on e-cigarettes and electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS).

Chris Hughes, owner of Fat Cat Vapor Shop, former president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the Smoke Free Alternatives Trade Association or SFATA, joins the podcast to to talk about the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s new deeming rules on vaping products and e-cigarettes.

In this episode of the weekly Budget & Tax News podcast, managing editor and research fellow Jesse Hathaway talks about the U.S. Food and Drug Administration new “deeming regulations” for electronic cigarettes, which require e-cigarette manufacturers to submit their products through an arduous federal approval process.

Some states, including California and Illinois, are now considering proposals that would increase the legal age limit required to consume tobacco and tobacco-like products, including electronic cigarettes, from 18 years old to 21. Hawaii was the first state to enact such laws, which became effective January 1, 2016.

Cigarette smoking has become significantly less popular in the U.S. over the past decade, it still remains a public-health scourge. Smoking accounts for more than 480,000 deaths every year in this country, or about one of every five death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while an additional 16 million Americans live with a smoking-related disease. Clearly more needs to be done to get Americans to quit smoking.

Monday, March 21, Nebraska’s Senate Revenue Committee defeated a bill that would have increased cigarette tax from 64 cents to $2.14 per pack. The bill also included language to increase…