In something completely unrelated to this post other than being homonyms (when two words are spelled differently but pronounced the same way), I'm going to see Jewel in a few weeks. That has absolutely nothing to do with this article about the FDA's insane crusade against vaping manufacture Juul, but just figured I'd point it out. Do with that information what you will.
Just when you think the Brandon administration can't do anything more counterproductive than the last idiotic thing they've done... they somehow manage to one-up themselves. At some level, you kind of have to admire it.
One of the more bizarre campaign promises Brandon made from his underground lair during his 2020 campaign was that HE was going to end cancer. He's not a serious person. To believe that the Brandon Administration was somehow going to end cancer, you must believe that ONLY the government can solve our problems. And if there is one thing I know, it's that the government doesn't solve problems. With essentially unlimited funds, they somehow manage to let every problem they propose to fix get WORSE. It is almost impossible to think of a single area where they've gotten their grubby little hands in the mix and things have improved. So to think that all of a sudden, Brandon would take office and he would be able to cure cancer was straight up crazy talk.
And a few weeks after inauguration day, Brandon announced the Cancer Moonshot Initiative. Finally a president who was willing to take a hard policy stance on cancer. How refreshing! Ugh.
Well it must have been shocking to the Brandon Administration to find out that significant amounts of money (both private and public) had been spent over decades throughout the entire world in pursuit of a cure for cancer. They must have been shocked to find out that others had been looking into this and had made significant progress over the years. The administration now faced an issue: There is only so much that can be done to speed up research and development of cancer treatments, so how were they to stop cancer???
Luckily, with such a sharp set of minds, they were able to crack that nut. Why not just prevent people from doing things that give them cancer??? This would certainly eliminate the scourge of cancer from the United States forever! And, if there is one thing people love... it's being told what to do. It's a win/win!
I hate to give the Brandon Administration all of the credit on this front. In fact the Obama Administration, when establishing the Affordable Care Act, had the exact same idea. The ACA prevented insurance companies from charging higher premiums outside of two factors: age and tobacco product usage. Do you have a pre-existing condition? Same premium as the perfectly healthy guy seated next to you. Are you morbidly obese? Same premium as the perfectly healthy guy next to you. Do you smoke crack? Same premium as the perfectly healthy guy seated next to you. Do you have a pack a week habit? You must pay double the premium as the perfectly healthy guy seated next to you. Apparently the ONLY determining factor in health was if you smoked or dipped. And this act was pushed by the Smoker in Chief! But don't worry, Obama was never gonna have issues paying his premiums. He was trying to price the regular guy out of the market.
Before we go any further, let's state that what follows is not an endorsement of smoking or the use of other tobacco products. Ideally you wouldn't do anything, especially knowingly, that could be detrimental to your own health. But, as adults, I believe people should largely be able to make their own decisions about what legal products they put in their body. And I have no plans to stop drinking beer, so you do you.
Along comes Brandon and he starts pursuing similar tactics. First the administration went after menthol and flavored cigars. Do these types of cigarettes have a higher incidence of cancer than regular cigarettes? Well, no, they don't. You see, this was done in the name of EQUITY. It turns out that menthols and flavored cigars are more popular in minority communities. Uncle Brandon is going to help the black community by banning them from getting a product they enjoy. Interesting strategy to use with the voting block that is most likely to support him.
Next up, he went after all cigarettes announcing a plan to rapidly reduce the amount of nicotine that was allowed to be in cigarettes. Now, I'm no genius... but it seems to me that if you decrease the amount of nicotine in cigarettes, then people will need to smoke MORE cigarettes to get the same nicotine hit... and smoking MORE would be a BAD thing since the thing that gives you cancer in a cigarette is NOT nicotine, but rather other carcinogens created during the smoking of tobacco.
Let's talk about nicotine. Nicotine is the substance in tobacco products that makes them addictive. It is a stimulant similar to caffeine and can cause long term dependence to prevent withdrawal symptoms. Once upon a time I decided to try and quit caffeine for a few days and I had a headache like I've never experienced before in my life, so I know that withdrawal from a similar stimulant is no joke. But nicotine by itself does not cause cancer in humans. There are other elements in cigarettes and chewing tobacco that cause cancer, but nicotine does not. It is just the portion of the drug that causes addiction. In fact most smoking cessation products on the market are nicotine delivery devices (whether through gum or a patch).
A few years ago vaping became popular as another smoking cessation method. Vaping is a method of atomizing an electronic-cigarette liquid (commonly referred to as e-juice) infused with nicotine (or other drugs such as THC) such that it can be inhaled in a similar manner to a traditional cigarette. Vaping became increasingly popular as a smoking-alternative both by previous smokers looking for a "healthier alternative" to smoking and to new users. Unfortunately, some of those new users were underage, and nicotine can be detrimental to a younger user's brain development. You know what else is similarly unhealthy in a younger user's brain development and is in the same class of drugs as nicotine??? Caffeine!
This is not to suggest that vaping is healthy. Nicotine is a drug. But absent some proof that other products in vaping products are causing cancer, it seems that it would be beneficial for more people to be using vaping products as opposed to traditional nicotine delivery methods that have known cancer causing agents included in them. Many, if not most, adults use stimulants in their daily life and nicotine is one of the most popular forms of stimulant.
Considering that, the next move by the FDA (which is no doubt being done in the name of their cancer moonshot agenda) is oddly counterproductive. They moved to ban all Juul vaping products. For all ages! Juul is one of the most popular brands of vaping products with around one-third to half of the e-cigarette market share (at one point they were nearly at 80%). They have been accused of marketing their products towards children, primarily because they were selling flavors that were more attractive to younger users. Nevermind that adults also enjoy these flavors! Also, I'm pretty sure children wouldn't mind the taste of an Angry Orchard cider, but we're not running them out of business. An even more apt comparison would be Red Bull as it contains a similar stimulant yet there aren't even age restrictions to purchasing or consuming that.
Interestingly, the administration did not move to ban ALL e-cigarettes off of the market, rather they targeted a single manufacturer. They certainly weren't the only manufacturer that was using flavors that may be attractive to younger demographics. So why just Juul? Why not all vaping products? Why not just certain flavors?
Well, I hate going down rabbit holes... but with JUUL owning such a large share of the market, other manufacturers with similar products may have a vested interest in knocking them out of the market. And they could potentially do so by using the administrative state to their advantage? I'm not saying that some people in the FDA have been paid off by another e-cigarette manufacturer with deep pockets... but would anyone be surprised? I mean it’s not like other government agencies have had streams of money coming in from outside sources that we didn’t know about…
And herein lies the problem of having an administrative state with the power to destroy companies. As of today, a judge has blocked this ban from taking effect. I suspect this will probably hold. Regardless of whether the stay is held or not, it is worrying that an agency of the federal government can effectively banish single companies to the cornfields. I have seen little proof that Juul's products are sufficiently different from any others on the market. If the FDA has proof that this is the case, or can specify exactly what their concerns are with regards to Juul as opposed to other similar products, I'd be happy to listen. They are already restricted such that they can only be sold to users of legal age. This is the only legitimate limitation, IMHO, unless the administration is going to ban everything that adults enjoy that may be unlawfully used by underage people. That's an untenable position. If an adult wants to purchase a product such as a Juul e-cigarette, I see no reason why they should not be allowed to. Bureaucrats should not be interfering in the free-market, determining winners and losers.
And as far as reducing cancer, I've yet to see any evidence that reducing vaping would have any real impact on that... unless, of course, if people smoked instead... and I'm no scientist, but that seems likely to be worse.