With just 34 days until the election, Vice President Kamala Harris is pulling out all the stops. She’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kamala-plays-border-hawk-in-first-border-visit-as-democratic-nominee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">going to the border</a>. She’s busting out <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kamalas-new-campaign-accent-has-people-comparing-her-to-classic-cartoon-character" target="_blank" rel="noopener">previously-unheard accents</a>. And she’s telling voters that former President Donald Trump is coming for their booze.
Earlier this month, the Harris campaign <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/harris-alcohol-prices-trump-tariff-plan-1235113532/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">launched</a> “Trump’s Tequila Tax,” a social media push aimed at convincing voters that Trump’s tariff proposals would cause imported alcohol prices to skyrocket.
“He wants to tax your tequila, and your Coronas, your Modelos, your Hennessy, all of it,” a campaign surrogate says in a TikTok.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Have you heard of the Trump Tequila Tax?
Trump wants a 20% tax on all imported goods. That includes your tequila, Modelos, and Coronas. <a href="https://t.co/GjsZcRkp7q">pic.twitter.com/GjsZcRkp7q</a>
&mdash; Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) <a href="https://twitter.com/KamalaHQ/status/1839725556981510590?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 27, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
If one wanted to engage in a little armchair psychology, one might say that Harris is projecting. Because if she wins the White House in November, there might not be any tequila to tax in the United States.
Under Harris and President Joe Biden, an obscure bureaucratic committee has been drafting new guidance, which, if adopted, would recommend that Americans never drink — at all. While these guidelines would not ban alcohol outright, they could, as <a href="https://reason.com/2024/08/10/the-secret-committee-behind-americas-prohibition-comeback/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reason reports</a>, lead to a wave of bad press and a slew of class action lawsuits against alcohol companies. Together, that could cripple an already-faltering alcohol industry.
This is hardly the first instance of the Biden-Harris administration attempting to meddle in Americans’ lives in the name of “public health.” Biden proposed banning <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-reverses-course-on-banning-menthol-cigarettes-over-fear-of-angering-black-voters-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">menthol cigarettes</a> early in his term, only to reverse course earlier this year when it became clear the ban would make then-candidate Biden unpopular among black voters. And the White House has come under fire for its attempt to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrat-official-who-supports-gas-stove-crackdown-has-a-gas-stove-in-his-own-home" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ban gas stoves</a> in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
But unlike the Biden-Harris administration’s attempts to ban gas stoves and menthol cigarettes — both of which received ample media coverage and public scrutiny — the effort to change alcohol guidelines has taken place behind closed doors.
Federal dietary guidelines are updated every five years by the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services. For the current revision, HHS has <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2024/08/06/alcohol-dietary-guidelines-congress-koob/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">kicked</a> the alcohol question to something called the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD). The committee is, <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/opinion/2024/08/03/dietary-guidelines-alcohol-consumption/74595108007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a “secretive, six-person panel” that “operates deep within” HHS, far from the public eye.
Currently, the federal government <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/about-alcohol-use/moderate-alcohol-use.html#:~:text=to%20not%20drinking.-,Moderate%20drinking,or%20less%20in%20a%20day." target="_blank" rel="noopener">defines</a> “moderate drinking” as two daily drinks or less for men, and one for women. But <a href="https://tomwark.substack.com/p/no-amount-alcohol-healthy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sources</a> close to the ICCPUD say the committee is close to adopting the World Health Organization’s 2023 <a href="https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/04-01-2023-no-level-of-alcohol-consumption-is-safe-for-our-health" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declaration</a>: “No level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health.”
It may seem strange that an American agency would so wholeheartedly embrace the WHO’s position, particularly since it’s at odds with longstanding federal recommendations.
But it’s less shocking when you consider that three members of the six-person committee are literally Canadian — like, they live in Canada. It’s even less shocking when you realize that those three Canadian panelists were instrumental in imposing similar guidance at home, <a href="https://reason.com/2024/08/10/the-secret-committee-behind-americas-prohibition-comeback/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">slashing</a> Canadians’ recommended weekly drink intake in 2013 from 15 for men and 10 for women to two across the board.
That recommendation was so controversial it came under fire in Canada, a country where shady, unelected bureaucrats already govern what kind of drugs <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/patented-medicine-prices-review.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">patients can take</a>, and whether or not someone is eligible for <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/health-services-benefits/medical-assistance-dying.html#a2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">elective euthanasia</a>. Imagine how it’ll play in the United States, a country that almost started a whole <a href="https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/whiskey-rebellion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">second Revolutionary War</a> two years after the first one ended because the government tried to tax whiskey.
In fact, the ICCPUD maneuverings are already so unpopular that they’ve spurred waves of bipartisan opposition. In April, Reps. James Comer (R-KY) and Lisa McClain (R-MI) <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Letter-to-HHS-re-alcohol-review.pdf">wrote</a> to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra expressing concern that the Dietary Guidelines revision may be violating federal law. By September 5, Becerra had not responded to Comer and McClain’s request for information, prompting the lawmakers to send a follow-up <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/release/comer-issues-subpoenas-to-hhs-and-usda-for-docs-related-to-development-of-alcohol-consumption-guidelines%EF%BF%BC/">letter</a>.
In the intervening months, two separate bipartisan groups of lawmakers wrote to Becerra, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and NIH Director George F. Koob, to express concern about the opacity and legality of the revision process and request further clarification on what the ICCPUD would decide and when.
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1726313279401000&amp;usg=AOvVaw115_qPFFEePDP86-Fvo-Vd">Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here!</a>
So far, they haven’t heard back.
It’s unclear if Harris will allow the committee to impose its new guidelines should she win the White House — but signs indicate that she will. She was presumably on board with her administration’s plans to ban menthols and gas stoves, and has previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kamalas-campaign-says-she-will-not-push-medicare-for-all-she-fully-supported-it-5-years-ago" target="_blank" rel="noopener">endorsed</a> remaking the American healthcare system to look more like Canada’s.
She certainly won’t face any pushback from Tim Walz, who imposed a <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/3118502/zynsurrection-walz-zyn-tax-minnesota/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">95% tax on Zyn nicotine pouches</a> as Governor of Minnesota. Nothing goes better with no drinks like unaffordable nicotine.
It’s ironic that Harris, who has made so much hay about Trump’s “secret” plan to remake the federal bureaucracy, is currently overseeing a behind-closed-doors push to completely upend American dietary guidelines. Of course, unlike Project 2025, the ICCPUD’s proceedings are not public, nor the subject of any headlines. And, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-again-addresses-project-2025-says-dems-are-engaging-in-pure-disinformation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unlike Trump</a>, Harris has not disavowed, nor even acknowledged, this effort to stop Americans from enjoying the occasional drink.
That’s about as ironic as her saying Trump’s coming for your tequila.

Kamala Prohibition

No, Donald Trump Isn’t Coming For Your Tequila. But Kamala Might Be.

Alcohol

Canada

Cigarettes

Donald Trump

Elections

Kamala Harris

Politics

World Health Organization

In the early part of the last century, the popularity of smoking was at its apex with about half of America lighting up. Believe it or not, back then it was not uncommon to find advertisements touting the health benefits of cigarettes. In fact, in 1937, <a href="https://www.history.com/news/cigarette-ads-doctors-smoking-endorsement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Philip Morris</a> heavily advertised that a study conducted by doctors found that their cigarettes cleared up any and all cases of throat irritation. Just imagine how difficult it would have been to convince an avid smoker back then that this was complete hogwash. Maybe some of you have experienced exactly that difficulty with parents or grandparents who smoked. 
We have a similar challenge today, but in a completely different arena. That arena concerns our American culture – a culture that has historically stressed excellence, meritocracy, and equality of opportunity. It is rapidly being replaced with a different ideology known best by the deceptively innocent catch phrase of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion or DEI.
Those certainly sound like uncontroversial words and concepts, and DEI proponents would have you believe that it is about embracing individual differences, tolerance of people who are different, improving teamwork and output, ensuring equal opportunity, and combatting harmful racial and gender biases. Only a heartless, bigoted, sexist, illogical soul could object to any of that, right? 
Regrettably, nothing could be further from the truth. In practice, like touting the health benefits of cigarettes, the words Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion bring with them the opposite of virtually everything they claim to promote.  
Sadly, thanks to billions of dollars of marketing — akin to the cigarette smoking in the past — many if not most Americans are blind to the real impact of DEI. To these people, critics sound off base or as though they are merely throwing out random derogatory names when they refer to DEI as Marxist. That is understandable because it is a particularly well camouflaged initiative. Nonetheless, under the guise of fighting racism, and promoting fairness, inclusivity, and productivity, it achieves the same objective of division, resentment, and chaos. But instead of pitting people against each other on the basis of socioeconomic class warfare — the more traditional hallmark of Marxism — DEI does so through race, gender, and sexual identity. 
Also, part of why the charge of Marxism may at first sound like hyperbole is because the DEI stuff itself is so whacky and seemingly haphazard that ascribing to it the name of an economic theory seems to give it more purpose and organization than it deserves. After all, what could denouncing all white people as guilty oppressors and putting tampons in men’s rooms possibly have in common? However, those people need to remember, as Christopher Rufo points out in his excellent work <a href="https://manhattan.institute/book/americas-cultural-revolution-how-the-radical-left-conquered-everything" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“America’s Cultural Revolution,”</a> the first objective of Marxism is revolution, and the key drivers for that are segmentation, demonization, resentment, and chaos. It has been working.
As former <a href="https://starrs.us/the-more-diversity-officers-and-dei-training-race-relations-get-worse/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Army Captain Kendall Qualls</a> has observed, per Gallup and Southern Economic Journal, in 2003, nearly 70% of black and white Americans rated race relations either good or very good, which was one of the highest ratings in its tracking history. Since then, as the number of DEI officers in America’s institutions has soared, that percentage has plummeted by more than 30 points. From our <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/27/opinion/christopher-rufo-diversity-desantis-florida-university.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">schools</a>, to the practice of <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/how-americas-obsession-with-dei-is" target="_blank" rel="noopener">medicine</a> and other <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/how-dei-is-supplanting-truth-as-the" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sciences</a>, to <a href="https://armedforces.press/two-dei-contradictions-exposed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">politics</a>, to the <a href="https://time.com/6998539/trump-shooting-republicans-blame-dei-secret-service-women/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Secret Service</a>, and <a href="https://www.newsnationnow.com/race-in-america/dei-doesnt-work-study-of-studies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">private sector corporations</a>, DEI has been an <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/12/the-failure-of-the-dei-industrial-complex" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unmitigated disaster</a>.
Aside from these institutions there is one other critical organization with a much smaller margin of error in which DEI has been deeply imbedded – our military. If there is one domain in which a country needs meritocracy, excellence, unity, and esprit de corps to reign supreme, it is with its war-fighting effectiveness.
In 2011, the Military Leadership Diversity Commission (MLDC) established a new paradigm. The MLDC’s <a href="https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA539297" target="_blank" rel="noopener">162-page Final Report</a>, titled “From Representation to Inclusion: Diversity Leadership for the 21st Century,” shifted priorities away from meritocracy and non-discrimination, moving instead toward “diversity” and “equity” as paramount goals. 
The impact has been swift and devastating. Consider just a sampling of what that has helped produce:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.heritage.org/military" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Heritage Foundation</a> – one of the only comprehensive, non-governmental assessments of our military readiness – for the first time provided an overall rating for 2024 of “weak,” down from “marginal” in 2023.</li>
<li>The military overall is facing the largest recruiting crisis in over half a century – short by some <a href="https://americanmilitarynews.com/2023/12/us-military-41000-troops-short-of-recruitment-goal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">41,000 personnel</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.heritage.org/defense/report/report-the-national-independent-panel-military-service-and-readiness">The National Independent Panel on Military Service and Readiness</a> concluded that the human elements of training, discipline, cohesion, confidence, and morale critical to fighting and winning wars are under severe duress due to a prioritization of a political agenda that distracts from the war-fighting mission and diminishes trust in military leadership.</li>
<li>In all the services today, biological men are allowed to <a href="https://popularmilitary.com/armys-new-guidelines-for-transgender-showering-urinalysis-tests-are-leaked/">berth and shower</a> with women.</li>
<li>With some <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/defense/599459-army-approves-reduced-physical-fitness-standards-for-women-older-soldiers/">44% of women</a> failing the Army Combat Fitness Test, the Army has reduced the standards for the test to accommodate more women and older soldiers.</li>
<li>DoD data show that some <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2023/10/13/nearly-70-of-active-service-members-are-overweight-report-finds/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">70% of active duty service members</a> are overweight and that obesity rates have doubled in the last ten years. </li>
<li>The Navy has celebrated “Pride” for 12 consecutive years, and this past year used a <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/05/03/us-navy-appointed-active-duty-drag-queen-as-ambassador/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">drag queen</a> in its recruiting. </li>
<li>Per the <a href="https://www.reaganfoundation.org/media/359970/2022-survey-summary.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reagan Institute</a>, in just five years, the percentage of Americans saying they had trust and confidence in our military plummeted from 70% to 45% – the first time ever that a minority of the country expressed a great deal of trust and confidence in the military. </li>
<li>In 2018, 70% of Americans said they would recommend joining the military to family or friends. Just five years later in 2023, that number had <a href="https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/11/30/most-would-encourage-military-service-confidence-armed-forces-remains-low-survey-finds.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plummeted to 51%</a>. </li>
</ul>
In collecting feedback from military personnel and their families <a href="https://starrs.us/what-people-are-saying/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">STARRS</a> recently received this comment from a Marine father: “My son, who wanted to be a Marine his entire youth, left after 5 years, disgusted with the new &#8216;woke&#8217; Marines.”
Another service member said, “After 20 years of commissioned service, I tell folks all the time – no matter how woke you think the armed forces are, it is much worse.” 
Wars happen when aggressive adversaries assess, rightly or wrongly, that their opponent is weak enough to be defeated. How do America’s adversaries assess its military readiness today? Distressingly, it is likely that they see it as far lower than they did a mere decade or so ago.
Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Stanford Professor and historian <a href="https://starrs.us/the-dei-ruse-is-imploding/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Victor Davis Hanson</a> says this of DEI: 
<blockquote>“In the end, DEI will implode because of its many contradictions: it is racist to the core; it is illegal and violates court decisions and the Constitution; it destroys meritocracy; and it is utterly incoherent in adjudicating who and who not deserve racial preferences.”</blockquote>
In ancient times, rigorous athletic competition was considered preparation for war and therefore critical to the survival of a society. In fact, Greek law required physical exercise of both men and women. Athletic competition or sport is perhaps the one stage in our current culture that has remained resistant to the DEI scourge. And yet, how ironic that, while Americans are opposed to removing meritocracy from sports – an enterprise that has historically symbolized combat readiness – they have been willing to throw it under the bus in the realm of actual combat readiness, our military.
The pages of history are filled with failed nations and cultures that made fatal errors in estimating and addressing their war-fighting readiness. We are currently on such a path with America’s military. We need to eradicate DEI policies and practices from the institution that stands between totalitarianism, communism, terrorist extremists and our free republic – our military.
* * *
Dr. Greg Salsbury is former president of Western Colorado University, author of the 2006 award winning book &#8220;But What If I Live?&#8221; which predicted the 2008 meltdown, and the follow up book &#8220;Retirementology – Rethinking the American Dream in a New Economy,&#8221; which topped Amazon’s “personal finance” category.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Navy cadets marching

Cigarettes, DEI, And Our Military

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Marines

Marxism

Opinion

Readers Pass

U.S. Army

U.S. Military

U.S. Navy

President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/joe-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Biden</a> has reportedly canceled a plan to ban menthol cigarettes after his administration feared that banning them could cause black voters to revolt against the president ahead of the upcoming election.
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/biden-administration-shelves-plan-to-ban-menthol-cigarettes-0c41df7a?mod=hp_lead_pos2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that menthols account for roughly a third of all cigarette sales in the U.S. and that black people are overwhelmingly the largest consumers of the product.
Activist groups believe that by banning menthol cigarettes, there will be an explosion in black market sales of the product, which they claim will lead to racial profiling by law enforcement.
“This rule has garnered historic attention and the public comment period has yielded an immense amount of feedback, including from various elements of the civil rights and criminal justice movement,” said Xavier Becerra, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. “It’s clear that there are still more conversations to have, and that will take significantly more time.”
The Journal reported that the administration pulled back on its plan as it considered the &#8220;political repercussions&#8221; of banning the product as Biden is significantly &#8220;underperforming with Black voters, especially Black men.&#8221;
NAACP President Derrick Johnson said the decision by the administration was “a blow to the Black community, who continue to be unfairly targeted and unjustly killed by Big Tobacco. Let’s be clear – valuing Black lives should not be used as a pawn to get our people to the polls, but rather a platform that our leaders refuse to step down from. The NAACP is outraged and disgusted, but we refuse to be deterred.”
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The American Lung Association also spoke out against the decision, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/26/health/fda-menthol-cigarettes/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saying</a> that it was “deeply troubling and does not reflect the science or the response from the civil rights community, including the NAACP, that these rules would save lives and prevent kids from starting to smoke. The Lung Association is deeply disturbed that President Biden has failed to do what he has promised, which is to follow the science and to reduce deaths and cancer.”

FDA To Propose Ban On Menthol Cigarettes And Flavored Cigars

Biden Reverses Course On Banning Menthol Cigarettes Over Fear Of Angering Black Voters: Report

Economy

Joe Biden

Racism

Despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of workers allegedly might be affected and a core constituency might be disgruntled, the Biden administration is insistent on imposing a ban on menthol cigarettes.
In April 2022, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) <a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-proposes-rules-prohibiting-menthol-cigarettes-and-flavored-cigars-prevent-youth-initiation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> “proposed product standards to prohibit menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes and prohibit all characterizing flavors (other than tobacco) in cigars.”
“Menthol is a flavor additive with a minty taste and aroma that reduces the irritation and harshness of smoking,” the FDA continued. “This increases appeal and makes menthol cigarettes easier to use, particularly for youth and young adults. Menthol also interacts with nicotine in the brain to enhance nicotine’s addictive effects. The combination of menthol’s flavor, sensory effects and interaction with nicotine in the brain increases the likelihood that youth who start using menthol cigarettes will progress to regular use. Menthol also makes it more difficult for people to quit smoking.”
“The FDA remains committed to issuing the tobacco product standards for menthol in cigarettes and characterizing flavors in cigars as expeditiously as possible; these rules have been submitted to the [Office of Management and Budget] for review, which is the final step in the rulemaking process,” an FDA spokesperson stated. “As we’ve made clear, these product standards remain at the top of our priorities.”
The black community, one of Biden’s core constituencies, could be profoundly affected; “Menthol is especially popular among Black smokers due to tobacco companies’ aggressive marketing in Black neighborhoods and sponsorship of events like jazz concerts,” <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-02/public-health-groups-sue-fda-again-over-long-delayed-menthol-ban?embedded-checkout=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bloomberg</a> noted, adding that the FDA “set a deadline for publishing its final ruling on menthol by August 2023. That was delayed in December and then rescheduled for March 2024.”
According to the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), banning menthol cigarettes would reduce non-tobacco sundry sales $72,285 a year and tobacco sales $160,107 for the average convenience store; the convenience industry could lose $2.16 billion in sales.
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“The proposed ban, while well-intentioned, could have had far-reaching economic consequences for convenience stores by cutting 30% of sales and the livelihoods of over 600,000 workers,” Javier Palomarez, the president and CEO of the U.S. Hispanic Business Council (USHBC), told <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-white-house-close-finalizing-menthol-cigarette-regulations-despite-broad-opposition" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox News Digital</a>.
“Unfortunately, the Biden administration has proposed another rule that would disproportionally harm our nation&#8217;s small businesses,” House Small Business Committee Chairman Roger Williams (R-TX) has <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-admin-facing-congressional-probe-proposed-ban-menthol-cigarettes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>. “Banning menthol cigarettes would result in an estimated loss of $2 billion dollars in sales at convenience stores across the country and would simply create a black market for these products.”

FDA Moves To Ban Menthol Cigarettes And Flavored Cigars

Biden Pushing Menthol Cigarette Ban, Could Devastate Jobs In Convenience Industry

black vote

Convenience Industry

On a healthy, seed oil-free diet there is no “bad” cholesterol. But when your diet is full of seed oils, LDL becomes a problem.
<h4>The Heart Healthy Oil That’s Anything But</h4>
You may have noticed a pretty, red, heart-healthy label on certain vegetable oils. What you may not have noticed is an asterisk under the claim that says words to the effect of there’s only preliminary and limited evidence to support this statement. That snippet of legalese has quite a history behind it.
In the 1950s, margarine and cooking oil advertisers promoted their products as healthy due to the known cholesterol-lowering effect of polyunsaturates — the main fatty acid in seed oils. A string of prominent doctors objected to these tactics, since there was no evidence whatsoever to support the claim. Decades of wrangling finally resulted in a law prohibiting the promotion of margarine “or any other food, fat, or food oil” as a way of preventing disease unless it was grounded in science. A happy example of the Federal Trade Commission protecting the public that was over and done with back in 1974.
Which leads to my next point: we are here, nearly 50 years later, with no further evidence to support the heart-healthy claim than with what we had back then. Yet, the idea that lowering cholesterol prevents heart disease is still planted into our minds and remains the foundation upon which all of preventative cardiology rests. If your LDL cholesterol, the so-called “bad” cholesterol, is “too high,” your doctor will put the fear of death into you until you lower it.
To be clear, the polyunsaturates in seed oils do successfully lower total and LDL cholesterol. This is supported by a great deal of evidence, and nobody debates this. What’s more, as the dairy and other saturated-fat, rich animal fats in our food supply have been increasingly replaced by seed oils, our cholesterol levels as a country have dropped across the board. The average American’s total cholesterol is about 20 points lower today than in the mid-1960s, when we first started tracking. This drop is attributable to diet change, not drugs. So it’s absolutely true that swapping saturated fat for polyunsaturated fat lowers cholesterol levels. Now, here’s a question for you: so what?
The end goal of these dietary recommendations is not to lower cholesterol — it’s to help you live longer. Dying with lower cholesterol levels, what one of my patients termed “a Harvard death,” is not the goal.
<h4>Keep Your Eye On The Ball</h4>
Although seed oils do lower cholesterol, they do not keep you alive. At least we don’t have any evidence yet to support that idea — after 70 years of looking for it. We do, however, have evidence that foods fried in these oils contain “extremely high levels” of toxins known to cause cancer and neurodegenerative disease. Rather shockingly, a <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i1246">2016 NIH study</a> showed that for every 30 points these oils cut cholesterol, “there was a 22% higher risk of death.” It’s difficult to know, however, what exactly the people in the study died from, as 146 of the original 295 autopsy files were lost.
What’s clouding the issue is the fact that we are dying less often from heart attacks today than we were back in 1961, when heart attack deaths peaked. But it would be incorrect to assume that the drop in heart attacks means these cholesterol-lowering oils are heart healthy — or, for that matter, that the decline had anything to do with our lower cholesterol. The biggest factor behind the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/jan/26/heart-attack-deaths-fall-50-percent">50% drop</a> in heart attack death rates is the fact that we’re smoking less.— much less. In 1961, both heart attack deaths and smoking peaked at their all-time highest levels. The average American (including children, smokers, and nonsmokers) <a href="https://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/sites/default/files/2020-08/m08_2.pdf">smoked 4,000 cigarettes</a> that year. By 2010, the per capita rate of smoking had fallen to 1,000, and heart attacks reached their lowest point. Since then, smoking rates continue to fall, while heart attack deaths are leveling out and <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2778234">appear to be climbing again</a>.
I’d like to share a striking, though narrowly appreciated, secret: Harvard — the primary advocate for seed oils — has yet to nail down exactly how the polyunsaturated fats in these oils lower cholesterol. They don’t seem to care. Reviewing the medical literature reveals that, over the past 60 years, only two articles, found in <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/91/2/398/2843254">The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology &amp; Metabolism</a> and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article-abstract/42/3/560/4691820?redirectedFrom=PDF">The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition</a>, discuss the subject — both hypothetical.
Why should you care what Harvard’s nutrition leadership knows about seed oils?
Harvard is the biggest advocate of the cholesterol theory of heart disease, and thanks to the university, all of preventative cardiology rests on the idea that lowering cholesterol is beneficial. Harvard works with the American Heart Association (AHA) to shape the U.S. government dietary policy regarding fat. Our K-12 state-funded college education systems, nursing homes, prisons, hospitals, and all other government-funded organizations are required by law to feed us more polyunsaturates than saturates — all because they lower cholesterol. Yet, if you ask the average cardiologist how polyunsaturates lower cholesterol, or how they know this effect is beneficial, I doubt you’ll receive a good answer.
<h4>The Cholesterol Hypothesis Needs To Go</h4>
It’s high time cardiologists clue in, though. Because after decades of reductions in deadly heart attacks, since 2010, they’ve started to creep upwards again. The combined effects of cholesterol-lowering drugs, further cuts in smoking rates, and advanced emergency care and cardiac surgeries are collectively failing to stem the tide of deadly heart attacks. It’s not just due to the population aging, since the mortality rates for people 65 and older actually <a href="https://usafacts.org/data/topics/people-society/health/longevity/mortality-rate/">went down</a> between 2010-2019. There’s something very powerful driving this newly apparent trend.
Don’t look to the AHA for answers. It’s in its best interest that our notice in this recent increase in heart disease deaths is diminished. For 70 years, the cholesterol theory of heart disease has buttered its bread, so to speak. It literally can’t afford to change. For now, it’s much easier for it to cover up its mistakes by, for example, re-allocating deaths from the heart attack column to a different column, like hypertension, kidney disease, and more recently COVID. These and other efforts have prevented many doctors from noticing that eating seed oils and lowering cholesterol is failing to prevent <a href="https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000757">heart</a> <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-021-11072-5/figures/2">attacks</a>. But, mark my words: as long as we keep eating polyunsaturated-rich seed oils, death rates in younger generations will continue to rise. Sooner or later this egregious trend will garner the attention it is due.
Thankfully, the cholesterol theory is not the only theory in town. There’s another theory to explain the genesis of heart attacks that’s quietly gaining momentum — in spite of being mostly relegated to technical journals that doctors don’t read. This theory connects all the dots, explaining how cigarette smoking causes heart disease — something the cholesterol theory cannot do — while also explaining why drugs that drop your LDL number down to the lowest possible level only work to prevent a second heart attack about 30% of the time. That 70% failure rate is pretty grim, given the many side effects you expose yourself to when you’re taking these drugs and the fact that you will be taking them for the rest of your life.
<h4>Oxidation: What Cigarettes And Seed Oil Both Have In Common</h4>
Seed oils and cigarette smoking cause heart attacks for similar reasons. Whether you smoke, or you eat foods cooked in seed oils, the same set of toxins may enter your arteries. These toxins cause oxidation. So this theory is called, logically enough, The Oxidation Theory of Atherosclerosis. The oxidation takes place inside tiny fat-transport vehicles called lipoproteins. According to the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/%28SICI%291521-3773%2820000204%2939%3A3%3C585%3A%3AAID-ANIE585%3E3.0.CO%3B2-G">theory</a>, oxidation turns your lipoproteins from agents of nutrient delivery to agents of inflammation and disease.
What is oxidation, exactly? Technically, it’s the chemical reaction between oxygen and a fuel. The more familiar term is simply burning.
The oxidation theory explains that toxins from smoking and from cooking with polyunsaturated fats burn (oxidize) the interior of these tiny-fat transport vehicles. Seed oils play a dual role in the burning process, serving as both spark and fuel. That’s why the more polyunsaturated fat the vehicles carry, the faster the burning progresses. The transport vehicles include low density lipoprotein, or LDL (the so-called bad cholesterol), and high density lipoprotein, or HDL (the so-called good cholesterol), and a few others. These particles have slightly different functions in the body and normally they all do good stuff.
The oxidation theory tells us that lowering LDL may not be important at all, certainly not as important as preventing oxidation of LDL. So what do you do if you are one of the 40% of American adults with high cholesterol? Should you just take a statin?
That’s the topic of next week’s article.
<a href="https://drcate.com/">Dr. Cate Shanahan</a> is a board-certified Family Physician whose revolutionary approach to nutrition targets the underlying problems causing metabolic damage and inflammation. She is the NY Times bestselling author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fatburn-Fix-Great-Weight-Using/dp/1250114497/ref=sr_1_2?qid=1660575621&amp;refinements=p_27%3ACatherine+Shanahan+M.D.&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-2&amp;text=Catherine+Shanahan+M.D.">The FatBurn Fix</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Nutrition-Your-Genes-Traditional/dp/1250113822/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=1660575496&amp;sr=1-1">Deep Nutrition</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Food-Rules-Doctors-Healthy-Eating/dp/1452861382/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_w=eItP2&amp;content-id=amzn1.sym.91202c6f-1c11-4e3d-b51a-3af958cedd30&amp;pf_rd_p=91202c6f-1c11-4e3d-b51a-3af958cedd30&amp;pf_rd_r=3P0BZ5Q1YDTBVK6JSXWV&amp;pd_rd_wg=Q8Vux&amp;pd_rd_r=1e132346-179e-45ce-981a-e36967ecc481&amp;ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk">Food Rules</a>. Her  work has been featured in Sports Illustrated, Men&#8217;s Journal, and Prevention Magazine among others and she’s been a guest on Real Time with Bill Maher and The Megyn Kelly Show. Follow her at @DrCateShanahan
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Cholesterol Has Been Framed For Crimes Commited By Seed Oils

Cholesterol Has Been Framed For Crimes Committed By Seed Oils

American Medical Association

Health

Heart Attack

In the course of just a few years, the electronic cigarette company, Juul, has possibly gone from a ubiquitous fixture among American high schoolers to contraband prohibited by the full strength of the federal government.
Amid the company’s meteoric rise, eyebrows began raising at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — triggering a multi-year investigation that recently ended in the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-fda-officially-orders-all-juul-electronic-cigarettes-removed-from-the-u-s-market">complete removal</a> of the product from the marketplace.
However, the battle does not appear to be over. A federal appeals court <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-federal-court-places-hold-on-juul-ban">approved a request</a> from Juul to halt the agency’s order.
How did the upstart vaping brand become a regulatory pariah in such a short time?
<h4>Crown Juul</h4>
Juul Labs spun off from a cannabis company, Pax Labs, in 2017 and almost immediately became a business and cultural phenomenon. Like other e-cigarette companies, rather than producing tobacco products, Juul focused on <a href="https://www.juul.com/learn/device">isolating nicotine</a> — the addictive compound in tobacco — and delivering it through water vapor.
The product and others in its category were quickly replacing cigarettes as the contraband of choice for American teenagers. In 2007, over 46% of 12th graders had tried cigarettes; by 2017, 36% had tried vaping, while only 27% had tried cigarettes, according to University of Michigan data published in <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/schools-parents-fight-a-juul-e-cigarette-epidemic-1522677246">The Wall Street Journal</a>.
Rather than swiping cigarettes, high school teachers and administrators found themselves confiscating slim devices that looked like flash drives to the untrained eye.
“We go for a walk. We stop in the bathroom. It’s not uncommon to see a circle of kids passing it around,” Steve Lehman, the principal of Northern High School in Pennsylvania, told The Wall Street Journal in 2018. “That’s where we confiscate.”
By the summer of that year, Juul sales had <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/02/juul-e-cigarette-sales-have-surged-over-the-past-year.html">surged nearly 800%</a> — granting the company a 68% market share in the e-cigarette category. A $1.2 billion fundraising round <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-29/e-cigarette-maker-juul-labs-is-raising-1-2-billion">valued</a> Juul at a stunning $15 billion — a figure that was upgraded to $38 billion months later, once Altria, the company formerly known as Philip Morris and the manufacturer of Marlboro cigarettes, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-juul-valuation/e-cigarette-maker-juul-cuts-valuation-to-10-billion-memo-idUSKBN27E3B8">snagged</a> a 35% stake in the company.
Around the same time, the FDA — a federal agency under the fold of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fda-threatens-ban-vaping-products-due-teenage-use-kassy-dillon">reported</a> “clear signs” that use of the e-cigarettes had reached “an epidemic proportion.”
“While we remain committed to advancing policies that promote the potential of e-cigarettes to help adult smokers move away from combustible cigarettes, that work can’t come at the expense of kids,” former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb <a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-takes-new-steps-address-epidemic-youth-e-cigarette-use-including-historic-action-against-more">said</a> in 2018. “We cannot allow a whole new generation to become addicted to nicotine.”
At the same time, state governments began slamming Juul with lawsuits over its marketing practices, alleging that the company was intentionally peddling its devices to young people.
The state of North Carolina <a href="https://ncdoj.gov/attorney-general-stein-reaches-agreement-with-juul-for-40-million-and-drastic-business-changes/">sued</a> the company in 2019 for “designing, marketing, and selling its e-cigarettes to attract young people and for misrepresenting the potency and danger of nicotine in its products.” One year later, a <a href="https://www.mass.gov/doc/juul-complaint/download">complaint</a> from the commonwealth of Massachusetts argued that the company “engaged in unfair and deceptive acts and practices” by “selling nicotine products to children, adolescents, and other consumers younger than the minimum legal sales age.”
Juul filed a permanent tobacco product application with the FDA — only for the agency to <a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-denies-authorization-market-juul-products">decide</a> in June 2022 that the documents “lacked sufficient evidence regarding the toxicological profile of the products to demonstrate that marketing of the products would be appropriate for the protection of the public health.” Accordingly, Juul devices and four types of pods have been served marketing denial orders and will receive the FDA’s “highest enforcement priorities.”
Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit approved a halt on the FDA’s order — rendering the fate of Juul uncertain.
<h4>Smoked Out</h4>
Curiously, the regulatory treatment of e-cigarettes varies drastically across the pond.
The United Kingdom’s <a href="https://www.nhsinform.scot/healthy-living/stopping-smoking/reasons-to-stop/tobacco">National Health Service</a> concluded that although “nicotine is a very addictive substance,” it is “relatively harmless” — because it is truly the “carbon monoxide, tar and other toxic chemicals in tobacco smoke that will cause serious damage” to one’s health. Nevertheless, the proportion of American adults that believe e-cigarettes are more harmful than conventional cigarettes rose substantially from 2012 to 2017, according to research from <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2729471">Georgia State University</a> and other entities.
It is understandable for regulators to target products that could produce addiction in young people — but why do they oppose the e-cigarette category as a whole? <a href="https://www.heritage.org/public-health/commentary/governments-war-e-cigarettes-ignores-their-benefits">Heritage Foundation</a> research fellow Daren Bakst postulated in 2019 that some “irrationally justify their dislike for the products based on a dislike of big tobacco companies” — and thereby leverage “concern over youth usage of e-cigarettes as a way to demonize the products.”
Indeed, the Biden administration’s health apparatus has by no means been clear-headed on its drug policies. The FDA’s prohibition of Juul comes months after the Department of Health and Human Services planned a $30 million grant program, which would have allegedly involved <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jen-psaki-says-crack-pipe-plans-are-false-smoking-kits-contain-alcohol-swabs-lip-balm-other-materials">handing out crack pipes</a> to drug addicts as part of safe smoking kits.
As most Americans are surely aware, the federal health infrastructure and its leaders neither engage in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/candace/the-red-line-with-dr-robert-malone-part-1">outright deception</a> nor seek their own <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/fauci-unmasked">political gain</a> — especially when it comes to regulating what Americans decide to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/we-said-do-not-comply-we-won">put in their bodies</a>. In any case, as alternatives disappear, young people may even find themselves <a href="https://reason.org/commentary/cigarette-sales-increase-as-vaping-bans-push-people-back-to-smoking/">returning to cigarettes</a>.
“I have often said that Democrats think government prohibition works when it comes to cigarettes but not other drugs, while Republicans think government prohibition works for other drugs but not cigarettes. Sadly, the war on tobacco harm ​reduction has been bipartisan, spanning Democratic and Republican administrations,” <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/fda-quest-snuff-out-tobacco-harm-reduction">Cato Institute</a> senior fellow Jeffrey Singer wrote. “We should not be surprised to see teen and adult smoking rates start back up, after years of decline.”

_Zeisloft – Vaping Giant JUUL Gets The Axe From FDA

FDA Investigation Into Juul Could Vaporize E-Cigarette Giant

Department of Health and Human Services

juul

Fox News host Sean Hannity promised to break out his own Juul e-cigarette on live television if Congress moved to ban the vape product, saying that someone would just have to come and arrest him.
<a href="https://dailywire.com/news/hannity-breaks-cable-news-record-ousts-larry-king/">Hannity</a> was responding to an on-air report — delivered Wednesday by fellow Fox News host Trace Gallagher — about President Joe Biden&#8217;s push to limit both <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/biden-targets-tobacco-will-require-lower-nicotine-levels-in-cigarettes/">traditional cigarettes</a> and vaping products. A Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/fda-to-order-juul-e-cigarettes-off-u-s-market-11655904689">report</a> published earlier in the day indicated an imminent move from the FDA to remove Juul vaping products from the market — and Hannity, a <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/breaking-fda-officially-orders-all-juul-electronic-cigarettes-removed-from-the-u-s-market/">Juul</a> user himself, was not impressed.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&quot;They ban it, I&#39;ll do it live on TV. They can come and arrest me. How’s that?&quot; <a href="https://twitter.com/seanhannity?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@seanhannity</a> promises to throw down over proposed Juul ban. <a href="https://t.co/mcYigcc3YJ">pic.twitter.com/mcYigcc3YJ</a>
&mdash; Virginia Kruta (@VAKruta) <a href="https://twitter.com/VAKruta/status/1539993548937990145?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 23, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Gallagher began by noting that the government had initially blamed Juul for a surge in underage vaping — arguing that the company&#8217;s marketing and fruity flavors had appealed specifically to a younger-than-legal audience.
&#8220;Juul has been trying to get on the right side of regulators by limiting its marketing and banning mango, mint, other sweet flavors. The company even suggested a vaping device that can only be unlocked if you’re 21,&#8221; Gallagher said during his report.
Gallagher noted that the FDA&#8217;s move came as a surprise because Juul&#8217;s main competitors were allowed to keep their products on the market in the United States. He also pointed out the fact that while the company could certainly appeal the decision, the appeals process — and any product adjustments they might have to make — would &#8220;take a bunch of time and a whole lot of money.&#8221;
&#8220;They ban it, and I’ll do it live on TV and they can come and arrest me. How’s that?&#8221; Hannity cracked in response before moving on to the next segment. &#8220;Now, while the Biden FDA wants people to stop vaping, many Democratic-run cities and states, they have no problem decriminalizing even hard drugs, even as overdose deaths are spiking,&#8221; he said.
Vaping on air would not be a new thing for the popular Fox News host, either — he&#8217;s been caught in the past with his Juul still out when his show came back from a commercial break and he misjudged the timing. &#8220;Uh-oh,&#8221; was his response on one such occasion, as he quickly put the Juul away and went back to his broadcast.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="uh oh" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IV7W7L23x6U?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Vice President Mike Pence Speaks During Republican National Convention

‘They Can Come Arrest Me’: Hannity Promises To Throw Down Over Potential Vape Ban

Hannity Promises To Vape On TV If Congress Bans Juul

Fox News

Sean Hannity

On Thursday, The Food and Drug Administration officially <a href="https://www.kbtx.com/2022/06/23/fda-orders-all-juul-electronic-cigarettes-removed-us-market/">ordered</a> all Juul electronic cigarettes to be removed from the United States market, the Associated Press reported.
“Today’s action is further progress on the F.D.A.’s commitment to ensuring that all e-cigarette and electronic nicotine delivery system products currently being marketed to consumers meet our public health standards,” Dr. Robert M. Califf, FDA commissioner, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/23/health/fda-juul-ecigarettes-ban.html">said</a> in a press release Thursday.
“The agency has dedicated significant resources to review products from the companies that account for most of the U.S. market,&#8221; he added. &#8220;We recognize these make up a significant part of the available products and many have played a disproportionate role in the rise in youth vaping.”
On Wednesday, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/fda-to-order-juul-e-cigarettes-off-u-s-market-11655904689?mod=e2tw">The Wall Street Journal</a> reported that the FDA was poised to ban Juul.
“The marketing denial order would follow a nearly two-year review of data presented by the vaping company, which sought authorization for its tobacco- and menthol-flavored products to stay on the U.S. market,” the outlet reported.
Juul — which markets itself as an <a href="https://www.juul.com/">alternative</a> to cigarettes for adult smokers — sells nicotine capsules smoked through a small device. Sales <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/02/juul-e-cigarette-sales-have-surged-over-the-past-year.html">surged nearly 800%</a> between 2017 and 2018, causing Juul to gain a 68% market share in the e-cigarette category.
A press release from the FDA <a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-denies-authorization-market-juul-products">explained</a> that &#8220;To date, the FDA has not received clinical information to suggest an immediate hazard associated with the use of the JUUL device or JUULpods.&#8221;
But their order on Thursday is reflective of the &#8220;FDA’s determination that there is insufficient evidence to assess the potential toxicological risks of using the JUUL products. There is also no way to know the potential harms from using other authorized or unauthorized third-party e-liquid pods with the JUUL device or using JUULpods with a non-JUUL device.&#8221;
Michele Mital, acting director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, further clarified, “The FDA is tasked with ensuring that tobacco products sold in this country meet the standard set by the law, but the responsibility to demonstrate that a product meets those standards ultimately falls on the shoulders of the company.&#8221;
Mital claims that Juul failed to supply the necessary information to meet FDA&#8221;s standards.
&#8220;As with all manufacturers, JUUL had the opportunity to provide evidence demonstrating that the marketing of their products meets these standards,&#8221; she <a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-denies-authorization-market-juul-products">continued</a>. &#8220;However, the company did not provide that evidence and instead left us with significant questions. Without the data needed to determine relevant health risks, the FDA is issuing these marketing denial orders.&#8221;
Ben Zeisloft contributed to this report.

Vaping.jpeg

FDA Officially Orders All Juul Electronic Cigarettes Removed From The U.S. Market

President Biden’s administration will impose restrictions on the amount of nicotine in cigarettes and tobacco products.
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a division within the Office of Management and Budget, issued a <a href="https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=202204&amp;RIN=0910-AI76">statement</a> on Tuesday regarding the proposal.
“This proposed rule is a tobacco product standard that would establish a maximum nicotine level in cigarettes and certain finished tobacco products,” the statement read.
“Because tobacco-related harms primarily result from addiction to products that repeatedly expose users to toxins, FDA would take this action to reduce addictiveness to certain tobacco products, thus giving addicted users a greater ability to quit,” the statement continues. “This product standard would also help to prevent experimenters (mainly youth) from initiating regular use, and, therefore, from becoming regular smokers.”
The Food and Drug Administration intends to implement the new rule by May 2023, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/21/nicotine-cigarettes-biden-administration-cut/">The Washington Post</a>, which added, “It could take at least a year for the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates cigarettes, to issue a proposed rule, experts say. After that, the FDA would have to sift through comments from the public before issuing a final rule.”
“Nicotine is an addictive chemical found in cigarettes and other tobacco products,” <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-administration-to-pursue-rule-requiring-lower-nicotine-levels-in-u-s-cigarettes-11654901902">The Wall Street Journal</a> noted. “While nicotine hooks people on cigarettes, nicotine itself doesn’t cause cancer, heart disease or lung disease, according to the FDA.”
“The cigarette <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/pandemic-cigarette-smoking-boom-appears-to-be-over-11635515952?mod=article_inline" data-type="link">smoking rate has been declining</a> in the U.S. for decades, though it ticked up slightly in 2020 when the pandemic hit,” the Journal pointed out.
Guy Bentley, director of consumer freedom at the Reason Foundation, slammed the nicotine reduction plan, saying, “In practical terms, the proposal would ban most cigarettes currently sold in America. Combined with the Biden administration’s proposed ban on menthol cigarettes, this would amount to an effort similar to the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s” — and would ultimately fail, he said, per the Washington Post.
The tobacco company Altria echoed, “We believe tobacco harm reduction is a better path forward. The focus should be less on taking products away from adult smokers and more on providing them a robust marketplace of reduced harm FDA-authorized smoke-free products. Today marks the start of a long-term process, which must be science-based and account for potentially serious unintended consequences.”
“Using any tobacco product can lead to nicotine addiction,” the <a href="https://www.fda.gov/tobacco-products/health-effects-tobacco-use/nicotine-why-tobacco-products-are-addictive">Food and Drug Administration</a> explains. “This is because nicotine can change the way the brain works, causing cravings for more of it. Some tobacco products, like cigarettes, are designed to deliver nicotine to the brain within seconds, making it easier to become dependent on nicotine and more difficult to quit. While nicotine naturally occurs in the tobacco plant itself, some tobacco products contain additives that may make it easier for your body to absorb more nicotine.”
&nbsp;

Cigarette manufacturing

Biden Targets Tobacco: Will Require Lower Nicotine Levels In Cigarettes

Tobacco

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