The FDA Story – Rogue One

Going back to the campaign trail, the Trump administration set a course as a deregulatory force promising to quickly overturn many regulations of the previous administration. From financial services to education to environmental protection, changes occurred rapidly to roll back what the Trump administration viewed as burdensome regulations to business and commerce. A prime example of this is the Environmental Protection Agency’s repeal of the controversial definitions of the 2015 Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule. The rare and glaring exception to this deregulatory agenda is the work of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has sought to further regulate issue areas in its purview from prescription drugs to dietary supplements—and, notably, tobacco products. The FDA has gone rogue when it comes to the deregulatory agenda.

In 2016, the FDA exercised a controversial deeming rule to pull premium cigars under its regulatory authority for cigarettes and smokeless tobacco—an authority it was given for the expressed purpose of protecting public health, with particular respect to nicotine addiction and youth usage. Yet, the scientific evidence, at least according to the most comprehensive longitudinal study ever conducted by both the National Institutes of Health and the FDA, does not consider premium cigars to be a threat to public health.

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