In the final days of the Biden administration, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is developing regulatory rules that would effectively ban currently available cigarettes in favor of products with lower nicotine concentrations, resulting in companies operating cartels. has the potential to boost business. Experts spoke to Fox News Digital about the black market.
“Biden’s ban is a bow and balloon gift to the organized crime cartels, whether it’s the cartels, whether it’s the Chinese organized crime, whether it’s the Russian mafia. It’s going to send America up in smoke and bring more violence to the streets. Rich Marianos, former deputy director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and current chairman of the Tobacco Law Enforcement Network, told Fox News Digital. suggestion.
The FDA told Fox Digital on Monday that as of Jan. 3, the Tobacco Product Standard for nicotine levels in certain tobacco products had completed regulatory review, but the proposed rule has not yet been finalized. I admitted it.
“The proposed rule, ‘Tobacco Product Standards for Nicotine Levels in Certain Tobacco Products,’ appears in the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) ROCIS system as having completed regulatory review on January 3,” the FDA said. a spokesperson told Fox Digital. “As FDA has previously stated, the proposed product standard establishing maximum nicotine concentrations to reduce the addictive properties of cigarettes and certain other combustible tobacco products, if finalized, would be a milestone in FDA history. FDA is unable to comment further on U.S. tobacco product regulations at this time until they are announced. ”
Fox New Digital reached out to the White House regarding concerns if the proposal goes into effect, but did not receive a response.
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President Biden speaks on Monday, December 16, 2024, in Washington, DC, USA. The FDA confirmed to Fox Digital that as of Jan. 3, the Tobacco Product Standard for nicotine levels in certain tobacco products has completed regulatory review, but the proposed rule has not yet been finalized. Not yet. (Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Former President Barack Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in 2009, giving the FDA authority to regulate tobacco products. Since then, the agency has been working to lower nicotine levels. In July 2017, during the Trump administration, then-FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced he would seek to require tobacco companies to significantly reduce the nicotine content in cigarettes to help adults. Smokers quit.
In 2022, the FDA under the Biden administration announced plans for proposed rules that would lower nicotine levels and make them less addictive or non-addictive.
“Reducing nicotine levels to minimally addictive or non-addictive levels will reduce the likelihood that future generations of young people will become addicted to cigarettes,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said at the time. This will encourage more people to quit smoking.”
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Reducing the nicotine levels in commonly purchased cigarettes and other tobacco products would open the floodgates to illegal trade in tobacco products into the United States, Marianos told Fox News Digital.
“This decision is being thrown at the public without a single drop of thought or preparation. No one is talking to law enforcement, no one is talking to doctors, no one is talking to regulators and saying, ‘Hey, look, what? “What are the unintended consequences of such a bad choice,” and I’m going to call it a bad choice,” Marianos said.
A woman lights a cigarette. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP)
He said Mexican cartels are in a good position to bring illicit cigarettes across the border, as well as substances like fentanyl that have devastated communities across the United States, while Chinese criminal organizations are turning infant formula into cigarettes. He explained that he is carrying out the best counterfeiting operations in the area. , and Russian organized crime groups are getting their foot in the doors of cities across the country, including bodegas and other stores that sell tobacco products.
Marianos said that once the proposal comes into force, criminal organizations are likely to quickly take notice of the proposal and subsequently expand their tobacco operations, which would be an economic boon for criminals.
Migrants attempt to enter the United States from Mexico at the border in Jacumba Hot Springs, California, December 17, 2023. (Photo by Nick Ute/Getty Images)
Americans who want to buy cigarettes with higher nicotine content must go through illegal channels to obtain them, just as they buy “inferior” cigarettes on the streets of New York, making it difficult for the average American to buy cigarettes. By providing tobacco, you are at risk of crime. Unregulated and foreign.
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Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have already warned that tobacco trafficking in the United States poses a serious national security threat and is already having an impact.
A couple smoking a cigarette. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
“In 2015, the State Department “Money Laundering, Bulk Cash Smuggling, Persons, Weapons, Drugs, Antiques, Diamonds, and Counterfeit Goods,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana. Mark Warner, Virginia. Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida. Bill Hagerty, Republican, Tennessee. And Sen. Pennsylvania Democrat Bob Casey wrote in a 2023 letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken:
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“Recently, public reports have pointed to financial links between Mexican transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) involved in drug and fentanyl trafficking and tobacco smuggling operations. poses a serious threat to national security and public health.”
Marianos added that in addition to the criminal impact on the United States and its population, lower nicotine levels would defeat the stated mission of getting smokers to quit cigarettes and would instead lead to an increase in smoking.
In the final days of the Biden administration, the FDA is developing regulatory rules that would effectively ban currently available cigarettes and prioritize products with lower nicotine concentrations. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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“You’re going to end up smoking even more. And you thought that’s what we’re trying to get away from, right? Smoking is bad. We’re going to get away from it and make the country safer.” I believe that we are trying to do everything possible to ‘Yeah, if you lower the nicotine levels, people will smoke more, it’s been proven, all you have to do is drive your car here in Washington, D.C., look. “Workers on cigarette breaks will know,” he said. As people work more, productivity will decline further. Take more smoke breaks in the alley to get some nicotine.
The Biden administration had previously sought to completely ban menthol cigarettes as a “key” part of President Biden’s cancer moonshot plan, but abruptly announced last year that it would postpone such restrictions after public criticism. . A few groups argued that the menthol ban unfairly targets minority communities, while others argued that the ban would open the floodgates to illegal menthol sales.
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