Robert F. Kennedy Jr., drew controversy during his confirmation hearing when he slipped what one outletdescribedas a “very suspicious pouch” between his cheek and gum during a confirmation hearing.The New York Post quickly denounced President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Department ofHealth and Human Services as a “hypocrite” for ingesting a dangerous and addictive chemical whilepromising to “Make America Healthy Again.”
Nicotine is having a bit of a moment on the American right. A Politicoprofileof then-Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance’soffice noted that “a significant percentage” of his overwhelmingly male staffers “ingest some form ofnicotine on a regular basis.” During a 2023 interview with podcaster Theo Von, former Fox News hostTucker Carlsonsang the praisesof Zyn tobacco pouches (which, he claimed, improve male sexualperformance). Later, Carlson swore off Zyn and started his own competing pouchcompany, ALP—whichappears to beRFK’s brand of choice. (Disclosure: Neil Patel is the chairman of the Daily Caller News Foundation and is also an owner of ALP.)
You don’t have to like nicotine pouches, though theFDA concludedthat they pose a “lower risk of cancerand other serious health conditions” than cigarettes or moistened snuff. You don’t have to like nicotineat all. But what we should all be able to agree on is that grown adults making informed choices to useFDA-approved tobacco products is not an urgent public health crisis. According to theAmerican LungAssociation, smoking rates among adults fell 73% between 1965 and 2022. Those who still smoke aredoing it less often. These downward trends have held steady despite the introduction of e-cigarettes andZyn-style nicotine pouches. In 2000, there were slightly fewer former smokers than current smokers.Today, the ratio is almost two-to-one.
Youth smoking has declined even more rapidly. Vaping caused a brief upward spike in the late 2010s, butthat proved to bea mere blip.
The right public policy when it comes to tobacco is to keep doing what works: clearly explain the healthrisks, steer adult smokers toward cessation methods or safer alternatives, and keep children from gettinghooked young.
Unfortunately, when it comes to those last two points, the Biden administration fell short.
On one hand, they were overly cautious about allowing the sale of vape products that could helpmillions of Americans quit smoking. Eighty-one percent of African American smokers prefer menthol cigarettes, but theFDA did not approve its first menthol-flavored vapes until 2024. And once they were approved, theydidn’t stay on the market long. The International Trade Commission (ITC) handed down adecision removing the only legal menthol e-cigarettes from the market. The decision is a disaster for public health. Trump has 60 days to block this decision on public policy grounds.
Meanwhile, as they were failing to keep a single FDA-approved menthol vape on the market, Biden’spublic health authorities were also allowing China to flood our country with illegal e-cigs in flavors thatmake menthol look tame. These disposable vapes, whichcome in flavorslike ““Pineapple Coconut MilkIce” and “Sour Raspberry Gummy Bear,” are clearly designed to appeal to children.
The Chinese Communist Party refuses to sell these products to its own citizens and instead makesbillions of dollars sending them to the U.S., often in deceptively labeled packaging to circumvent customs authorities.
These Chinese vapes—which are marketed under brand names like ELFBAR andFume—containabsurdly high levels of nicotine, with some delivering the equivalent of 25 packs ofcigarettes for the cost of just two packs. Allowing this black market to flourish undermines America’ssuccessful anti-smoking strategy, which relies in part on heavy vice taxes.
And it is flourishing. Enforcement has been virtually nonexistent. As of summer 2024, flavored vapesmade up over 80% of e-cigarette sales despite the fact that none of those products isFDA-approved. Accordingto Politico, “FDA is supposed to be the one enforcing the law against illegalChinese flavored vapes but it doesn’t do much more than write warning letters and impose small civilmoney penalties.” State laws have proven similarly ineffective.
RFK Jr. should begin working with incoming FDA Administrator Martin Makary on day one to crackdown on illegal Chinese vape products while approving more products to help smokers quit. And if hechooses to do so with an ALP in his cheek, so be it.
Joseph R. Pitts, a former Republican member of Congress from Pennsylvania, chaired the House Energyand Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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