Robert F. Kennedy Jr., drew controversy during his confirmation hearing when he slipped what one outlet described as 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 of Health and Human Services as a “hypocrite” for ingesting a dangerous and addictive chemical while promising to “Make America Healthy Again.”
Nicotine is having a bit of a moment on the American right. A Politico profile of then-Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance’s office noted that “a significant percentage” of his overwhelmingly male staffers “ingest some form of nicotine on a regular basis.” During a 2023 interview with podcaster Theo Von, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson sang the praises of Zyn tobacco pouches (which, he claimed, improve male sexual performance). Later, Carlson swore off Zyn and started his own competing pouch company, ALP—which appears to be RFK’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 the FDA concluded that they pose a “lower risk of cancer and other serious health conditions” than cigarettes or moistened snuff. You don’t have to like nicotine at all. But what we should all be able to agree on is that grown adults making informed choices to use FDA-approved tobacco products is not an urgent public health crisis. According to the American Lung Association, smoking rates among adults fell 73% between 1965 and 2022. Those who still smoke are doing it less often. These downward trends have held steady despite the introduction of e-cigarettes and Zyn-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, but that proved to be a mere blip.
The right public policy when it comes to tobacco is to keep doing what works: clearly explain the health risks, steer adult smokers toward cessation methods or safer alternatives, and keep children from getting hooked 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 help millions of Americans quit smoking. Eighty-one percent of African American smokers prefer menthol cigarettes, but the FDA did not approve its first menthol-flavored vapes until 2024. And once they were approved, they didn’t stay on the market long. The International Trade Commission (ITC) handed down a decision 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’s public health authorities were also allowing China to flood our country with illegal e-cigs in flavors that make menthol look tame. These disposable vapes, which come in flavors like ““Pineapple Coconut Milk Ice” 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 makes billions 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 and Fume—contain absurdly high levels of nicotine, with some delivering the equivalent of 25 packs of cigarettes for the cost of just two packs. Allowing this black market to flourish undermines America’s successful 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 vapes made up over 80% of e-cigarette sales despite the fact that none of those products is FDA-approved. According to Politico, “FDA is supposed to be the one enforcing the law against illegal Chinese flavored vapes but it doesn’t do much more than write warning letters and impose small civil money penalties.” State laws have proven similarly ineffective.
RFK Jr. should begin working with incoming FDA Administrator Martin Makary on day one to crack down on illegal Chinese vape products while approving more products to help smokers quit. And if he chooses 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 Energy and 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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