The Food and Drug Administration is preparing to fast-track flavored vaping products and nicotine pouches, allowing the sale of products that have not been authorized by the agency.
The impact of effective public policy can be slow, with progress measured over years or even decades. Bad public policy often shows its face more quickly.
Public health is a good example. It takes time to build the systems and encourage the behaviors that improve the health of a population. It takes only a moment to undo years of investments.
The U.S. today is witness to that reality. The Trump Administration’s policies and pronouncements have undermined public confidence in vaccines and are producing an epidemic of measles, a disease that largely had been eliminated from the U.S.
Cases of measles in the U.S. quadrupled from 2024 to 2025, and the first half of this year will see more cases than all of last year. Among the cases reported so far in 2026, 92% were in unvaccinated people or those whose status was unknown.
Now, in one of the most egregious examples of politics and money taking priority over public health, President Trump is introducing a new generation of young people to nicotine addiction. The Food and Drug Administration is preparing to fast-track flavored vaping products and nicotine pouches, allowing the sale of products that have not been authorized by the agency. The FDA announced the new policy after Marty Makary, a vocal opponent of vaping, was pushed out of his post as FDA commissioner.
This abhorrent policy change should be especially appalling to Minnesotans. In the 1990s, the state of Minnesota and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota sued tobacco companies claiming the industry knowingly produced an unsafe product and used deceptive marketing – lies – to sell tobacco.
Among the most important outcomes of Minnesota’s complete victory was the release of millions of pages of once-secret tobacco industry documents. The industry’s own words revealed how long it was known that tobacco use is deadly. Research papers showed how tobacco scientists worked to find the right balance between acceptable flavor of a cigarette and the nicotine level that would achieve maximum addiction.
The most cynical tobacco industry revelation was the on-going secret discussions of how to generate and capture “replacement” smokers – the young people needed to replace the customers killed by tobacco use.
And that brings the discussion back to President Trump and his FDA. As recently as 1980, about one-third of Minnesota adults regularly smoked cigarettes. After decades of good policy, including cessation help for smokers, bans on smoking in public spaces (including bars and restaurants) and aggressive education campaigns focused on preventing kids from starting tobacco use, only about 10% of Minnesota adults smoke today.
For most, this is good news achieved after years of smart public policy. A 2018 study by HealthPartners found that tobacco cessation efforts in the first 20 years after the lawsuit was settled resulted in more than 4,100 fewer Minnesota deaths attributable to smoking; the prevention of 38,000 cases of cancer, cardiovascular diseases and other smoking-related diseases; health cost savings of $2.7 billion; and, a $2.4 billion bump in the state’s economy due to increased productivity.
To those that manufacture and sell e-cigarettes and tobacco pouches, including some of the largest tobacco companies, the data tell a different story. Even more than before societal norms around smoking changed, tobacco companies today need replacement customers. President Trump is coming to the rescue.
The industry and its shills promote e-cigarettes as a safer alternative to tobacco products and an aid to help smokers break the habit. There is some validity to these claims. Candy-flavored products, though, aren’t aimed at helping existing smokers quit; their goal is to create a new generation of users addicted to nicotine. E-cigarettes are a gateway to regular tobacco use and cigarette smoking, according to studies published in the Journal of Adolescent Health. Flavored products are a kid’s first choice.
Candy-flavored e-cigarettes and the increasingly popular tobacco pouches had been banned, although illegal flavored e-cigarettes from China are widely available. Now, the tobacco industry and others will be able to circumvent the FDA. While selling nicotine delivery vehicles to young people is illegal, the industry knows how to get its messages and its products to its replacement customers.
President Trump effectively has declared himself to be the most pro-nicotine president in recent memory. Why? KFF News, the investigative reporting arm of the highly-regarded non-profit health research and policy organization, offers some possible answers. According to its reporting, the FDA change came a week after tobacco interests donated $5 million to Trump’s political organizations, this gift on top of the $6 million donated to Trump groups last year. KFF also reported that earlier this year Trump increased his stock holdings in Phillip Morris by as much as $1.64 million. He also has investments in other tobacco companies.
Political advantage and personal gain – the hallmarks of the Trump Administration’s public health policy.
Minnesotans aren’t powerless in their battle against nicotine addiction. Three action steps are especially important.
First, the Minnesota Department of Health offers a free tobacco cessation program for any resident wanting to quit using cigarettes, vapes, or other commercial tobacco products. Quit Partner Minnesota can be reached by calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669).
Second, parents need to be aware and engaged. The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids has useful information on how kids are targeted and an excellent step-by-step guide on how parents can talk to their kids about smoking, vaping and tobacco pouches. (https://tinyurl.com/34hyvjek)
Finally, contact members of Congress. FDA policy should not be sold to the highest bidder and our kids’ health should not be bargained away for political gain.
The state has come a long way in reducing the harm caused by tobacco since the tobacco litigation was settled in 1998. Policies here have influenced the nation and shifted norms around smoking, all for the good.
Minnesotans can help assure that the slow progress of good public health policy to reduce tobacco use does not collapse in a New York minute because of the greed and perfidy of one person.
You are absolutely right about the challenge of finding information you can trust in a world of social media. The best approach is to look at a variety of media and measure their content against time. Does their content reflect what actually occurs as events and issues unfold? And I miss Dsve, too. Very much, especially in these days.
Tom, thank you for bringing this news to light. I have not seen this issue very highly reported anywhere else. I am grateful to the state of Minnesota for its history and legacy of looking out for the health of its citizens. Isn’t it interesting, though, that as deadly as tobacco has been revealed to be, nobody suggested that it be made illegal. Unlike marijuana, which Minnesota has seen fit to legalize. And perhaps it is not an “apples to apples” comparison, but it should make something clear to people. Government is supposed to be telling the truth, and citizens should be able to count on that. When Minnesota was able to prove that the tobacco companies were lying, that made a huge difference to Americans. But in recent years, with the advent of social media and online 24/7 news coverage and blogs and etc., it’s hard to know who is telling us the facts and who is providing a narrative. Parents have the ultimate responsibility for teaching their kids how to think and who to believe. And if parents cannot trust that the government they elect is telling them the truth, well, it’s going to be a long summer.
And I miss Dave Durenberger.