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Nicotine

topicshealth | Photo: Munro/iStock

Health

How Making GLP-1s Available Over the Counter Can Unlock Their Full Potential

Drugs like Ozempic might not only address obesity but also alcoholism, smoking, and drug addiction.

Jeffrey A. Singer | 5.31.2025 6:00 AM

a chart showing rates of past-month e-cigarette use among high school students | CDC/JZS

Vaping

Trump Promised To 'Save Vaping.' His FDA Head Does Not Seem Inclined To Do That.

Marty Makary grossly exaggerates the prevalence of adolescent nicotine addiction, the concern underlying his agency's restrictions on e-cigarette flavors.

Jacob Sullum | 5.26.2025 2:45 PM

Advertising for Zyn nicotine pouches with a sign reading "WARNING: This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical." | Richard B. Levine/Newscom

Nicotine

Gen Zyn: Nicotine Pouches Help Curb Youth Smoking Rates

As young adults swap cigarettes and vapes for oral nicotine products, policymakers should recognize this shift as harm reduction instead of cracking down on personal choice.

Sofia Hamilton | 4.15.2025 10:32 AM

Bottles of Vapetasia e-liquids | VapoRider

Vaping

The Supreme Court Blesses the FDA's Rejection of Flavored Nicotine Vapes

The justices unanimously overturned a 5th Circuit decision that deemed the agency's treatment of e-liquids "arbitrary and capricious."

Jacob Sullum | 4.3.2025 4:05 PM

Chuck Schumer holding a packet of Zyns | Illustration: Lex Villena; Iryna Piskova

Nicotine

Pray for Us Zynners

New York's proposed ban on nicotine pouches ignores science, consumer choice, and the lessons of prohibition.

Jordan McGillis | 3.5.2025 12:20 PM

Pack of Marlboro menthol cigarettes | Anthony Behar/Sipa USA/Newscom

Smoking Bans

Trump Rolls Back FDA Menthol Ban

Biden's FDA pushed a prohibition that disproportionately targeted marginalized communities. Trump's reversal may mark a shift toward smarter drug policy.

Sofia Hamilton | 1.28.2025 1:00 PM

Can of Zyn | Christian Britschgi

Tobacco

Let Freedom Zyn

Plus: TikTok bans, weak cigarettes, and more...

Christian Britschgi | 1.17.2025 9:31 AM

cigarette butts | Flickr/Revival Vape

Tobacco

The FDA Proposes a De Facto Cigarette Ban, Which Would Expand the Disastrous War on Drugs

Mandating negligible nicotine levels in tobacco products would create a big black market and criminalize currently legal transactions.

Jacob Sullum | 1.16.2025 2:45 PM

E-cigarette liquid bottles lined up on a shelf | Richard B. Levine/Newscom

Vaping

A Change in Administrations Underlines the Stakes of an E-Cigarette Case SCOTUS Heard This Week

An e-liquid manufacturer is challenging the FDA's "arbitrary and capricious" rejection of flavored vaping products.

Jacob Sullum | 12.4.2024 5:40 PM

Wall of electronic cigarettes. | 	Vuk Valcic / SOPA Images/Sipa USA/Newscom

FDA

Food and Drug Administration Defends Refusal To Approve Flavored E-Cigarettes Before the Supreme Court

The FDA’s regulations are burdensome and unnecessary to address the inflated high school vaping epidemic.

Jack Nicastro | 12.3.2024 12:30 PM

topicsindex | Photos: iStock

Economics

The Sindex: Airfares Have Fallen Below Prepandemic Levels

The Reason Sindex tracks the price of vice: smoking, drinking, snacking, traveling, and more.

Jason Russell | 10.28.2024 6:00 AM

Bottles of Vapetasia e-liquids | VapoRider

Vaping

SCOTUS Will Decide Whether the FDA's 'Regulatory Switcheroos' on Vaping Were 'Arbitrary and Capricious'

The 5th Circuit ruled that the agency violated the Administrative Procedure Act when it rejected applications from manufacturers of flavored nicotine e-liquids.

Jacob Sullum | 7.3.2024 1:35 PM

Green trash can that says, "Keep New York City Clean." | Photo 58512828 © Daniel Kaesler | Dreamstime.com

Vaping

Banning Flavored Tobacco Products Doesn't Work—We Have the Trash To Prove It

Researchers examined garbage placed in public receptacles in Washington, D.C., and New York City and found that the locales’ bans on flavored tobacco products have unquestionably failed.

Sofia Hamilton | 6.23.2024 7:00 AM

Zyn | Ron Adar / M10s / MEGA / Newscom/RAAST/Newscom

Reason Roundup

Zynsurrection Time

Plus: War in Sudan, federal homeschooling regulations, E.A. vs. progress studies, and more...

Liz Wolfe | 6.19.2024 9:31 AM

A box of cigarettes with the map of Australia | Illustration: Lex Villena

Nicotine

The Deadly Tobacco Drug War Down Under

Australia’s Prohibition-style attempts to abolish nicotine use have predictably led to a new drug war being fought over a legal substance.

Jacob Grier | 6.17.2024 7:00 AM

minisbigvape | <em>Big Vape</em>/Netflix

Vaping

Review: Netflix Delivers a Surprisingly Balanced Take on Vaping

Big Vape presents differing views on the supposed youth vaping epidemic.

Jacob Sullum | 2.2.2024 6:00 AM

Sen. Chuck Schumer holds a container of Zyn nicotine pouches in his right hand and a piece of paper with other images of Zyn containers in his left hand. A man wearing a white coat and a tie stands behind him. | Ron Adar / M10s / MEGA / Newscom/RAAST/Newscom

Nanny State

Chuck Schumer Attacks Lifesaving Zyn Nicotine Pouches

Zyn pouches are a dramatically safer alternative to smoking.

Guy Bentley | 1.24.2024 1:15 PM

Nikki Haley | https://twitter.com/ManiacsMidway/status/1749863680550830536

Election 2024

Goodbye to Haley the Hawk

Plus: The most boring write-in campaign, some heat in the Argentine streets, Brooklyn's penchant for vehicular manslaughter, and more...

Liz Wolfe | 1.24.2024 9:30 AM

bottles of nicotine liquid for vaping devices | Richard B. Levine/Newscom

Vaping

Remember the Teen Vaping 'Epidemic'?

Policies inspired by that exaggerated threat continue to undermine the harm-reducing potential of e-cigarettes.

Jacob Sullum | 11.8.2023 12:01 AM

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaking in front of a blue background, behind a podium that reads "LONG-TERM DECISIONS FOR A BRIGHTER FUTURE" | News Licensing / MEGA / Newscom/NEWSUK/Newscom

Tobacco

Rishi Sunak To Ban Cigarettes for Brits

The U.K.’s “conservative” prime minister wants to prohibit people born in 2009 and later from buying cigarettes—forever.

Guy Bentley | 10.4.2023 1:35 PM

A cigarette in one hand and a vape in the other | Vaping360

Vaping

Sales Data Indicate That Restrictions on Flavored Vaping Products Encourage Smoking

A study found a "high rate of substitution" between vapes and cigarettes, suggesting that policies aimed at preventing underage use are undermining public health.

Jacob Sullum | 9.29.2023 11:30 AM

A shadowed figure of a man vapes with a red and pink glowing background behind the figure | Photo 112959091 © Ilkin Guliyev | Dreamstime.com

Vaping

American Lung Association Demands the FDA Mislead the Public About Vaping

Providing accurate information about the risks of different nicotine products is long overdue.

Guy Bentley | 9.5.2023 3:00 PM

Premium cigars won against the FDA | Photo 6165498 © Angelina Kastilo Solis | Dreamstime.com

Smoking Bans

Premium Cigars Escape FDA Regulation for Now

The FDA failed to consider whether premium cigars warranted a different regulatory approach than cigarettes.

Jacob Grier | 8.11.2023 2:00 PM

TOPICSIDEAS | Illustration: IKANIMOKEN/iStock

Nicotine

Shoddy Research Reinforces Anti-Vaping Narrative

Thanks to tendentiously sloppy research, most Americans think vaping is just as dangerous as smoking. That’s not true.

Jacob Sullum | 3.20.2023 6:00 AM

Woman smoking an e-cigarette in front of neon lights | Photo 122603552 © Tatiana Chekryzhova | Dreamstime.com

Tobacco

Massachusetts' Tobacco Ban Went as Badly as You'd Expect

And now the state thinks it needs to crack down even more.

Jacob Grier | 3.9.2023 12:05 PM

Teenager vaping | DPST/Newscom

Vaping

My Daughter's School District Warns That Nicotine Vapers Could Be Unknowingly Inhaling Fentanyl

It is hard to find evidence of this "disturbing trend."

Jacob Sullum | 2.23.2023 6:55 PM

President Joe Biden photographed in black and white, in front of the American flag, surrounded by smoking white and gray clouds. | Illustration: Lex Villenas. Photo: CNP/AdMedia/Newscom

Joe Biden

Biden's Anti-Vaping Policies Undermine Cancer Moonshot

To reduce cancer deaths, Biden should stop restricting safer nicotine alternatives.

Guy Bentley | 2.8.2023 3:05 PM

Vaping

Fifth Circuit Grants En Banc Rehearing to Challenge to FDA Rejection of Vaping Products

Another potential legal setback for the FDA's attempt to regulate electronic cigarettes as tobacco products.

Jonathan H. Adler |The Volokh Conspiracy | 1.19.2023 9:54 PM

The 5th Circuit says the FDA's de facto ban on flavored e-cigarettes is probably illegal. | Gawriloff/Dreamstime.com

Vaping

A Medical Journal Retracts a 2022 Study That Linked Vaping to Cancer

The obvious problems with the article reflect a broader pattern that suggests a peer review bias against e-cigarettes.

Jacob Sullum | 1.4.2023 2:05 PM

New Zealand bans cigarette sales to anyone born after 2008 | Photo 89965005 © Voyagerix | Dreamstime.com

Nanny State

New Zealand Bans Cigarette Sales to Anyone Born After 2008. Forever.

The country's strategy ignores the failures of prohibition.

Emma Camp | 12.14.2022 2:23 PM

The 5th Circuit says the FDA's de facto ban on flavored e-cigarettes is probably illegal. | Gawriloff/Dreamstime.com

Vaping

Diseases That Studies Linked to E-Cigarettes Generally Were Diagnosed Before Subjects Began Vaping

The failure to consider the timing of diagnoses makes it impossible to draw causal inferences.

Jacob Sullum | 12.13.2022 5:45 PM

maxresdefault

Vaping

Oregon's Anti-Vape Laws Will Put This Deaf Immigrant's Hookah Shop Out of Business

You can smoke all the pot you want, but flavored tobacco or nicotine is soon to be illegal.

Jacob Grier | 12.9.2022 4:45 PM

Menthol cigarettes | Chernetskaya / Dreamstime.com

Cigarettes

California Voters Keep State Ban on Flavored Tobacco and Vapes

Bring on the black market.

Scott Shackford | 11.9.2022 12:21 AM

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf testifying | Michael Brochstein/Zuma Press/Newscom

Vaping

New Survey Data Cast Further Doubt on the FDA's Opposition to Flavored E-Cigarettes

The "epidemic" of adolescent vaping seems to be fading fast, and vaping is replacing smoking among adults, a harm-reducing trend that regulators seem determined to discourage.

Jacob Sullum | 8.25.2022 3:40 PM

woman vapes with Juul | Niyi Fote/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom

Prohibition

The FDA's War on Juul Will Kill People

Bureaucrats say they want to save lives. But they're moving to block a tool that is proven to help smokers quit entirely.

Veronique de Rugy | 6.30.2022 2:35 PM

Juul vape and cartridges with the word DENIED stamped next to them | Illustration: Lex Villena; Steveheap | Dreamstime.com

Nicotine

In a Surprise Move, the FDA Denies Approval for Juul Tobacco and Menthol Vapes

What was once a classic Silicon Valley success story has become the victim of an intensely ideological war on nicotine.

Guy Bentley | 6.22.2022 11:58 AM

hand holding a smoking cigarette | Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@minhtit96?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Lê Tit</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/smoking?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>

Nicotine

Mandating Low-Nicotine Cigarettes Could Make Smoking More Dangerous

Plus: Supreme Court rules on school choice and criminal justice reform, Louisiana's trigger law criminalizes abortion at any stage, and more...

Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 6.22.2022 9:30 AM

feature-grier-cigprohibition | Illustration: Joanna Andreasson

Nicotine

Welcome to the Nicotine Prohibition Era

Regulators have long targeted tobacco products, but there's new energy behind outright bans on vapes and cigarettes.

Jacob Grier | 4.2.2022 6:00 AM

Tobacco

Tax Buried in the "Build Back Better" Bill Is Likely to Increase Smoking Rates

Whatever else the BBB bill will do, this provision is bad for public health and could increase smoking's death toll.

Jonathan H. Adler |The Volokh Conspiracy | 11.22.2021 11:08 AM

elsa-olofsson-hyqTZZXQUYg-unsplash | Photo by Elsa Olofsson on Unsplash

Taxes

A Federal Vaping Tax Is Bad Policy and Bad Politics

The proposed vaping tax has caused a third Democrat to join Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema in opposing the bill.

Eric Boehm | 11.12.2021 2:50 PM

joe-biden-bad_ | Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons, Rob Curran on Unsplash

Joe Biden

How Biden's Vaccine Mandates Degrade Social Trust

Plus, how his tax hikes won't actually help anyone, either.

Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman | 9.13.2021 4:15 PM

rollcallpix139231 | Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom

Taxes

Democrats Try To Hide a $3 Trillion Tax Increase From Voters

The plan would make a liar out of Biden on a level reminiscent of George H.W. Bush's betrayal of his "read my lips" tax pledge.

Ira Stoll | 9.13.2021 2:45 PM

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