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  • Bentley: Juul Exit Bad For Harm Reduction

    Bentley: Juul Exit Bad For Harm Reduction

    Photo: steheap

    The Food and Drug Administration’s order to remove Juul products from the U.S. market threatens progress in tobacco harm reduction, according to Guy Bentley, director of consumer freedom at the Reason Foundation.

    Guy Bentley

    Writing on the foundation’s website, Bentley reminds his audience that e-cigarettes are not only less harmful than their combustible counterparts, but they are also more effective in helping smokers quit than FDA-approved therapies such as nicotine gum and patches

    The FDA, he writes, acknowledged as much when it authorized Vuse e-cigarettes in 2021 and claims it recognizes the role these safer nicotine alternatives can play in reducing smoking.

    If the Juul order is implemented, says Bentley, many Juul users will likely return to smoking, while a portion of smokers who would have transitioned to Juul will continue to light up.

    Bentley says the FDA Juul denial makes a mockery of the claim that it’s evaluating science in the best interests of public health. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found e-cigarettes to be twice as effective as traditional nicotine replacement therapies.

    According to Bentley, the decision also punctures a hole in the logic of the FDA’s recently announced policy to reduce nicotine levels in cigarettes to minimally or non-addictive levels. Without an acceptable legal alternative, smokers may simply smoke more cigarettes to get their nicotine fix.

    “By banning the most popular e-cigarette among adults, the agency’s commitment to transitioning smokers to safer alternatives rings hollow,” writes Bentley.

  • Bentley: Banning Menthol is a High-Risk Strategy

    Bentley: Banning Menthol is a High-Risk Strategy

    Guy Bentley

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s plan to ban menthol cigarettes may have unintended consequences, such as increased black market sales and more incarceration, while doing little to advance public health, according to Guy Bentley, director of consumer freedom at the Reason Foundation.

    Writing on the organization’s website, Bentley says the desired public health gains could also be achieved by applying the harm reduction model to tobacco policy.

    In his article, Bentley examines the experiences of Canada, the European Union and Massachusetts, which have already banned menthol cigarettes, and finds the results to be underwhelming.

    “In the aggregate, the experience of menthol bans in the real world, as opposed to forecasts about them, is that the bans have minimal effects on tobacco consumption but do engender unintended consequences, even in markets where menthol is relatively unpopular,” he writes.

    According to Bentley, banning menthol cigarettes is a radical policy with significant implications for the criminal justice system and personal autonomy. “Rather than resorting to the failed policies of the past, the FDA and the Biden administration should apply the harm reduction model to tobacco policy,” he writes.

    “Educating the public and taking a harm reduction approach has been successful in the fields of sexual health and drug addiction, and it would be far more effective in reducing smoking than banning menthols.”