REGULATORY CAPTURE: Fixing the Federal Policy on E-Cigs Will Save Lives.

Unless something changes soon, the doomsday clock will strike midnight on the e-cigarette industry. Thanks to regulations finalized in August 2016 by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), manufacturers of e-cigarettes and nicotine vapor products now have less than two years to complete an expensive and arduous application process to keep their products on the market. Unable to shoulder the costs, many mom and pop vape shops are already starting to shutter. Thousands more are likely to close soon.

Meanwhile, smokers and former smokers who rely on e-cigarettes as smoking-cessation tools or lower-risk alternatives will soon encounter limited options and increased costs. In all likelihood, many probably will be driven back to combustible cigarettes. This would be a real shame, since e-cigarettes are at least 95 percent less harmful than combustible alternatives and smoking-related illness is a leading cause of preventable death in America.

These Obama-era FDA regs are about collecting tax revenue and protecting established players in the nicotine-delivery business (AKA, Big Tobacco).