Is There a Silver Lining in a Dark Cloud?

From a public health perspective, there are many reasons to be concerned about the outcome of Tuesday ’s election. However, there is one reason to potentially be encouraged. With a Trump presidency, and with Republican control of the Senate, we ironically have a tremendous opportunity to once and for all craft a sensible regulatory strategy for electronic cigarettes and vaping products.The Rest of the StoryAlthough the issue was not directly addressed during the campaign, I would expect President-elect Trump to be supportive of vaping products and especially of the thousands of small businesses that are likely going to be forced out of business under the FDA ’s current nicotine regulatory policy. In addition, we know that there are several Republican senators (whose party will now control the Senate) who are sympathetic to the public health damage being done by current policy. Moreover, several senators have specifically considered holding hearings on the issue and are amenable to the introduction of legislation to chart a different course than the FDA is currently taking.I believe that this is actually a historic opportunity, due to a strange but true alignment of the stars. We must take advantage of this opportunity to undo the damage that the FDA ’s vaping products policy has done and is slated to do moving forward.However, it is important that we not settle for a quick-fix. We can do better than that. I don ’t think we need to settle for a Cole-Bishop type amendme...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs