In the last days of his administration, former President Joe Biden unveiled a plan to reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes and urged President Donald Trump to take up the effort.
This plan, while likely well-intended, misses the real tobacco problem in America. Occasionally smoking a cigarette with higher nicotine concentration is not bad — it can even be good social bonding. Our leaders should aim the cannon away from this good old-fashioned enjoyment made of America’s very own tobacco, and point their guns at the real specter haunting our youth now more than ever — addiction.
For the young nicotine addict, smoking cigarettes is more of a luxury or a rare indulgence among other nicotine products. Users have found more effective means ingesting nicotine, forgoing the signature stink and meager 1.5 milligrams of nicotine per cigarette for more powerful nicotine delivery systems like vapes and nicotine pouches.
In 2024, the Food and Drug Administration found that 10.1% of high school students reported nicotine use, but only 2.8% of those reported combustible nicotine use. If these trends continue into their adulthood, smoking will hardly be a threat compared to the 7.3% of high schoolers who are addicted to nicotine through other means.
Smokers have lost. Since the 1990s, the campaign against smoking has succeeded: The rate of those who answered yes to “have you smoked in the past week” has gone from a peak of 55% in 1955 to a low of about 12% in 2023, according to a Gallup poll.
Though it has moved away from smoking, Big Tobacco still moves product. Truth Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to ending nicotine addiction, reported that in 2017 the share of vapes sold with a 5% nicotine concentration only made up 5% of sales, but sales of these kinds of vapes made up 81% of the market share by 2022.
At the genesis of the vape in 2003, a Chinese company invented vapes as an alternative to smoking, something to help smokers quit. Initially, that may have been a common use, but a crucial shift happened in that time frame: Vapes became not a way to stop smoking, but a more discrete and efficient method of nicotine consumption.
With such high nicotine concentrations, the sensation of taking a hit of a vape compares to smoking a cigarette like taking a shot does to drinking a sip of beer. The addiction will begin much quicker and latch on much stronger with such devices. With these alternatives flooding the market, smoking is left as an antiquated indulgence Big Tobacco still sells out of respect for their roots.
While it supports Biden’s plan, the FDA does not seem too concerned about nicotine addiction. Though it claims “No nicotine product is safe” and offers help for quitting, it re-affirms the benefit of switching to alternatives.
“This toxic mix of chemicals — not nicotine — causes serious health effects among those who use tobacco products,” the FDA’s “What is nicotine?” page says. With all its medical jargon and exclusively physical-health-based language, it seems the FDA would not have a problem with nicotine addiction if it were not for the physical health drawbacks.
This is the heart of the problem: Officials speak the language of financial strain on the medical community and harm to health, but don’t worry about addiction apart from its side effects. They legislate morally, but only half-heartedly. If true health is a concern, then the FDA should consider citizens holistically rather than just based on immediate physical health threats.
If the FDA really wants to help Americans, it should ensure alternative tobacco products are paths away from smoking rather than avenues to addiction.
Without regulations lowering nicotine concentration, Big Tobacco will be able to keep making more powerful products that both whet and fail to satisfy the unquenchable desire for more.
Colman Rowan is a senior studying English.
