FDA takes historic step to lower nicotine in cigarettes - Polidicks

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday took the first concrete action to reduce nicotine levels in cigarettes to make them less addictive, action that the agency's top official called “historic. Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced the issuance of an “advanced notice of proposed rulemaking,” the earliest step in what is likely to be a complicated regulatory effort to lower nicotine levels. According to the notice, to be published Friday in the Federal Register, an evaluation of one possible policy scenario found a nicotine standard could save 8 million lives by the end of the century — which Gottlieb termed "an undeniable public health benefit." The agency is asking for public comment on several aspects of the issue FDA takes ‘historic’ step to lower nicotine in cigarettes

People are going to be PISSED about this. Smokers are VERY protective of their cigarettes. Watch as American smokers start stockpiling them.

This is a good step in the right direction towards weaning the public off tobacco use in general over time.. though the nicotine is only one piece in the puzzle that makes up the horrible components of cigarettes. The radioactive chemicals used in the fertilizer for most of all grown tobacco is one of the biggest issues, resulting in the buildup of radium/radon, lead, polonium and other heavy radioactive elements in the body over time. It's just a horrible substance and I don't understand why humanity as a whole ever adopted ingesting it at the scale that we do. Hopefully ours and newer generations of humans learn from scientific evidence and have more of a care for our bodies and others around us that are forced to also inhale these chemicals.

as an occasional smoker i'm perfectly fine with this. however, this is also a double edged sword. reducing the total amount of nicotine per cigarette will only make people smoke more cigarettes, which will definitely increase rates of smoking related diseases. but it will also make them less addictive, so less people get hooked. in a few years it'll possibly balance out?

While nicotine addiction is a problem and a major factor on why people get hooked its all the other chems they shove into cigarettes that causes the myriad of issues that comes with smoking them. Maybe they should focus on the more harmful aspects of cigarettes along with nicotine reduction?

I love the occasional fag on the occasion. Reducing the nicotine is a totally cool move IMO. IDK man, I really enjoy it. I mean fair play I'd never force someone to take it up (though I do offer if they'd like one - even just to try), and there's zero arguments RE health effects and whatnot but smoking has a load of unintended side effects in which it's still quite a social thing and it does taste quite nice. Those may mean jack shit in your and many other people's eyes but don't do it then.

I don't know if you truly understand how smoking and nicotine work. Lowering the nicotine might help new smokers not get AS addicted, but it will make existing smokers smoke more to get the same amount of nicotine. So instead of taking in one cigarette's worth of smoke and extra chemicals, they have to take in TWO cigarettes worth of smoke and extra chemicals for the same effect. In other words, you're going to put MORE toxins into their systems.

good, nicotine is awful for you anyway

The paradox you'll see in sales once this change goes through is that more cigarettes are sold, and the companies make more money. Why? Because you've just short changed the smoker, the customer, and not the industry. So the smoker will buy more packs, and smoke more cigarettes and feel resentment the whole time towards the system as the price goes up as well. I get that there shouldn't be any sympathy for smokers and we shouldn't be encouraging the behavior, I'm with that but look at the downstream effects of this a bit more, it's going to be ineffective and profitable for the companies and government due to taxes, and inefficient at increasing cessation rates.

Not as much as other shit in ciggarete (and smoking that shit)

I do see the possibility of this encouraging some people to drop smoking because they can no longer afford it [as easily], but.. then again maybe not because I don't trust the average person to be very rational when it comes to addictions either..

You could just switch over to vaping and add as much nicotine as you want.

As someone who smoked about 2 packs a day until 2 months ago, smoking isn't something that's budgeted. You run out, so you grab a pack. But wait, I don't want to go again in a couple hours, let me buy 2. 3 pack special you say? Sure. You know what, I'll just buy a carton. To a smoker, there will always be money for cigarettes. There may not be money for gas, for food, or anything else, but they WILL have money for smokes. I've been there. Its not a good place to be.

completely smoke free now?

I have not had a cigarette since January 23rd. I have been vaping e-juice with no nicotine since then (so went from 2 pack a day to nothing), and I'm even toning that down since that's just to help me deal with the hand to mouth habit that's going away slowly.

i just picked up a CBD pen at a smokeshop for exactly this - the craving to have something in your hands that you can put in between your lips - no homo - is absolutely as strong as the physical addiction to nicotine.

Well I found that the first few weeks, I was wearing out my 18650 batteries real fast from chain vaping. Now, I really only vape when I'm doing something like driving where I would normally smoke a lot. If I'm just chilling at the apartment for the entire weekend, I barely even touch my mods.

Glad to hear it, good luck staying off. From what I've seen vaping is far more effective for quitting than classic methods (besides cold turkey ofc).

yeah i feel ya. quitting smoking can sometimes mean quitting multiple habits. if you own a house and smoke indoors (like myself) then switching to vaping can be just as expensive, because of chain vaping, whereupon you burn thru a whole bottle of juice watching a movie on the couch. people who go outside to smoke usually try to go outside to vape (due to laws prohibiting smoking indoors anyway) once they make the switch, and people who smoke indoors should go outside. i like to incentivize myself for not smoking, by making it difficult and having a "reward" for opting out of smoking. for example, i absolutely never buy cigarettes. i roll my own cigarettes, with a very frustrating-to-use, crank-machine cigarette roller that rolls one at a time. i keep it on top of the fridge against the wall at the back. in addition, i keep sweets in a container in the den. i do this intentionally so that, if i get a nicotine craving, it's a pain in the ass to actually smoke a cigarette, so i typically go for the sweet. doing this has successfully talked me out of smoking literally hundreds upon hundreds of cigarettes. but i do occasionally have a cigarette or two! i suggest applying a similar incentive.

Straight nicotine is NOT why cigarettes are so addictive. The reason is that cigarettes contain additives that potentiate the effects of Nic, on top of the Tobacco plants being specifically bred to be very high in natural sugars which when burned produce additional nic-potentiating compounds. Plenty of people try vaping, patches, gum, the works and they go back because it's not the same, there's no "kick". And they're right, it's not the same and still requires the will to stop the habit. People will just smoke more to achieve the same effect.

So isn't this basically equal to watering down liquor for alcoholics?

Nicotine is just a small part of what causes smoking to be bad, and probably not the worst part of it.

Yeah it's not going to do much to existing smokers other than piss them off and make them smoke even more to get their previous nicotine fix. The effect will be mainly to new smokers I'd think. Pretty much

Trying to make older smokers quit is a lost cause anyway, I wouldn't devote resources to it. But stopping youngsters from starting has been wildly successful and this is the next logical step.

Stopped smoking cigs in exchange for jazz bnm, not as costly and I don't smoke nearly as much, hoping to just quit all together soon though.

Vaping and smoking are 2 totally different sensations. It takes a lot of wheening and vape use for a heavy smoker to switch over completely. I was a 2 pack a day smoker and it took me about 6 months to fully transition to an e cigarette. Is easier said than done