“Gift to Cartels”: Biden Regime Working to BAN Cigarettes in Last Days of Presidency

The FDA underneath the Biden administration is moving forward with a new regulation that would effectively ban all cigarettes currently on the market.

The new rule would lower the legal amount of nicotine in tobacco products, presumably to keep Americans from getting addicted to cigarettes.

However, many are blasting the proposed rule, saying that it could bolster cartels and lead to Americans smoking more, not less, in order to compensate for the lower amounts of nicotine.

BREAKING 🅱️

The Biden administration is working to BAN traditional cigarettes.

👀 pic.twitter.com/LGYSTgY68A

— American AF 🇺🇸 (@iAnonPatriot) January 7, 2025

The FDA is moving forward with a new rule in the final days of the Biden administration that would ban most cigarettes currently on the market in favor of products with lower nicotine levels.

Critics warn the move could fuel black-market operations and benefit organized crime.… pic.twitter.com/IFaVnRcTmA

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) January 7, 2025

For instance, former ATF assistant director Rich Marianos is calling the ban on traditional cigarettes, “a gift with a bow and balloons to organized crime cartels with it, whether it’s cartels, Chinese organized crime, or Russian mafia.”

From Fox News:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is moving forward with a regulatory rule in the final days of the Biden administration that would effectively ban cigarettes currently on the market in favor of products with lower nicotine levels, which could end up boosting business for cartels operating on the black market, an expert tells Fox News Digital.

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“Biden’s ban is a gift with a bow and balloons to organized crime cartels with it, whether it’s cartels, Chinese organized crime, or Russian mafia. It’s going to keep America smoking, and it’s going to make the streets more violent,” Rich Marianos, former assistant director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the current chair of the Tobacco Law Enforcement Network, told Fox News Digital of the proposal.

The FDA confirmed to Fox Digital on Monday that as of Jan. 3, the Tobacco Product Standard for Nicotine Level of Certain Tobacco Products had completed a regulatory review, but that the proposed rule has not yet been finalized.

“The proposed rule, ‘Tobacco Product Standard for Nicotine Level of Certain Tobacco Products,’ is displaying in the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) ROCIS system as having completed regulatory review on January 3,” an FDA spokesman told Fox Digital. “As the FDA has previously said, a proposed product standard to establish a maximum nicotine level to reduce the addictiveness of cigarettes and certain other combusted tobacco products, when finalized, is estimated to be among the most impactful population-level actions in the history of U.S. tobacco product regulation. At this time, the FDA cannot provide any further comment until it is published.”

The New York Post added:

he Biden administration is moving forward with plans to mandate lower nicotine levels in cigarettes in the final days of President Biden’s term, according to a new report, which critics say could cause Americans to smoke more and fuel organized crime cartels.

The plan, which is touted as a way to reduce the ability of cigarettes to hook casual users, cleared a regulatory review last week by the Food and Drug Administration, the agency told Fox News.

But opponents argue that the change could cause current smokers to use more cigarettes to compensate for the lower nicotine levels, negatively impacting their health, and that the plan could open an opportunity for black-market sales of standard-strength cigarettes.

“Biden’s ban is a gift with a bow and balloons to organized crime cartels with it, whether it’s cartels, Chinese organized crime, or Russian mafia,” Rich Marianos, a former assistant director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told Fox News.

“It’s going to keep America smoking, and it’s going to make the streets more violent,” Marianos said.

It’s unclear if the FDA will issue a proposed rule outlining the looming regulation before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20.

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Plans for the reform were announced in 2022 and the formal proposed rule had been expected in 2023. It’s unclear what accounts for the delay, though the FDA similarly has been slow to implement a ban on menthol cigarettes, which also was unveiled in 2022.