INSTITUTE FOR LIBERTY OPPOSES

FDA FLAVORED CIGAR BAN AS

“A RULE IN SEARCH OF A RATIONALE”
PROPOSAL WILL TRAMPLE INFORMED CONSUMER CHOICE AND
HARM SMALL BUSINESSES AND WORKERS
June 6, 2022 (WASHINGTON, DC) - The Institute for Liberty (IFL), in a comment to U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Robert Califf, has expressed its “strong
opposition” to a proposed ban of flavored cigars, stating that the proposed product standard is
“very simply, a rule in search of a rationale.”

In writing for IFL, Vice President Jerry Rogers asserts that with “very meager if any evidence
that it will measurably improve the public health, the rule “tramples upon the freedom of
individual cigar consumers to make their own informed health choices” and will “fall hardest on
small manufacturing, retailing and distribution businesses and their workers.”

Moreover, the rule “doesn’t appear urgent to reduce youth consumption,” the Agency’s key
argument for the new standard, as “some government surveys place as low as .08% of 12-17-
year-olds and declining rapidly, with that decline picking up steam according to the 2021
National Youth Tobacco Survey.” In the absence of evidence that the rule would reduce already-
low youth usage or morbidity or mortality among adult smokers, “the Agency cherry-picks data”
and “glosses over the high likelihood of increased counterfeiting and illicit sales.”

At the same time, “one matter the Agency is clear on … is the impact on small businesses”
including flavored cigar manufacturers, affected wholesalers and convenience stores, an
overwhelming majority of which are small enterprises according to FDA’s own data.

The organization maintains that “after two years of vacillating and evidence-free
pronouncements” on COVID, “Americans have had enough of politicized, top-down mandates”
and want “straightforward, accurate information to make their own educated choices.”

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Contact: media@instituteforliberty.org