The Biden administration has pushed a regulation that would effectively ban cigarettes on the market as tobacco users have flocked to Trump during the 2024 presidential election.The rule would lower the levels of nicotine to lower the potential addictiveness of tobacco products. While Biden administrators believe it may attempt to reduce tobacco use, others believe that it may only boost criminals’ money by incentivizing a black market for cigarettes.
Rich Marianos, the former director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, said, '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.' The forthcoming regulation also raises questions about how it could potentially harm Democrats’ electoral chances, given that tobacco users flocked to Trump during the presidential election. Many right-leaning Americans have embraced smokeless tobacco products like nicotine pouches. Tobacco dip and nicotine pouch users were the mostly likely to back Trump. Fifty-seven percent of cigarette users backed Trump over Harris, and 54 percent of vape users voted for the 45th president, while only 43 percent backed the outgoing vice president. Forty-seven percent of Hispanic nicotine users voted for Trump, and 31 percent of black nicotine users backed Trump during the presidential election. Ahead of the presidential election, then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) warned about the alleged dangers of Zyn, the tobacco free nicotine pouches. 'Today I am delivering a warning to parents because these nicotine pouches seem to lock their sights on young kids, teenagers and even lower, and then use the social media to hook them,' Schumer said in January 2024