Over Half of Americans Support Banning Tobacco

A ban on the sale of all tobacco products would be supported by more than half of Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The viewpoint was derived from survey replies from 2021, which were described in a research that was just released in the CDC journal Preventing Chronic Disease.

Of those surveyed, 62.3 percent were in favor of banning the sale of menthol cigarettes, while 57.3 percent strongly or somewhat favored banning the sale of all tobacco products.

It is unknown how many survey participants thought that "tobacco products" included nicotine patches and e-cigarettes because they were not provided with a definition of the term. Consumer nicotine products that are not combustible are classified as "tobacco products" by the FDA, which oversees tobacco products.

The FDA released a draft rule in April of last year that, if approved, would outlaw the sale of any flavored cigars and menthol cigarettes. Shortly after, the government declared its intention to proceed with a regulation that would compel cigarette producers to remove nearly all nicotine from their products.

"Policies like this can help promote quitting and reduce tobacco-related health disparities," the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion of the CDC stated in an editorial posted on its Twitter account regarding the study results. The possibility that these laws would lead to the emergence of a black market and all the negative effects that would certainly follow was not discussed by the authors of the paper or the CDC on social media.

The survey's data, which was weighted to meet Census Bureau proportions for demographic variables like sex, age, income, race, education, and area, came from a spring 2021 web panel of 6,455 adults (18 years of age or older). Four scientists from the CDC Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) and one from the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education collected and examined the data.

"To what extent would you support a policy to prohibit the sale of menthol cigarettes?" was the question posed to the poll participants. and "How much would you be in favor of a law that forbade the sale of any tobacco products?" "Strongly oppose," "somewhat oppose," "strongly support," and "somewhat support" were the available response options.

The study omitted a question on respondents' willingness to cover the estimated $40 billion in lost state and federal taxes and settlement payments from tobacco companies if all tobacco products were outlawed. Increases in income taxes would probably be used to replace that money.