Timothy P. Carney
Washington Examiner
Electronic cigarettes give smokers a nicotine fix without the stink, tar, fire or carbon monoxide of real cigarettes. They may be a cheap, healthy way to help smokers quit.
So, I’ll give you three guesses which industry is behind the global push to clamp down on e-cigarettes.
If you assumed concerned doctors or “consumer-rights advocates” are the driving force for regulation in Europe and the U.S., then you haven’t been paying attention to way profit and politics interact.
If you said Big Tobacco, close, but no cigar. Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, and Lorrillard all jumped in the e-cig game in the past two years. They’re not opposing regulation (the big guys rarely do), but they’re pushing back on the most onerous rules.
Big Pharma is the real foe of e-cigs, and Big Government is their weapon of choice — on both sides of the pond.
