Americans love the freedom to choose but don’t always make the healthiest choices.  Our government is supposed to be there to help us make healthy and safe choices, not to eliminate the freedom to make our own decisions regarding our health and well-being.

For example, government wouldn’t encourage us to eat fast food instead of fruits and veggies.  It would never encourage you to ride without a seatbelt.  And yet the government, via its Food and Drug Administration, seems to be deliberately scaring people away from vaping — and thus toward the alternative, which is of course cigarette-smoking, even though smoking is inarguably much more dangerous.

Don’t just take my word for it.  Tobacco-related diseases claim nearly 500,000 American lives each year.  Smoking is the top cause of preventable deaths in the U.S., and 90% of all lung cancer is caused by smoking.  E-cigarettes and vaping products are effective at helping adults reduce or quit smoking altogether.  That will also allow thousands to quit smoking and live longer, healthier lives.  Isn’t that what the FDA is supposed to want?

Yet instead of encouraging vapes, or at least remaining neutral about them, the FDA is acting as if they were as dangerous as cigarettes.  Some of their doomsday advertising and public statements would have one think they are even more so.  Joe Biden’s FDA has signed off on more than 16,800 tobacco products since 2009 — and only 23 of those products are the least dangerous of them all: e-cigarettes.

More facts: Biden’s FDA chooses to make politically convenient decisions regarding U.S. vaping policy, which caters to outside special interest groups.  These include Big Tobacco, Michael Bloomberg–funded groups, and congressional appropriators who want to see vaping banned for political reasons.

One of those Dems is Senate majority leader Charles Schumer.  He encourages the FDA to crack down on vaping products.  “While the FDA has done much to snuff out the worst kinds of e-cigs that can hook kids, like Juul, there are clear workarounds and illegal methods being used by sneaky actors,” the New Yorker claims.

But while he poses as an opponent of vapes, Schumer cosponsors the “Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act,” a bill that would do much to legalize marijuana.  Schumer’s bill includes decriminalization and the expulsion of criminal records.

This makes no sense.  Why would the government work to legalize one type of smoking, while cracking down on products that reduce another type of smoking?  More facts: The Biden administration and Senator Schumer are coming down on smoking cessation products.  But both men support needle exchange programs as part of Biden's “harm reduction strategy” to address overdoses. Yet neither seems to be doing much about illegally imported fentanyl.

It seems as if Democrats are the party that wants to steal vapes from freedom-loving Americans who just want to enjoy their nicotine, even as they ignore larger health problems from pot to opioids.

This bias undermines public health and favors the interests of organizations masquerading as public health groups.  It also undermines the forgotten men and women of America who are looking for flavored nicotine alternatives to cigarettes.

In elite liberal circles, the rates of smoking are declining.  That means inside-the-Beltway types at the FDA think their policies are working.  Instead, by refusing to authorize a wide variety of flavored nicotine alternatives, these policies are causing death and serious health problems in thousands of the most vulnerable Americans around the country.

Here is a warning for Democrats: many of these people are single-issue voters.  They support leaders who are ready to change the biased and overbearing regulatory scheme that was overturned by the Supreme Court’s Chevron decision.  Biden, Schumer, Pelosi, and their fellow Democrats are on notice.

By continuing to promote an overbearing and broken regulatory framework, this FDA is depriving Americans of the freedom of choice they deserve.  Legalizing flavored e-cigarettes provides Americans with the freedom to choose a safer nicotine alternative.  This protects both their health and their rights.  We shouldn’t allow Democrats to take away our freedom to vape.

Chris Bailey is an Atlanta area-based former radio reporter, public relations professional, and firearms instructor.  He is a longtime advocate for personal freedom.

Image: Vaping360 via Flickr, CC BY 2.0.