The FDA’s Runaway Trolley Problem
If you’ve ever participated in a thought experiment, you know how fun that can be. The most famous is the Trolley Problem, entertainingly portrayed by the sitcom The Good Place. It forces participants to choose to either divert a runaway trolley and intentionally kill one person or do nothing and let the trolley kill five others in its path. The experiment is fun because it allows us to consider the ethics of our choices without ever putting anyone in danger. But, the version of the Trolley Problem our government is undertaking is no experiment. The unchecked push to ban e-cigarettes puts millions of adult lives at risk in order to prevent a slight increase in potential health risks for a small number of adolescents. Unless Congress or the FDA changes the direction, people — real people — will die.
No matter how much we tax, restrict, and warn, some people will smoke. Smokers have about a 50/50 chance of dying because of their habit. In a free society, we might not be able to fully eliminate tobacco and nicotine use, and yet some countries have figured out how to shift nicotine use to safer alternatives. Sweden, for…
