Chairman Burr Featured In “Smarter Regulation Now” Series

As Regulate Smarter ramps up its fall advocacy push for modernizing U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approach to smokefree nicotine products, the Coalition is releasing the latest installment in its multi-part video series, “Smarter Regulation Now.”

Watch the video here.

Featuring a direct to camera testimonial from Coalition Chairman Richard Burr, this episode takes viewers back in time to 2009 when Congress passed the bipartisan Tobacco Control Act. The legislation provided FDA authority over tobacco and nicotine products with a clear intent: reducing the harm from combustible cigarettes while creating a regulated pathway to encourage the development of less harmful alternatives for adult smokers. The law was built on a harm-reduction foundation. It directed the agency to evaluate new products based on science, authorize those shown to be appropriate for the protection of public health, and use strong enforcement tools to keep illegal products off the market and out of the hands of kids.

More than fifteen years later, that vision remains only partially realized. Underage use of tobacco and nicotine products has fallen to historic lows, but the legal marketplace has not kept pace with adult demand for smoke-free options. Instread, millions of illicit products have flooded store shelves, confusing adult smokers seeking access to FDA-authorized alternatives. The resulting marketplace fails both the public health goals of the TCA and the adult consumers the law was designed to serve. That is the imbalance the Regulate Smarter coalition is seeking to correct.

Stay tuned for additional installments of Smarter Regulation Now in the weeks ahead.

RICHARD BURR: Over a decade ago, the industry responded to Congress when Congress said, "We want to create pathways for reduced harm product.” And we had an industry that committed millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars, to create new innovative product that reduced the harm of nicotine and allowed a pathway for people who might have been addicted to combustible cigarettes to find something that substituted for it. The industry's done it. Unfortunately, the regulators haven't lived up to their end of the bargain.