Agents of the Current Thinking

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is obliged to protect the public health. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 extended its purview to tobacco products.

In 2019, scientists at its Center for Tobacco Products were directed to "eyeball" data. The agency retaliated when they objected. In 2022, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel disclosed that wrongdoing. The agency was supposed to self-correct but didn't. In 2025, the first U.S. sale of oral pouch products containi...