FCC Commissioner Wants to Ban E-cigarette Commercials

by | Feb 15, 2019

If a member of the Federal Communications Commission gets her way, commercials for e-cigarettes (vaping products) would be banned from radio and television. A ban would not only violate freedom, specifically the freedom speech that is supposedly protected by the First Amendment, it would also harm cigarette smokers by reducing information about a substantially safer alternative to cigarettes. (E-cigs may contain nicotine but not tobacco. Rather than burning leaves for inhalation, e-cigs a vaporize a flavored liquid.)

What grounds does Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel cite? Public health, of course.

Read about it here. Rosenworcel makes her case here.

About Sheldon Richman

Sheldon Richman is the executive editor of The Libertarian Institute and a contributing editor at Antiwar.com. He is the former senior editor at the Cato Institute and Institute for Humane Studies; former editor of The Freeman, published by the Foundation for Economic Education; and former vice president at the Future of Freedom Foundation. His latest books are Coming to Palestine and What Social Animals Owe to Each Other.

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