When you get it, smoke it.

At the eleventh hour, just weeks before Donald Trump’s inauguration, President Joe Biden’s bureaucratic nanny state wants to deal the final blow to the quintessential worker vice: tobacco.

Axios, a new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rule that passed critical review from the Office of Management and Budget on Friday. reportedcan reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes.

Anti-cigarette proponents say, and rightly so, that lowering nicotine levels would make smoke much less addictive. – Guy Bentley, director of consumer freedom at the liberal think tank Reason Foundation, argued the rules amounted to a “ban” on cigarettes. He also told Axios that this de facto ban would encourage bad actors such as Mexican drug cartels and the Chinese Communist Party to create harmful black markets.

“The Biden administration is essentially planning to hand over an $80 billion market and some 29 million American consumers to the Mexican cartels and the Chinese Communist Party,” Bentley said.

The Biden administration had previously considered banning menthol cigarettes. But it scrapped the rule ahead of the 2024 election over concerns it would alienate black voters, many of whom still prefer menthol. To be honest, it doesn’t make much of a difference. (Related: Biden administration repeals ban on menthol cigarettes for fear of ‘offending’ Black voters)

The bigger picture is that the bureaucratic elite is forever after your vices, whether it’s cigarettes, ZYN or other nicotine pouches, or alcohol. In a foolish move, Biden’s Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said: released Friday’s report recommends distributing alcoholic beverages with cancer warning labels.

Americans have enough common sense to know that munching on a handle of Jack Daniel’s every day is bad for you and can cause all kinds of illnesses, including cancer. they know it too drink in moderationunlike binge drinking caused by a power outage, you won’t die. At the same time, they know that smoking cigarettes causes cancer. “Why would the federal government condone a minor’s sexual reassignment while going after my biweekly drinking cigarettes? Why would health officials want to crack down on my ZYN, but give heroin users free drugs on the street?” Are we giving out needles?” the average American might ask. (Related: Teens melt brain cells with infamous product as Democrats attack worker vices)

However, Americans choose to consume these legal products. Because they are adults and should be treated as such by the federal government. If they want to take risks, indulge in the vices of their choice, and pay the price in the future, they should be allowed to do so. And they should be allowed to do so without the interference of noisy bureaucrats whose sole purpose is to suck the simple pleasures out of life. .