Smoking bans: the fallback legacy for failed leaders

What is a legacy? Is it the sum of our actions? Is it the family and friends we leave behind? Is it banning cigarettes?

The consensus for exiting western leaders seems to be that last option. Just days before Joe Biden is to leave the White House, and hand the power back to Donald Trump, his administration is trying to push through a last-minute curb on the production of cigarettes, which critics are saying would not be far off from an actual ‘ban’.

The plan is to mandate a significant reduction in the amount of nicotine found in cigarettes, so that future products are less addictive, and less appealing, to consumers. The proposed changes, reported by Axios, have just been green-lit by the Food and Drug Administration, (which under the most radical proposals could reduce nicotine levels up to 95 percent), giving Biden one final chance to push the changes through before he vanishes from the Oval Office.