FDA should reduce nicotine levels in cigarettes to non-addictive levels: Former FDA commissioner

John Payton, NAACP Legal Defense Fund President Pushes for Menthol to be 'Shut Down'

Today at Legacy's Warner Series Lecture on the impact of the Family and Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Food and Drug Administration authority over tobacco), Dr. David Kessler, former commissioner of the FDA, called on the FDA to reduce the nicotine level in cigarettes, reducing the yield to non-addictive levels.   

"The FDA should quickly move to reduce nicotine levels in cigarettes to non-addictive levels. If we reduce the level of the stimulus, we reduce the craving. It is the ultimate harm reduction strategy," said Dr. Kessler. "The law prohibits banning of cigarettes and reducing nicotine levels to zero, this policy does neither." 

The panel discussion marked the one-year anniversary on June 22, 2010, of the new law and examined the myths and misperceptions of having FDA-regulated tobacco products. The discussion will also identify the markers for success over the course of the next five years as public health leaders work to reduce the number one preventable cause of death in the nation: tobacco.

Other panelists included Legacy president and CEO Dr. Cheryl Healton, Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and John Payton, director-counsel and president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

"It is a national embarrassment that these lethal menthol products have been allowed to be marketed so disproportionately to African-American youth – or to any youth for that matter," said John Payton, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "Menthol has been the bridge to entice youth to start smoking - resulting in 80 percent of African-American adults now smoking menthol. We have to shut it down."