Some politicians want to ban vapes, water vapor products that millions of Americans now use instead of smoking combustible cigarettes. Who decides who will run your life — you or the government? This is the running argument that created America….
Sacramento After news broke about a serious and sometimes deadly outbreak of vaping-related illnesses, my colleagues who work in the harm-reduction field — i.e., health activists who argue that smokers ought to reduce their potential harm by switching to less-deadly…
There’s a concept in business called the “decoy effect,” whereby crafty marketers present an unfavorable option to manipulate consumers toward a more profitable one. The classic business-school example is movie theaters providing three sizes of popcorn: the price of the…
Underage drinking remains a nationwide problem, but there’s one approach that policymakers never consider: banning the sale of most types of alcoholic beverages to adults to keep it out of the hands of youth. That’s true even though virtually all…
Sacramento San Francisco politicians and civic leaders love to think of themselves as cutting-edge free spirits who are so much more tolerant than the rubes found in America’s hinterlands. Hey, we have San Francisco values. We aren’t foolish Puritans when…
Sacramento During a recent informational hearing in the Nevada state Senate about a proposal to significantly boost taxes on vaping products, the lawmakers who were leading the charge didn’t seem to know very much about the products they wanted to…
Last week Scott Gottlieb announced his resignation as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Unfortunately and unexpectedly, Gottlieb’s reign was a departure from lessening of government regulations so prevalent in other areas of the Trump Administration. His tenure culminated…
Sacramento The concept of black markets is simple enough even for a California lawmaker to grasp. Most people would prefer to buy products in a legal marketplace, and generally are willing to pay higher prices to do so. Legal products…
Sacramento During my first trip to Salt Lake City years ago, I wandered into a nondescript little bar and — forgetting about Utah’s arcane drinking laws — tried to order a whisky. The bar wasn’t open to the public, I…