In the span of a week, the administration has taken two important steps in the right direction. First, the Food and Drug Administration moved forward on flavored vaping products for adults after President Trump pushed the agency to stop dragging its feet. Then, the president signaled a smarter approach to natural 7-OH, a product millions of adults use for energy, pain relief, and mood support. Now, with FDA Commissioner Marty Makary out, Trump has a chance to make that course correction stick.
Federal health regulators have spent years treating adult consumers as a problem to be managed rather than a constituency to be served. On vaping, the agency spent years making it harder for smokers to access legal, regulated alternatives to cigarettes, even as illegal and unregulated products filled store shelves. On 7-OH, the same prohibition-first instinct has been taking hold, with regulators treating a complicated category as if the only answer is restriction, scheduling, and fear.
Adult smokers deserve legal alternatives to cigarettes. Regulators should set standards, enforce age restrictions, go after illegal sellers, and make sure products are reviewed, labeled, and sold responsibly.
President Trump was right to intervene. Reports made clear that Makary opposed moving forward on flavored vapes, even after scientific reviewers had reportedly signed off on certain products. The president pushed back, the agency moved, and consumers are better off because of it.
The same common-sense approach is needed on natural 7-OH, which should not be lumped together with synthetic analogs, adulterated products, or foreign chemical knockoffs.
Bad actors should face real enforcement. Products marketed irresponsibly should be removed. Anything sold to children should be treated seriously. But natural 7-OH should not be smeared by association with every worst-case product in the market.
Natural 7-OH products should be tested for purity and potency, accurately labeled, age-restricted, and sold by manufacturers that meet real standards.
That is why President Trump’s comments about looking seriously at natural 7-OH matter. Consumers are already seeking these products. The question is whether they will have access to a legal, tested, adult-only market or whether Washington will drive them toward unregulated sellers and illicit alternatives.
Makary was moving in the opposite direction. His FDA treated natural 7-OH as something to restrict first, schedule if possible, and explain later. That approach would have punished responsible consumers and responsible businesses while doing little to stop synthetic analogs, adulterated products, or illegal sellers.
Makary has now been on the wrong side of this debate twice. He opposed flavored vapes, and Trump moved the FDA in a better direction. He opposed 7-OH, and Trump is opening the door to a more precise, consumer-friendly approach to natural 7-OH. Makary treated consumer choice as a problem to be managed. Trump is treating consumers like adults and focusing government power where it belongs: on fraud, illegal sales, unsafe products, and bad actors.
The next FDA commissioner needs to understand harm reduction. The agency should be tough on illegal products, but it should not confuse toughness with blanket obstruction. It should move quickly where consumers need access, carefully where safety requires it, and honestly distinguish between natural 7-OH, synthetic analogs, and bad actors exploiting the market.
President Trump has now delivered three wins in a row for consumers. He was right to push the FDA on flavored vapes, right to take natural 7-OH seriously, and right to move on from Makary.
Now the administration should finish the job by choosing an FDA commissioner who understands the difference between protecting consumers and controlling them.
Consumers need legal options, honest labels, real enforcement, and regulators who know the difference between responsible products and bad actors. On vaping and natural 7-OH, President Trump is getting it right. The next FDA commissioner should follow his lead.
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