In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration can’t ban cigarettes but it can require companies to lower nicotine levels to minimally addictive levels, as long as it’s not zero. Some experts think that alone would trigger a dramatic reduction in use, especially given that nearly 70 percent of American smokers say they want to quit.
“The aim of this is basically to reduce or eliminate addiction. What drives cigarette smoking is becoming addicted to smoking,” said Neal Benowitz, a tobacco addiction researcher at the University of California at San Francisco.
