3 min read
Regulatory Experimentation: Why We Should Test Policies Before We Implement Them
Most nicotine policies are implemented without pilot testing. The result: policies with unintended consequences that could have been identified in a smaller trial. Regulatory experimentation—testing before implementing—is evidence-based governance.
A flavor ban is implemented statewide, affecting millions of consumers, without any pilot testing. If the ban has unintended consequences—increased smoking, a black market—those consequences are borne by the entire population. **Regulatory experimentation—pilot testing policies on a smaller scale, with built-in evaluation, before scaling—is standard practice in other policy domains. It's almost never used in nicotine. The precautionary principle is applied to products, not to policies.**
