It's been a year since the FDA proposed its deeming rule on e-cigs and other tobacco products and still no final action

It has been a year, after years of delay and meddling by the White House Office of Management and Budget, since the FDA released its proposed deeming rule on e-cigarettes and other tobacco products and we are still waiting for the final rule.  In the meantime out-of-control marketing by the cigarette and e-cigarette companies has led to exploding e-cigarette use, especially among kids.
 
Even when  the rule is finally issued, if it resembles the proposed rule,  it will have little practical effect because it does nothing to reign in use of flavors in e-cigarettes or other tobacco products, internet sales of e-cigarettes (something the FDA wanted to do and that the While House took out), or e-cigarette marketing.  The Administration could, I suppose, act on public comments that the public health community and attorneys general submitted calling on the FDA to close these loopholes in the final rule but, given that the White House has blocked eliminating menthol from cigarettes for years despite strong evidence (including from the FDA’s own analysis) that doing so would protect public health, I am not holding my breath.
 
Like everything else in tobacco, the progress on e-cigarettes is being made at the state and local levels.  I just hope that the final FDA rule does not do anything to make that process more difficult.