The rule changes would essentially ban all cigarettes, starting with an outright ban on menthol-flavored cigarettes and flavored cigars. As with all new regulatory overhauls, federal bureaucrats have studies and reports they claim support their actions, but real experts see disaster right around the corner.

Law enforcement leaders, for example, are convinced these policies will make the humanitarian crisis at the U.S.-Mexican border even worse. They say this cigarette ban will only serve to supply the violent and murderous Mexican drug cartels with new high-demand products.

"There is very little doubt this regulation will create a new illicit market and that it is likely to be enormous," Cochise, Arizona, County Sheriff Mark J. Dannels wrote in the Arizona Daily Star. "Readily available data clearly demonstrates this will lead to significant increases in illegal product meeting consumer demand. We already have an illicit market in tobacco products in the U.S., driven primarily by high tax rates. Banning legal sales would create powerful financial incentives for Mexican cartels and domestic/international criminal networks to step in to supply the unmet demand. With financial incentives this powerful, the question isn't whether an illicit market will arise, but just how big it will be."

Nearly one-third of the 30 million Americans who smoke conventional cigarettes report using menthol cigarettes, which make up a $25 billion market for the U.S. economy. If made illegal, the trade in menthol cigarettes would present a huge opportunity for Mexican cartels to line their pockets and create new revenue streams. Banning flavored cigars, which make up half of the cigar market, would add another $10 billion to that total. If the proposed cigarette ban were to take place, Americans' economic loss would be the Mexican cartel's $35 billion gain.