Cannabis

The disposable “smart vapes” are available in catchy-named flavors like “merry berry” and “cherry pop,” and have built-in, high-definition screens preloaded with multiple games, including ripped-off versions of classics like Tetris and Pac-Man.

They also offer digital prizes as incentives depending on how much a person vapes, and critics caution they’re being used to illegally lure America’s youth into nicotine addiction.

Image Source: FDA (U.S. Food & Drug Administration)

A modified version of nicotine, the addictive ingredient in cigarettes, appeared in the U.S. vaping market in May 2023, prompting alarm among tobacco researchers. These products are being marketed as beyond the reach of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. According to health researchers, this is the latest in a long history of moves by tobacco companies to avoid regulation and amounts to a large-scale human safety experiment...

Nearly a half million school-age kids used nicotine pouches in the past 30 days, more than double the 200,000 youth pouch users in 2021.

It’s paradise for the tobacco industry, where vapes are deemed safer – never mind the increased risk of stroke, and possibly lung cancer – and the deadliest industry can rebrand itself as your friend.

Flavored tobacco products continue to fuel dangerous youth nicotine use. More than 80% of youth who have used tobacco report that they began with a flavored product. As the youth e-cigarette epidemic continues, more than eight in 10 (84.7%) of the 2.04 million high school and middle school students who vape use flavored e-cigarettes, according to the 2021 National Youth Tobacco Survey.

Exposure to tobacco marketing and advertising contributes to youth tobacco use initiation. Children and adolescents more frequently exposed to point-of-sale tobacco promotion have 1.6 times higher odds of having tried smoking and 1.3 times higher odds of being susceptible to future smoking compared to those less frequently exposed. Not only do the flavored products and their colorful packaging attract youth, but youth also perceive these flavored products as less harmful. A survey of tobacco retailers in five cities, in three states, highlights how in-store marketing and particulars of place, inventory, price and other variables can make flavored tobacco products more accessible to youth.

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters notifying ten companies, including Cool Clouds Distribution Inc. (doing business as Puff Bar), to remove their flavored disposable e-cigarettes and youth-appealing e-liquid products from the market because they do not have the required premarket authorization.

These new actions are part of the FDA’s ongoing, aggressive effort to act against illegally marketed tobacco products amid the public health crisis of youth e-cigarette use in America. The agency is particularly concerned about the appeal of flavored, disposable e-cigarettes to youth and continues to monitor all available data.

‍“The FDA continues to prioritize enforcement against e-cigarette products, specifically those most appealing and accessible to youth,” said FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn. “We are concerned about the popularity of these products among youth and want to make clear to all tobacco product manufacturers and retailers that, even during the ongoing pandemic, the FDA is keeping a close watch on the marketplace and will hold companies accountable.”

That provision, part of a $1.4 trillion spending bill which President Donald Trump signed into law on Friday, would apply not only to traditional tobacco products such as cigarettes and cigars, but also to e-cigarettes—products that have lately been caught in regulatory cross-hairs, sparked by rising rates of use among teenagers. According to the latest federal data, 27.5% of high school students reported using e-cigarettes during the past month. Raising the legal age of purchase is meant in part to curb that trend by preventing teenagers from buying vaping products, either for personal use or to distribute to younger classmates. So-called “Tobacco 21” legislation has already been implemented in almost 20 states as well as numerous cities across the country. The new legislation, which will take effect in the summer of 2020, would make 21 the mandatory minimum age of purchase for all states.