FDA Chief Considers Ban of All Flavored E-Cigarettes (wsj.com)

Calling a surge in teen use of e-cigarettes an epidemic, the head of the Food and Drug Administration says he is considering pulling all flavored e-cigarettes from the U.S. market. From a report: After years of declining U.S. smoking rates, sales of e-cigarettes have jumped in the past year, fueled in part by online startups selling vaporizers and nicotine-laced liquids. The most popular brand, Juul, sells refills with mango, cucumber and creme flavors. Each $4 pod contains as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes. "The number of teenagers we believe are now using these products... has reached an epidemic proportion," said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who is expected to announce new measures Wednesday to curb underage use. Dr. Gottlieb said he believes that certain flavors make the products appealing to teens. "The availability of e-cigarettes cannot come at the expense of addicting a new generation of youth onto nicotine, and it won't," he said in an interview. Alternative source, and official announcement.

Comments

Ban cigs

[datavirtue]

Ban cigarettes while your at it dipshit.

Re:Ban cigs

[BlueStrat]

Ban cigarettes while your at it dipshit.

That's not going to happen.

As a matter of fact, all this hand-wringing about teens vaping is just smoke to cover the fact that the government wants to find an excuse to ban e-cigs and vaping because it's seriously cutting into tobacco sales and especially hurting the creation of new teen smokers, not to mention all the federal and State tobacco & cigarette taxes the government is losing out on, and stands to see even more losses if teens take up vaping instead of smoking tobacco.

The government would much rather see Dick and Jane. See Dick and Jane with a 3-pack-a-day habit. See Dick and Jane pay thousands in tobacco taxes every year. Watch Dick and Jane get lung cancer and spend many tens of thousands on medical treatment and hospice costs. See the Government and healthcare providers run away with pockets bulging with cash. Run, merchants of death, run!

Strat

Sounds good to me

[Anonymous Coward]

No one wants to walk though your cloud of second-hand blueberry fumes!

Re:Sounds good to me

[Oswald McWeany]

No one wants to walk though your cloud of second-hand blueberry fumes!

No they don't, but I don't want to listen to someone's rap music playing out a car window, or smell someone with BO, or taste ketchup that was put on my burger.

Not wanting to experience something that other people do want to experience is not reason for it to be illegal. Banning flavoured vapes because some teens are getting it illegal is not right in my opinion. Target people illegally selling it, or giving it to kids if you want. Tax the stuff if you want.

I don't like smoke or vaping- but I'm not for making it illegal. If they do it in the privacy of their own properties and don't expose others- and are well-informed of the consequences, then people should be allowed to smoke or vape if they want. I don't approve of banning things just because they're unpopular with the masses.

One day, something I like doing which is unpopular with the masses might be next on the chopping block. Let people have their vices if it isn't hurting anyone else. And yeah... do things to keep it out the hands of underage teens who have not yet reached adult age.

That will work for some but not all products.

[FilmedInNoir]

Sure, you can regulate pre-made juice and disposable e-cigs but refillable e-cigs allows me the option to purchase the individual components to make my own e-juice.

Re:Why have nocotine at all?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you want e-cigs to help smokers stop smoking, that's one thing, but to have it generally available to everyone is just crazy.

That's a LARGE part of the market, the overwhelming majority of people I know who vape do so specifically as a way to quit smoking. They start reducing the amount of nicotine in the juice over time, and eventually can reduce to zero. Then it's just a regular habit instead of a full blown addiction.

Re:Why have nocotine at all?

[registrations_suck]

So....here we have a situation where:

1). People want the nicotine.
2). Companies have an incentive to provide it.

So what's baffling about these e-cigarettes having nicotine?

The baffling and just crazy part is you thinking it is any of your business.

Milking It

[sycodon]

They do seem to be milking this situation in the most hypocritical way.

On the one hand, restrict, preach, shame.

On the other, tax, tax, tax.

Re:Milking It

[sycodon]

It's like when you don't take all your antibiotics. The infection never really goes away and eventually comes back stronger.

In this case, they are supposedly trying to suppress it through taxation, but they never tax enough to effectively kill it. Instead, they only tax to the point where there is minimal black market activity. So...keeping it alive. or course they still allow the manufacture and sale of cigarettes.

Re:Milking It

[arth1]

Why is it that people believe taxing tobacco reduces people's desire for smoking, but that taxing income doesn't reduce people's desire to work?

That's a false comparison. To make the comparison valid, you'd have to either change the first part to "Why is it that people believe taxing tobacco reduces farmer's desire to grow tobacco" or the second to "but that taxing income doesn't reduce companies desire to hire people".

Re:Milking It

[Curunir_wolf]

Why is suppression through taxation hypocritical? It's one of several methods of discouragement. Hypocritical because people benefit?

Thanks to the "deal" with big tobacco companies, a lot more revenue comes in to state and federal governments for cigarette sales. Banning e-cigarettes is a way to create greater demand for (much more dangerous) cigarettes.

It's interesting that the British NHS service is lately encouraging the use of e-cigarettes as a harm reduction strategy, while in the US, due to funding streams and corruption, health agencies are producing propaganda claiming that e-cigarettes are just as bad as cigarettes.