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Medicine United States Government

FDA Bans Production, Sale of Fruit- and Mint-Flavored Vape Pods (engadget.com) 159

In an attempt to curb teen vaping, the FDA has officially banned most fruit- and mint-flavored, cartridge-based vaping products. Companies that manufacture, sell and distribute such products have 30 days to comply. Engadget reports: The new restrictions make some important exceptions. First, they permit tobacco- and menthol-flavored goods. They also apply only to cartridge-based products, which the FDA says are easier for teens to acquire and conceal. Tank-based vaping devices, like those sold in vape shops that typically cater to adult smokers, are not restricted by the new rules. The FDA says it is ready to take action against those who continue to manufacture and sell the unauthorized products. It will "prioritize enforcement" against those who target youth, whether they do so through kid-friendly labeling and advertising or promoting how easy it is to conceal or disguise their product. "The United States has never seen an epidemic of substance use arise as quickly as our current epidemic of youth use of e-cigarettes," said Department of Health and Human Service Secretary Alex Azar. The ban on fruit- and mint-flavored vape products is an attempt to ensure vaping products "don't provide an on-ramp to nicotine addiction for our youth" while also maintaining e-cigs as a potential off-ramp for adults using traditional tobacco products, Azar added.
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FDA Bans Production, Sale of Fruit- and Mint-Flavored Vape Pods

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  • Been there before (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Dunbal ( 464142 ) * on Thursday January 02, 2020 @08:13PM (#59580880)
    The US government is going to have to learn, once again, that prohibition simply does not work...
    • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02, 2020 @08:19PM (#59580892)
      Sure, sure. We'll just call it 'evolution in action', when morons take themselves out of the gene pool by using dangerous shit that ends up killing them dead. Great plan. Meanwhile asshole companies, probably getting their shit from China, don't give a fuck if their customers drop dead on them any more than the asshole tobacco companies really give a shit, so long as they can keep suckering more and more gullible fools into buying and using their products. Our species has no natural predators so members of our own species fills that role on behalf of evolution. Be sure to sue the government when your own kid is the one who dies from wrecked lungs using shit he vaped that was smuggled in from China or who knows where, and you turned a blind eye because MUH FREEDOM.
      • Re:Been there before (Score:5, Informative)

        by garyisabusyguy ( 732330 ) on Thursday January 02, 2020 @09:47PM (#59581106)

        Here is the thing, the people who were getting lung injuries, and those dying from lung injuries were affected by Vitamin E Acetate, that some people making black market THC vapes used as a medium to carry the THC in.

        The great steaming pile of bullshit in the room is that this was well known about a week into the "crisis", but the anti-tobacco media spent three months propagandizing against vaping before the CDC came out last week and attributed ALL of the recent deaths and injuries to the black market THC vapes.

        The truly mountainous pile of bullshit is that the anti-smoking crusaders have latched onto vaping because they are losing BILLIONS of dollars a year as people switch from smoking to vaping, and the ONLY way to keep the cash flow coming in is to convince people that vaping is dangerous.

        This is demonstrated to be an Earth-shattering level of hypocrisy by Public Health England, who states that vaping is 95% safer than smoking tobacco [www.gov.uk]

        So a few lessons here:
        1. criminalizing things like THC lead to people being killed by dangerous black market products and full legalization is the best way to provide safe, regulated products.
        2. nicotine vapes should be available to adults and not to children. Laws regulating and enforcing prohibitions on sales to MINORS seem more appropriate than taking products away from adults
        3. Organizations never want to die when their core mission is accomplished. The anti-smoking people should be lauded for their work on preventing heart disease and cancer, but it is not a free pass to fear monger on safe products that replaced tobacco.

        I will lead it to the gentle reader to outline the best path forward

        • The important lesson to learn here is that if the government and media are lying to you, you know that they are lying to you, they know that you know they are lying, and you know that they know that you know they are lying to you, they will still look you right in the eye and lie to you.

          • Oh Bill, everybody lies to everybody and it is in our fate to just try and sift through the lies the best we can and attempt to convey some usable information with our own lies

        • Yea i dont get the war on vaping. Im kinda in the anti-smoking group merely because being around smoke is extremely unpleasant to my lungs. They feel like they are on fire unless i have had at least 4 drinks. So my anti-smoking stance is primarily a -keep it away from me and stop forcing me to breathe it- stance. None of this impacts me with vaping. As long as I am not perceiving myself to being harmed I could not give a shit what a grown-ass adult does to themselves just as long as they are the only ones i

        • 5% as bad as smoking still seems pretty bad to me.

          According to the CDC website [cdc.gov]: More than 16 million Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking and cigarette smoking causes about one in five deaths annually, or 1,300 deaths every day.

          • The primary causes for disease from smoking tobacco products (the CDC paper you reference) are Carbon Monoxide (from the burning ash) and volatile organic compounds released from the burning tobacco. Nicotine itself has little negative health effect as compared to the rest of the cigarette and EVIDENCED by the existence of multiple nicotine products like gum and patches that do not even require a prescriptions

            Trying to compare smoking and vaping as equivalents is just plain lying

        • by kackle ( 910159 )

          The truly mountainous pile of bullshit is that the anti-smoking crusaders have latched onto vaping because they are losing BILLIONS of dollars a year as people switch from smoking to vaping, and the ONLY way to keep the cash flow coming in is to convince people that vaping is dangerous.

          I'm lost, how do anti-smoking crusaders lose money? Explain only if you have time, since I know you're a busy guy.

          • Good point kackle, let me explain myself

            Take a look at the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement [wikipedia.org]

            Along with dissolving the pro-tobacco lobbying groups and eliminating the ability of tobacco companies to advertise, they levied taxes on tobacco sales and granted that money to organizations that advertise AGAINST tobacco.

            These anti-tobacco advertisers include anti-smoking researchers, as well as advertising agencies.

            Sometime around 2009 they observed a decline in tax money coming from cigarettes as people took up

    • They arent prohibiting every form of vaping, only forms that are gear towards or more likely to be abused by underage smokers.

      • by garyisabusyguy ( 732330 ) on Thursday January 02, 2020 @09:55PM (#59581130)

        When I was vaping (I stopped after it helped me quit smoking) mint flavors were one of the most common, I do not see why it was targeted. It really helps clear your sinuses and lungs when you have a cold, kinda like Vicks mentho rub.

        There is simply no reason to think that mint is targeted at children. As far as that goes, most adults, ok lots of the women, at vaping meet-ups used whole ranges of flavors that the enjoyed and shared with each other

        Once again, just like other tobacco products, limit the sale to adults and prosecute people who sell to children...

        But no, always with the 'for the children' arguments that end up killing people with black market products (the actual problem here), or like in the case of cannabis, lock people away for decades for growing, selling and using a plant

    • Hmm, don't they already ban flavored tobacco in cigarettes? I've only seen normal and methol for them, whereas loose tobacco for pipes has more flavors.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • The war on drugs pretty much was a follow-on to alcohol prohibition and really heated up as the former Prohibition Agents formed up under Harry J Anslinger to fight them bad old drugs like 'Marihuana', a name that they made up since everybody in America was familiar with Cannabis and Indian Hemp as over the counter medicines.

        Organizations that fulfill their missions (or ultimately fail to deliver like Prohibition) tend to linger on and come up with make-work to justify their existence. We have every right t

        • As I understand the history of alcohol prohibition, a significant contributing reason alcohol prohibition got passed into law was the political faction of proto-evangelicals. The emphasis on "Christian" in "Women's Christian Temperance Union" can't be underestimated.

          Giving jobs to Anslinger and his ilk was a way of buying off this group to get prohibition ended, especially at the start of the depression where the government wanted the excise taxes and keeping these guys employed kept them out of everyone's

    • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      Taxation does work. Tax it double the cost of the harm it causes. They should also pay tax for addictive qualities, so people addicted can apply for 'FREE' anti-addiction services, they made you addicted, they can pay to end your addiction and to make sure, taxed right at the get go. 100% to 1,000% tax what ever it costs to remediate the harm caused and extended custodial rehabilitative sentences for those caught cheating on the tax, with confiscation of assets to cover all losses to the public. See make it

      • If you tax too high then there becomes a black market for the product. We've seen this with cigarettes, actually.
        • It's pretty limited. The vast majority of cigarettes are sold from retailers that pay the tax (and add the cost to the product).

          • In places where the tax is high, the black market thrives [cnn.com]. New York, and also places in Europe. Black-market cigarettes helped fund the war in the Balkans in the 90s.
            • Wonder if that report is actually true? As much as I would like to agree with the "Tax Foundation", I immediately become skeptical of their research, since they do have an axe to grind. That goes for any think tank or political action group. 60.9% seems pretty high.

              • Wonder if that report is actually true?

                Seems to be true. At very least there is a thriving black market for cigarettes in New York, and that is widely attested across a number of sources if you're willing to look.

              • The UK government thinks it loses 14% of tobacco tax revenue to the black market [service.gov.uk]. That's down from over 20% 10 years ago.

                A surprising (to me) amount is lost on rolling tobacco. The breakdown is like this:

                Cigarettes
                2006: 16%
                2014: 11%
                2018: 9%

                Rolling tobacco
                2006: 60%
                2014: 40%
                2018: 32%

                • 14% seems more probable than a 60.9% (maybe the UK's taxes are more lenient than New York's). Any tax regime is going to create some cheats. You take what you can get and enforce where you can . . . it's never going to be perfect. Interesting that their compliance rates are getting better over time, though. Wonder why?

      • so people addicted can apply for 'FREE' anti-addiction services

        Vaping is an anti-addiction service.

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Learning requires active intelligence and a will to see facts. Bith are at an all-time low in the current US administration, but they were never very high to begin with.

    • Prohibition works for a lots of things. If you are prohibiting something that enough people are addicted to (opiods) or is too easy for people to make on their own (alcohol) there are real issues. On the other hand, the government has successfully prohibited automatic weapons (except old existant ones), which is why they are not used in mass shootings. It successfully prohibited heroin, driving use way down, until a legal form readdicted people to opiods.

      doubt there's going to be sufficient profit to g

      • Heroin prohibition was never successful. Up until maybe the late 1980s, it was a product that originated in the Middle East or Southeast Asia yet was never eradicated in the US. It got cheaper and more plentiful as the Latin American drug cartels began moving into that market and found out they had the climate to grow their own poppies.

        We also don't know much about the diversion market for legal opioids prior to the first oxycontin "hillbilly heroin" scare. I suspect it was probably pretty easy to find "

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Don't generalise. Prohibition does work in many cases. The problems with *the* prohibition was lack of alternatives to something common along with a large adult population seeking to continue to do something by illegal means.

      People aren't going to go out and create an illegal underground market for the purposes of a non-mind altering mint flavour. Banning a niche product is quite different from banning addictive drugs or a blanket ban on a practice.

    • It does work. That's why, during the original prohibition on alcohol in the USA, the incidence of domestic violence, malnutrition and alcohol related disorders dropped massively.

      The fact that middle class people in cities could still buy the stuff is kind of irrelevant.

      Other things very successfully prohibited in the USA include lead in paint and gasoline, toys in sweets, and supersonic passenger flight.

      https://www.vox.com/the-highli... [vox.com]

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • mint and menthol... (Score:3, Informative)

    by zephvark ( 1812804 ) on Thursday January 02, 2020 @08:20PM (#59580896)

    Ok. Mint-flavored is banned. Menthol-flavored isn't. You know what "menthol-flavored" means? Mint-flavored.

    As substance-abuse scandals go, this is only moderately ludicrous, given "Reefer Madness".

    "The United States has never seen an epidemic of substance use arise as quickly as our current epidemic of youth use of e-cigarettes," said Department of Health and Human Service Secretary Alex Azar, should get him fired and given a mental-health evaluation, in that order. Epidemic of WHAT? You twart. Those things are WATER next to their parent's pills that the kids are gulping down.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday January 02, 2020 @08:39PM (#59580954)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Menthol is only one component of mint flavor, while "mint flavored" things also tend to add extra sweetness that would appeal to children.

      And while there's certainly more serious immediate problems to address, there's a big difference between some children deciding to to explore recreational pharmaceutical use, and *all* children being intentionally targeted for manipulation by an incredibly refined and well funded marketing department that's trying to get them hooked on one of the most addictive drugs in t

      • Menthol is only one component of mint flavor, while "mint flavored" things also tend to add extra sweetness that would appeal to children.

        Sweet things also appeal to adults, and teens have smoked tobacco and menthol cigarettes for decades (centuries?), so obviously, the flavor is not an impediment.

  • Alcohol (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Arthur, KBE ( 6444066 ) on Thursday January 02, 2020 @08:21PM (#59580902)
    What about flavored alcohol?
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Where's the moral panic about raspberry vodka?
      • That shit is dangerous. No burn, tastes liek coolaid. You can go from zero to liver damage in a few minutes. I make a point to only use it in martinis. If you were distracted and had the 750 in your hand you could likely drink the whole thing by accident.

      • by _merlin ( 160982 )

        There is moral panic over "alcopop" type drinks, like Bacardi Breezer, Vodka Cruiser, Smirnoff Ice, etc. Sweet, fruity flavours, with the alcohol barely noticeable. People complain that they're a way to get kids into drinking.

        • No they exist to get young college female adults drunk at parties so theyâ(TM)re easier to get their panties off. Nobodyâ(TM)s looking to fuck a fifteen-year-old except maybe Jeffrey Epstein. Barely noticeable flavored alcoholâ(TM)s are intended for people who wouldnâ(TM)t like the taste of stronger drinks. Those would be people with very little drinking experience.

    • What about flavored alcohol?

      I believe there was some controversy regarding Four Loko a while back (Banned in 2010) It wasn't the flavoring, it was the stimulants in the Four Loko.

      Most of the hospitalizations/deaths were from vaping tainted "THC" which of course is already illegal in most states... None of these cases could be traced to nicotine based liquids.

    • Um all alcohol is 'flavored', otherwise you'd be drinking 200 proof ethanol, aka moonshine/white lightning.
      • Um all alcohol is 'flavored', otherwise you'd be drinking 200 proof ethanol, aka moonshine/white lightning.

        No sir. 190 Everclear is about as quickly as you can retard yourself, given that 100% alcohol draws moisture straight out of thin air... that's why it burns your throat. It's sucking moisture out of you on the way down.

      • The definition of a quality vodka makes it odorless and tasteless. They are perfect for infusions and mixed drinks because they do not add any flavor of their own to your alchemy concoction.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday January 02, 2020 @08:31PM (#59580936)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • >The result? big tobacco gets to drill the kneecaps of an up-and-coming competitor that rhymes with fool instead of having to compete directly in any way.

      You twit. Big Tobacco OWNS half of the vape companies. They're not in competition with themselves.

    • Altria bought Juul. Well, a 35% stake in them anyway.

    • This is the real explanation here. Big tobacco had a huge interest in promoting the "safety" bans on vaping. "But wait, don't market a bunch of vape stuff themselves?" That they do, but they also have regular tobacco products to fall back on. If Phillip Morris can't sell vapes in the Northeast for six months, NBD. They'll wait it out. Meanwhile Juul takes a huge hit, and most mom & pop vape stores are shut down completely.
  • Does that legally make me a kid?
    • I'm wondering if your taste buds are meant to be shed from your tongue when you're 18, should I see my doctor?
  • It's directed mostly at Juul and the like, which are the big offenders in terms of usage of vaping by the young. Relatively easy availability, high nicotine content, easily concealed. I'm sure at least some former smokers use pod systems, but all of the former smokers I know use sub-ohm tanks. I figure it's because pricing is lower that way, possibly much lower if you're using rebuildables and DIYing the juice.
  • .....they're too young to vote so fuck 'em. Because it's completely unforeseeable that the youth could switch from cartridges to oil canisters.

    2,500 youth get sick from underground manufacturers and the FDA loses their mind.
    400,000+ die from using tobacco the way it was intended and the FDA shrugs.
    'Merica!

    • by samdu ( 114873 )

      And the kicker is that making something illegal generally means a rise in "underground" incarnations of that thing. So kids that would have gone to the local Sleven to grab a Juul pod will instead go to some shady character on the street distributing pods with who knows what in them. Good job, FDA. Good job.

      • There can certainly be an increase in the "underground" form. Ban you name a case where making an addictive substance increased its _net_ use? I don't think you can point to a net increase in alcohol during prohibition, or in marijuana when it's been criminalized.

      • Right?
        "People are getting sick from huffing black market vapes. So to fix it let's create......even more......black market vapes."
        "Brilliant!"

  • were up in arms over this for several weeks when he suggested doing this. Trump backed down, but it looks like they back doored it. Any Trump supporters out there who wanna give their take on it?
    • HILLARY DID BENGHAZI AND 9/11

    • by dwillden ( 521345 ) on Friday January 03, 2020 @06:31AM (#59581686) Homepage
      Simple, I don't support this move, but it's one minor issue. I disagree with this, I think it's attacking the issue bass-ackwards and will drive teens back to tobacco which is far more harmful than vaping. Or the teens will just buy tank style e-cigs and have adult friends buy their juices.

      Or they'll go to buying illegal blackmarket street carts like the THC ones that killed so many this last year.

      As I said, bass-ackwards and while I support Trump I don't agree with this move. But then I've never found a politician whom I agree with 100%. So Trump doesn't have to follow my plan for the country 100% for me to still support him. The economy is rocking and he's appointing conservative justices. I'm happy. I just wish on this they'd not gone to trying to ban the most effective tobacco cessation tool found to date.
      • Maybe without any vaping access at all, some future cohort of teens may try smoking, but I'm skeptical.

        The cohort of kids who have only vaped I don't see getting into tobacco. I smoked for years, switched to vaping, and find smoking appalling now. And I *liked* smoking. Plus it's a lot harder to get away with smoking -- the smell, the butts, the total lack of places where you can smoke unobserved.

        The same thing kind of holds true for new, never-vaped before teens. Society has more or less made it really

      • "The economy is rocking and he's appointing conservative justices."

        I'm not going to get into a debate over what those actually mean... but literally any other R in that seat would have the same results in those categories, with less volatility in the stock market over the past two years. If those are why you are on team-Republican I get it, but team-Trump, heh... wooooo boy.

  • or Nacho Cheese Dorito flavored? Maybe Slim Jim? Take Juul flavors where no man has gone before...
  • The problem with banning the nice-flavoured vape pods is that it reduces the incentive for adults to shift over as well. If a vape pod tastes better than a cigarette, and produces similar pleasant after-effects, then people will tend to chose the vape pod over the cigarette. This is a good thing.

  • Yeah, and teens will just switch to tank-based vapes, acquired the same way they bought the pod based ones. Prohibition doesn't work, but we already knew that.

  • Adults who are quitting do not necessarily WANT their vape substitute to taste like the thing they are giving up. This will actually result in more deaths. No exaggeration.
  • Seriously? You allow the two flavors that taste absolute shit and that everybody moves away from, first thing they get an e-cig?
    The two flavors that enable kicking the damn addiction in the first place, by getting your mind off of tobacco!!
    For the product that has more people gotten off of cigarettes than anything ever before!

    Who profits from this,
    except for the for-profit MASS-MURDERERS of the tobacco industry?
    (Selling hard drugs legally is condsidere d the same as grave assault or murder. Tobacco is not a

  • I guess this is our last chance to stock up on chicken and waffles vaping liquid and cartridges.

  • "Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled."

  • Let's keep the kids limited to easily available tobacco products which are far more harmful to their bodies. Vaping isn't safe but, the problems of the last year are not from vaping, but from vaping illegal THC cartridges.

    As to teen use, of course we'd rather see them not use any but given the choice I'd rather they vape than smoke, or chew. Limiting flavors only punishes those seeking to escape the carcinogens of tobacco while getting the nicotine they need.
  • Why limit only fruit flavoured vapes?
    I agree that they should stay out of hands of kids (and adults, but that is another discussion), so just enfore an age limit like you do on alcohol.
    The dangerous bit is the nicotine, it doesn't matter if the taste is nice, if they can still get their hands legally on 'plain' vapes they will just use those instead.

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