These days, you can easily find vapes in flavors like “Lush Ice,” “Blueberry Banana,” “Mango Lychee,” “Hot Fudge,” and “Fcuking Fab” (whatever that is). Whichever you choose, it’s almost certainly illegal. The small battery-powered device, first popularized by Juul that produces a mist of nicotine when inhaled, has not been outright banned, at least not for adults, but it has received the necessary FDA approval before it can go to market. There are only a few flavored e-cigs out there. That hasn’t stopped hundreds of underground companies, many based overseas, from effectively peddling contraband goods. VAPE is sold online to Americans for as little as $5 and is well stocked in convenience stores, smoke shops, and even vending machines.
With such little oversight, it’s no wonder that approximately 1.6 million American children regularly vape and panic that they’ve been tricked into becoming addicted to nicotine for the rest of their lives. . The FDA has been imposing fines, filing lawsuits, and even seizing products to keep e-cigarettes off shelves, and the agency has pledged to significantly step up its efforts. Various politicians, including Sens. Mitt Romney and Chuck Schumer, are calling for a crackdown on e-cigarettes. But Donald Trump is different.
In 2020, President Trump abruptly abandoned plans to ban flavored e-cigarettes, much to the chagrin of public health officials. Late last month, President Trump Posted Truth Social said if elected, he would “save vaping again!” The former president may be a deeply flawed messenger, and the vaping industry deserves little sympathy. Many of these companies blatantly violate the law and blatantly market to children. Still, Trump has a point. Either way, vaping is an alternative to cigarettes that is actually worth the savings.
President Trump said in a post on Truth Social that e-cigarettes “are really helping people quit smoking.” It’s easy to dismiss it as spin. After all, he personal visit On the same day, from the head of the e-cigarette industry’s lobbying group. But for the 28 million adults in the United States who smoke cigarettes, vaping is certainly a revelation. These are as effective or more effective than traditional products designed to help people quit smoking.
Gums, lozenges, and patches simply provide a safer way to deliver nicotine, the addictive chemical that keeps smokers smoking. These so-called nicotine replacement therapies do not contain the harmful ingredients found in tobacco products such as cigarettes. When you’re itching to smoke, you can use one of these alternatives to satisfy your craving instead.
However, nicotine replacement therapy is not very effective. less than 20 percent A higher percentage of people who try to quit using these treatments in clinical trials are actually successful. ahstudy It turns out there’s nothing better than trying to quit cold turkey. That’s because, for smokers, nicotine gum or lozenges never give them anything close to the euphoria of smoking a cigarette. The average cigarette is just a tobacco leaf wrapped in paper and a filter attached to the tip, but it is extremely efficient at delivering nicotine to the body. When cigarettes are burned, they produce nicotine particles that reach receptors in the brain within 10 to 20 seconds. In nicotine replacement therapy, nicotine is administered very slowly, from minutes to hours, because the drug is absorbed through the mouth or skin.
But do you know what can come close to the experience of smoking? Vape. They produce an aerosol that reaches deep into the lungs, allowing nicotine to reach the bloodstream at “almost the same speed” as a cigarette, said Maciej Goniewicz, an expert in nicotine pharmacology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. He said it would make it possible. One reason vaping is so effective is that it looks and functions just like a cigarette. “People who are addicted to smoking are not only physiologically addicted to nicotine; they are behaviorally addicted to the process of smoking,” said Ken Warner, professor emeritus of public health at the University of Michigan. told me.
Vaping has also shown resistance to one traditional treatment that is more effective than traditional gums and patches: a prescription drug called Chantix. Rather than replacing the nicotine in cigarettes, it blocks nicotine’s pleasurable effects on the brain. According to Recent clinical trialsOf the approximately 400 people given vaping or Chantix, roughly 40% successfully quit smoking after six months. For smokers, vaping may be an easier transition. Chantix is not widely used, primarily due to side effects such as nausea and vivid dreams. Sure, it’s also just plain fun to huff out “Fcuking Fab”-flavored gadgets. The fact that vaping comes in so many flavors is often the reason people start vaping in the first place. It’s not that different from alcohol. Many drinkers prefer vodka cranberry to Tito’s shot.
Just as it’s not just drinkers who enjoy vodka cranberry, the same goes for flavored vapes. The appeal of flavors is why children, as well as adults who have never smoked, are drawn to them. Kids overwhelmingly use flavors, so banning them seems like an easy way to reduce e-cigarette use. But if public health is about managing tradeoffs, the benefits of e-cigarettes appear to outweigh the downsides. Children should not vape, but abusing these products is not as deadly as cigarettes. As public awareness grows about the dangers of e-cigarette use by youth, even FDA tobacco officials officially recognized Youth e-cigarette use is no longer the epidemic it was a few years ago.
However, there are other caveats to consider when it comes to the smoking cessation effects of vaping. Because they are regulated as consumer products rather than medicines, they do not go through the rigorous approval process that all other smoking cessation drugs go through. We still don’t know much about how effective e-cigarettes are in helping people quit smoking, and how often smokers need to use e-cigarettes to successfully quit. Because vaping is still relatively new, no one can say for sure that there are no long-term risks that are not yet known. The current wild west of e-cigarettes also has more potential pitfalls. Vaping also contains known carcinogens, likely due to the chemicals in the e-liquid being heated to high temperatures. There is little standardization of the chemicals used, so some chemicals may carry higher risks than others.
With all these risks, the public health community is understandably reluctant to use it. Although the FDA acknowledges that e-cigarettes are safer than cigarettes, it does not recommend e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation treatment. If the agencies have their way, most flavored e-cigarettes will eventually disappear from store shelves. The Director of the FDA’s Tobacco Center said:nothing is wrong”
No matter who wins in November, some of the FDA’s decisions will likely be out of the president-elect’s control. The FDA’s decisions about which e-cigarettes to greenlight do not rest with the commander-in-chief or the FDA commissioner. Rather, it is controlled by FDA scientists who follow legal standards. Still, having a president who supports vaping could be a huge step forward. questionnaire It has been shown that a significant proportion of smokers incorrectly believe that e-cigarettes are more dangerous than cigarettes. That may be why many smokers are hesitant to try it.
Kamala Harris has not considered e-cigarettes since becoming the Democratic candidate. (Her campaign declined to comment on her position, and single-issue voters might want to reconsider their priorities before voting for Trump.) The position is neither academically rigorous nor fully nuanced. But if President Trump acknowledges the benefits of e-cigarettes while condemning the industry’s many illegal practices, he could help legalize a product that has been shunned by most medical establishments. . So far, few reputable companies are willing to invest in producing their own e-cigarettes, and few doctors are recommending them to their patients.
This may all sound like an affront to public health. But given that the vast majority of smokers who try to quit each year fail, “anything that can be added to the toolkit as a way to help people transition is worth considering.” says Jamie Hartman Boyce. A professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who studies smoking cessation drugs told me. You might cringe at the thought of someone putting something called “Fcuking Fab” into their lungs, but then consider that cigarettes almost kill you. 500,000 Americans each year. VAPE has a major flaw. Unfortunately, so are the alternatives.