The US Food and Drug Administration is considering prohibiting the sales of some vapes in convenience stores, according to a story by Jim McDonald for Vaping360 quoting the agency’s Commissioner Scott Gottlieb.
The agency might also restrict online sales, as Gottlieb has already threatened, to try to stem what Gottlieb regularly calls an “epidemic” of teenage vaping.
“We have a sense of where we’re going to be heading from a policy standpoint,” Gottlieb told CNBC’s Squawk Box program.
“We have a problem with access. These products are too accessible to kids. And we have a problem with appeal. These products are too appealing to kids right now. And it’s mostly the cartridge-based e-cigarette products. The open-tank products that you might find in a vaping store aren’t generally used by kids.”
McDonald pointed out that that position was a reversal from the concerns expressed by the agency in its 2016 Deeming Rule. In creating that document, the FDA had carefully plotted a course to cripple and then destroy the open-system vaping market, while encouraging manufacturers to pursue products like pod vapes or cartridge-based systems.
The new plan, meanwhile, would restrict sales in the places smokers are most likely to see and buy vaping products: stores that also sell cigarettes.
Gottlieb said that vape shops seemed to be doing a better job than c-stores and other tobacco sales channels at verifying ID.
Gottlieb seemed to indicate that flavored products might be allowed in vape shops if they were “adult-only.” Such a requirement would require rulemaking by the agency, or legislation in Congress.
The FDA would have to have an objective standard for which flavors – or flavor descriptors – would be allowed in traditional retail channels.
But they would likely face lawsuits from retailers, who would object to an arbitrary rule that prevented only certain stores from selling legal products.
They had a plan but …
