Reversing The FDA's Vape Decision Would Hand The Market To Chinese Smugglers
Reversing the FDA's decision to authorize American vape products would eliminate legal competition and hand the market to Chinese smugglers.Summary
The FDA recently authorized four vaping products from Glas Inc., an American company, after years of scientific review and strict age controls. Ten senators immediately demanded the agency reverse this decision to protect teenagers from flavored vapes. However, law enforcement experts warn that banning these legal products would not reduce demand; instead, it would drive consumers toward unregulated, smuggled alternatives. The FDA estimates that a majority of vapes sold in the U.S. are illegal, primarily imported from China, with roughly 80 percent of Chinese exports arriving without authorization. Customs and Border Protection has seized over $175 million in illegal devices, yet the black market remains dominant because the profit margins for smugglers are too high to ignore. Massachusetts provided a real-world example of this phenomenon; after banning flavored tobacco and vapes, cigarette sales in neighboring New Hampshire jumped 22 percent, and the state lost a significant portion of its tobacco-tax revenue. The author argues that the threat to American kids is not the legal, age-gated American products, but the anonymous Chinese disposables that flood the market. Youth vaping has already fallen to its lowest level in over a decade without new flavor bans. The author concludes that policymakers should enforce against the illegal market and let the legal, accountable one compete, rather than handing China the field.
(Source：Dailycaller)
