Supreme Court to hear arguments on flavored vape regulations imposed after youth vaping surge

WASHINGTON– THE Supreme Court will hear a case of vaping Monday, weighing decisions by federal regulators blocking sugary vaping products after e-cigarette use among children.

The High Court is to appeal of the Food and Drug Administrationwhich has refused more than a million requests to sell candy or fruit-flavored products that appeal to children.

The moves are part of a crackdown that tobacco control advocates say has helped reduce youth vaping to its lowest level in a decade after peaking at “epidemic level” in 2019.

But vaping companies fought back in court, arguing that the agency unfairly ignored arguments that their sugary e-liquid products had little appeal to children but would help adults quit smoking traditional cigarettes.

The affair comes shortly before the inauguration of the president-elect Donald Trumpwhose new administration may take a different approach after promising in a social media post in September to “save” vaping.

Several lower courts have rejected lawsuits brought by vaping companies, but Dallas-based Triton Distribution won in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The court threw out a ruling blocking the sale of nicotine-containing liquids like “Jimmy The Juice Man in Peachy Strawberry” that are heated by an e-cigarette to create an inhalable aerosol.

The FDA has been slow to regulate the now multibillion-dollar vaping market, and even years after the crackdown began, flavored vapes that are technically illegal still remain. widely available.

The agency has approved some tobacco-flavored vapes and recently authorized its first menthol-flavored e-cigarettes for adult smokers.

Blocking sugary vapes, combined with increased enforcement, helped reduce youth nicotine use to its lowest level in a decade, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said.