WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will hear a vaping case Monday, weighing decisions by federal regulators blocking sweet vaping products after e-cigarette use increased among children.
The Supreme Court is hearing an appeal from the Food and Drug Administration, which has denied more than a million applications to sell candy or fruit-flavored products that appeal to children.
The decisions are part of a crackdown that tobacco advocates say has helped push youth vaping to a decade low after peaking at “epidemic levels” in 2019.
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But vaping companies have fought back in court, arguing that the agency wrongly ignored arguments that their sweet e-liquid products do not have wide appeal to children but would help adults quit smoking traditional cigarettes.
The case comes shortly before the inauguration of newly elected President Donald Trump, whose new administration could take a different approach after promising to “save” vaping in a social media post in September.
Several lower courts have dismissed lawsuits against vaping companies, but Dallas-based company Triton Distribution won at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The court has rejected a decision blocking the sale of nicotine-containing liquids such as ‘Jimmy The Juice Man in Peachy Strawberry’, which are heated by an e-cigarette to create an inhalable aerosol.
The FDA was slow to regulate the now multi-billion dollar vaping market, and even years after the crackdown, flavored vapes that are technically illegal remain widely available.
The agency has approved some tobacco-flavored vapes and recently authorized the first menthol-flavored electronic cigarettes for adult smokers.
The ban on sweet vapes, combined with increased enforcement, has helped push nicotine use among young people to the lowest levels in a decade, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
