The Supreme Court will hear a vaping case on Monday, reviewing federal regulators’ decisions to ban sweet vaping goods after e-cigarette usage increased among children.
The Supreme Court is hearing an appeal from the Food and Drug Administration, which has denied over a million applications to sell candy- or fruit-flavored items marketed to children.
These rulings are part of a campaign that anti-tobacco groups say has helped drive down youth vaping to a decade low following a “epidemic level” high in 2019.
But vaping companies said in court that the government unfairly ignored arguments that their sweet e-liquid products aren’t appealing to children but would help adults quit smoking traditional cigarettes.
The case comes weeks before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, and his incoming government may take a different approach after vowing in a September social-media post to “save” vaping.
Several lower courts rejected vaping industry complaints, but Dallas-based Triton Distribution prevailed at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The court overturned a ruling that prohibited the sale of nicotine-laced liquids like “Jimmy The Juice Man in Peachy Strawberry” that are heated by an e-cigarette to produce an inhalable aerosol.
The FDA was sluggish to regulate the now multibillion-dollar vaping sector, and even after years of crackdown, technically illegal flavored vapes remain widely available.
The EPA has approved several tobacco-flavored vapes and, most recently, menthol-flavored electronic cigarettes for adult smokers.
According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the ban on sweet vapes, combined with increased enforcement, has helped to reduce teenage nicotine use to its lowest level in a decade.