 by Dr. Barry Hummel, Co-Founder, Quit Doc Research and Education Foundation
Back in March, I was attending the Saint Patrick’s Day parade in the City of Hollywood, when I came across the mobile drug delivery van shown above. The van was parked about 50 yards from the music stage, where it was selling a number of age restricted products including a number of THC products, liquid nicotine, and vaping devices. The van was the “delivery vehicle” of Smoke This Too, a vape shop based in Coral Springs. After perusing their Facebook page, I noticed several illegal nicotine products were being offered, and I decided to take action against this retailer. Let me explain exactly what I meant by that last sentence. First, all recreational nicotine products for sale in the United States must be pre-authorized for sale by the US Food and Drug Administration. To date, only 34 products have met this criteria; you can review that list here. You will notice that only models under three brand names have been authorized so far: NJOY, Vuse, and Logic. This means that all other products that you see for sale in any retail outlet are technically being sold illegally. So, what, if anything, can we do about it? Well, it turns out that the FDA wants to know about these illegals sales. Since they don’t have the staffing to perform compliance checks on every retailer, they rely on the general public to help them identify illegals sales. This is particularly important in Florida, where vape shops are only asked to voluntarily apply for a retail license, making it difficult to know the number of vaping retailers in our communities. So, the FDA has set up a system to report potential violations of the current FDA regulations. You can report potential violations using a simple online form found on the FDA website. You can file these reports anonymously. The form does require the address of the retailer, and you do need to include the name(s) of the products that are not on the current approved list. Does the system work? Indeed it does! As I mentioned earlier, I decided to file a complaint against the retailer responsible for the mobile drug delivery vehicle. I complete the form fairly quickly, and I actually shared my contact information because I wanted to get feedback from the FDA. I filed this complaint in March 2024, shortly after I initially saw the van. Despite leaving my contact information, I did not ever receive any direct follow-up from the FDA. However, in working on a different initiative, it came to my attention that I could check on the status of any complaints and/or compliance checks conducted by the FDA. So, I searched to see if any action had been taken on my complaint, and it turns out that the FDA conducted a compliance check on May 4, 2024, and sent a warning letter to Smoke This Too on July 16, 2024. The main reason that I am sharing this with everyone is to say that the system works. It took a couple of months, but the store received a warning. They removed many of their Facebook posts featuring illegal products. Their webpage is essentially non-existent now. So, a minimal effort on my part may have made a significant difference. But it is only one retailer. To take advantage of the system, an army of concerned citizens needs to report any violations that we see. I am personally making a commitment to report one violation a week in my community. Can I count on you to do the same? The three links I shared above are the only resources you need to take the same action in your community. Let’s take advantage of the FDA resources to reduce youth access and exposure to illegal nicotine products in our communities.
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