That requirement effectively meant that all vapes, heated tobacco products, nicotine pouches, and other new substitutes for traditional combustible cigarettes and cigars needed the agency’s approval before they were legally allowed to be sold.<\/p>\n

Much to the chagrin of both the sellers of these products and anti-nicotine groups, the FDA has been exceedingly slow at creating a regulatory process for granting that pre-market authorization.<\/p>\n

The FDA’s foot-dragging eventually prompted<\/a> a lawsuit from anti-nicotine groups, which in turn promoted federal courts to set some deadlines. New tobacco product makers had to submit pre-market authorization applications to the FDA by September 2020 and those products needed to receive that authorization by September 2021<\/a> in order to be sold legally.<\/p>\n

Receiving the FDA’s pre-market authorization turned out to be a high bar. Companies hoping to sell their innovative, stimulative, flavorful wares must show to the agency’s satisfaction that the legal availability of their product makes people less likely to consume tobacco products they’re currently using, without encouraging non-users to start.<\/p>\n

Individual flavors and nicotine levels also require separate FDA approvals. (The 20 Zyn products approved by the agency yesterday cover ten of the brand’s flavors offered in the three- and six-milligram nicotine doses.)<\/p>\n

The result was that the September 2021 deadline came and went without the agency granting pre-market authorization to almost all manufacturers who’d applied for it.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the agency had not explicitly denied the vast majority of those applications either.<\/p>\n

This left Zyn, Juul, and your local vape shop in the uncomfortable position of selling products that lacked explicit legal FDA approval but had yet to be explicitly denied that approval by the agency.<\/p>\n

It’s only been the agency’s lack of resources and discretion that’s stopped every non-authorized product from being pulled from store shelves and sellers hit with heavy fines.<\/p>\n

Republicans in Congress have pointed out<\/a> the absurdity of the current regulatory environment where illegal vape products are being sold just miles from the FDA’s own headquarters.<\/p>\n

Yesterday’s decision by the FDA will allow the makers of Zyn (Phillip Morris International subsidiary Swedish Match) to sleep more soundly at night\u2014provided they haven’t consumed too much of their own product right before bedtime.<\/p>\n

Tik as I do, not as I tok: <\/strong>Speaking of bans that the federal government lacks the balls<\/span> will to enforce, outgoing President Joe Biden said Thursday evening<\/a> that his administration does not intend to act on an effective ban of the social media app TikTok.<\/p>\n

In April, Biden had signed into law<\/a> a bill requiring that TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance sell the company. If they didn’t, American app stores and internet service providers could face fines for allowing access to the app.<\/p>\n

The deadline for compliance is Sunday. ByteDance has yet to sell its massively popular app and TikTok has a challenge of the forced divestiture of its parent company pending at the Supreme Court (which appears likely to rule against<\/a> the company).<\/p>\n

That law gives the federal government some very limited leeway in delaying enforcement of the effective ban on TikTok. Per ABC News<\/em>, the company must show<\/a> that “it’s on a ‘path to executing’ a divesture from its Chinese owner; there must be ‘evidence of significant progress’ toward a sale; and that progress must be sealed with ‘relevant binding legal agreements.'”<\/p>\n

TikTok has not met those requirements. Nevertheless, the Biden administration said it won’t seek to enforce the new law on its last day in office.<\/p>\n

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to “save” the app from Congress’ effective ban. TikTok’s CEO will attend a Trump victory rally this weekend in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

Even some lawmakers who voted<\/a> for legislation that included the forced ByteDance sale of the app appear to be having second thoughts.<\/p>\n

Sen. Ed Markey (D\u2013Mass.) has said he’ll introduce a bill to delay the deadline for ByteDance’s sale of TikTok<\/a>. The senator, and a few others who voted for the effective TikTok ban, still reportedly use the app.<\/p>\n

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A list of the people who voted YES on the Tiktok ban, who coincidently still use Tiktok.@CoryBooker<\/a> @SenSherrodBrown<\/a> @SenBobCasey<\/a> @JohnFetterman<\/a> @gillibrandny<\/a> @SenMarkey<\/a> @PattyMurray<\/a> @SenOssoff<\/a> @SenatorWarnock<\/a> @JeffJacksonNC<\/a> <\/p>\n

Tell us again how dangerous it is for…<\/p>\n

— Jo Jorgensen (@JoForLiberty) January 15, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n