Vapers Digest 23rd June
Monday’s News at a glance:
French Pouch Ban Criticised ~ Experts State Harm Reduction Potential ~ Something’s very wrong at Global Action to End Smoking ~ Supreme Court Rules Against FDA in “Venue Shopping” Case ~ Supreme Court sides with vaping industry in rejecting FDA venue challenge ~ A Vaping Victory for Big Tobacco Masks the Real Issue ~ Band-Aids on a Gaping Wound: How Australia’s Vape Policy Failure Fuels Crime, Confusion, and Harm ~ Australia risks losing ‘war on nicotine’ in same way as war on drugs as illegal tobacco sales explode ~ Bloomberg’s War on Harm Reduction Faces Consumer Backlash at Tobacco Conference ~ EU countries call for vaping crackdown in push for updated tobacco laws ~ Insight: How middlemen funnel illegal Chinese vapes into the United States ~ Evidence over Eminence | Garrett McGovern calls for tobacco control rethink at #GFN25 ~ Global Panel Urges Rapid Reform of WHO and FCTC
Two From Dave Cross, Planet of the Vapes
French Pouch Ban Criticised
Smoke Free Sweden says the Swedish government has stepped up its defense of safer alternatives for smokers in Europe by formally opposing a proposed French ban on nicotine pouches. Through the issuing of a so-called ‘Detailed Opinion’ to the European Union challenging the French proposal, the opposition follows a similar move earlier in 2025 in response to restrictive legislation in Spain.
Experts State Harm Reduction Potential
At the Next Generation Nicotine Delivery USA 2025 conference, Dr. Derek Yach, renowned global health strategist, presented compelling new research projecting that integrating Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) strategies with traditional tobacco control measures could save over 14 million lives in 23 countries across all continents by 2060. These lives saved are between 25 and 50 percent more than projected to be saved if current WHO measures were fully implemented. Meanwhile, harm reduction expert Clive Bates has detailed facts about nicotine.
Less than two years ago, Cliff Douglas, a well-respected anti-smoking activist, was named president and CEO of a grantmaker then known as the Foundation for A Smoke Free World. He vowed to bring nonprofits, public health experts, regulators and academics together to support a renewed effort to end the deaths and disease caused by smoking.
It has not gone well.
Supreme Court Rules Against FDA in “Venue Shopping” Case
Jim McDonald, Vaping 360
The Supreme Court today ruled against the FDA, finding that appeals of FDA marketing denial orders (MDOs) are not limited only to the products’ manufacturers, and that vape manufacturers may appeal denials in any federal circuit court, as long as they are joined by an affected party located in the judicial circuit being petitioned.
Supreme Court sides with vaping industry in rejecting FDA venue challenge
Zach Schonfeld, The Hill
I’m a courts and legal reporter for The Hill, covering the intersection of national politics and the judiciary. My beat primarily focuses on the U.S. Supreme Court and the cases shaping the Trump administration.
As someone who is not a lawyer, I am passionate about helping non-lawyers digest the intricacies of legal proceedings as they increasingly become relevant to the political arena.
A Vaping Victory for Big Tobacco Masks the Real Issue
Stephen L. Carter, Bloomberg
On Friday, the US Supreme Court waded into the confusing, on-again, off-again effort by the Food and Drug Administration to regulate e-cigarettes … and didn’t get too far. In voting 7-2 to allow a suit by RJ Reynolds Vapor Company against the agency to continue, the justices ruled on a tricky procedural issue and, I think, got the answer right. The litigation is far from over, but recent scholarly work suggests that the ban itself might be a mistake.
Band-Aids on a Gaping Wound: How Australia’s Vape Policy Failure Fuels Crime, Confusion, and Harm
Alan Gor, Australia, Let’s Improve Vaping Education (A.L.I.V.E.)
Australia is facing a nicotine crisis not because of vapes, but because of politicians who’ve wilfully ignored science, dismissed consumers, and doubled down on policies that have catastrophically backfired.
As the public watches with growing alarm, arson attacks, gang warfare, soaring smoking rates, and a black market worth billions, the government’s response has been to blame landlords, launch sting operations, and increase penalties. These may sound like decisive actions. But they’re not solutions. They’re band-aids on a gaping wound, and they avoid the core truth: you can’t enforce your way out of a crisis created by bad policy.
Australia risks losing ‘war on nicotine’ in same way as war on drugs as illegal tobacco sales explode
Guardian
Bloomberg’s War on Harm Reduction Faces Consumer Backlash at Tobacco Conference
World Vapers’ Alliance
As the World Conference on Tobacco Control (WCTC) opens its doors in Dublin, a light show illuminated the conference centre tonight, visually representing the voices of millions of consumers who remain unheard and unrepresented in global tobacco control discussions. The campaign, “Voices Unheard – Consumers Matter!”, is launched by the World Vapers’ Alliance to challenge the ongoing exclusion of consumer perspectives from tobacco control debates.
EU countries call for vaping crackdown in push for updated tobacco laws
Ali Anderson, Clearing The Air
Health ministers from across the European Union (EU) have called for a tougher stance on vapes and nicotine pouches, urging the European Commission to speed up long-delayed revisions to the bloc’s tobacco laws.
At a meeting of the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs (EPSCO) Council in Luxembourg, the countries demanded a revamped Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) that would harmonise rules across the EU and address growing concerns over youth use of nicotine products.
Insight: How middlemen funnel illegal Chinese vapes into the United States
Emma Rumney, Kaylee Kang, Tom Polansek, Reuters
From an office a 15-minute drive from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, one small firm helped import millions of unauthorized Chinese-made vapes last year alone, forming a key link in the supply chain feeding U.S. demand for illegal e-cigarettes. In a little over four years, the firm, a customs brokerage run by a man named Jay Kim, became a go-to broker for the Chinese vape industry. The firm worked on 60% of all shipments of vapes and vape parts from China to the U.S. in 2024 registered by the Food and Drug Administration, according to a Reuters analysis.
Evidence over Eminence | Garrett McGovern calls for tobacco control rethink at #GFN25
Global Forum on Nicotine
Ahead of the upcoming World Conference on Tobacco Control, leading addiction and harm reduction specialist Garrett McGovern sat down with Brent Stafford to underscore the issues with Tobacco Control’s rejection of tobacco harm reduction, and why following the science is the only rational approach to public health policy.
Global Panel Urges Rapid Reform of WHO and FCTC
Taxpayers Protection Alliance
The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) led a robust and candid panel discussion on June 19, 2025 alongside the Global Forum on Nicotine in Warsaw, Poland. Consumer advocates issued a resounding call for urgent reform of the taxpayer-funded World Health Organization (WHO) and its tobacco control arm, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The panel argued that years of politicized policymaking, opaque governance, and disregard for consumer perspectives have rendered the FCTC increasingly ineffective and out of touch with scientific and social realities.
A look back at how things have moved on or otherwise…
The vape scare down under
Christopher Snowdon
The Health Secretary Steve Barclay is reported to be interested in learning from Australia’s experience with e-cigarette regulation. Quoted in The Times this week, he said: “I met a leading Australian figure this morning in terms of some of the lessons around the vaping industry in Australia, and how we can look at what has been done there and are there any lessons that we can share with each other.”
Vape Detectors….
Cashing In On Misinformation? – ECigClick
The hysteria about underage vaping has taken a new turn, there are now companies cashing in on “Vape Detectors”. Even marketing them to schools! I suppose it is an improvement to the invasive strip searches some pupils have been subjected to in the US.
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