New Yorkers react to Mayor Adams' latest move to enforce the flavored vape ban

Mayor Eric Adams is trying to cut New York City’s supply of flavored vapes off at the source by blocking major distributors from shipping to retailers in the five boroughs. Anti-vaping activists said they are encouraged by the mayor’s announcement on Monday. But some New York City vapers said they are skeptical about the mayor’s ability to eradicate an ever-changing array of products from local stores.

Four years after the city passed a law banning all flavored e-cigarettes, both anti-vaping activists and vape users said the illicit products remain extremely easy to buy.

“They're pretty much at every smoke shop or deli you go to,” said Ethan Borsari, a 20-year-old student who was holding a passion kiwi-flavored Flum Pebble while chatting with a friend in Washington Square Park on Wednesday afternoon. “I did not know they were banned in the city at all because I see them everywhere.”

Seven other vapers who spoke to Gothamist in the park or by phone said they were aware flavored vapes were illegal, but they did not have a problem finding shops that would pull them out from below the counter or a back room.

On Monday, lawyers for the city asked a U.S. district court judge to issue a preliminary injunction against four companies that are allegedly selling unauthorized vape products to city retailers that lack tobacco licenses, in violation of local and federal laws. The city first sued the companies in July and is now seeking to prevent them from distributing their wares while the lawsuit is ongoing. The companies included in the lawsuit are Magellan Technology, Demand Vape, Empire Vape Distributors, and Star Vape. Demand and Magellan are based in Buffalo, New York, Star Vape is based in Brooklyn, and Empire is based in Queens.

Local anti-vaping activists Meredith Berkman and Dorian Fuhrman, who founded the organization Parents Against Vaping E-cigarettes, have urged officials to ramp up enforcement against New York City shops selling flavored vapes.

“You can walk down any street in New York City, and you can see them for sale,” Fuhrman said.

The pair recently launched an initiative to have volunteers visit stores across the five boroughs to see if flavored vapes were available and then make complaints to 311. Between February and June 2023, volunteers visited 313 stores and found flavored nicotine e-cigarettes for sale at 60% of them, according to data the activists provided in the city’s lawsuit.

Berkman and Fuhrman continue to advocate for a bigger crackdown on retailers but also voiced support for the city’s effort to hit upstream suppliers.

“Cracking down on these bad actors is important and urgently needed, but going after the distributors themselves — the source of these dangerous and highly addictive youth-marketed flavored products — is the most effective way to protect our kids from becoming a generation of nicotine addicts and the tobacco industry’s next generation of lifetime customers," the pair said in a statement about the lawsuit when it was filed in July.

While vaping's long-term effects are still unknown, the American Lung Association points to research that has found that e-cigarettes produce chemicals and carcinogens that can cause lung disease, heart disease and asthma. Vapes were initially marketed as a cigarette replacement, but data shows they’re increasingly popular among local teens.

In a statement on the lawsuit, a spokesperson for Demand and Magellan said, “misinformation kills people and the facts are very clear: vaping is a successful deterrent from smoking cigarettes.”

Some New York City vapers who spoke to Gothamist expressed particular concerns about the risks of buying unregulated products and the lack of consistency among the vape brands for sale in the city. The Food and Drug Administration has only authorized a short list of tobacco-flavored vapes for sale in the United States.

“It was almost impossible to find any consistency or continuity among products,” said Upper West Sider Anna Miles, 36, who recently quit vaping because she was worried about her nicotine consumption and felt the devices were like “an adult pacifier.”

She said she typically wanted to purchase the popular Chinese brand formerly known as Elf Bar that has reportedly gone through multiple name changes. But, she said, she was frequently handed knockoffs.

Jasmine McClure, 21, echoed this concern. “They all have weird different sayings on them now, and I don't know where they come from,” said McClure. She worried about getting a vape that was less safe because of the lack of regulation.

While she was skeptical of the city’s ability to cut off the flourishing underground market, McClure said she would consider using a nicotine replacement product to quit vaping if flavored options were no longer available.

“Lately I like peach mango ice,” said McClure. She added that she wouldn’t switch to cigarettes because of the smell.