ALEXANDRIA, Va.— The country’s largest convenience-store association predicts that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will likely maintain its proposal to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes at convenience stores, despite the announced resignation of the agency’s commissioner and chief proponent of its nicotine-related efforts this month.
In a statement, NACS officials said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb wants to finalize his tobacco policymaking before departing the FDA post in about a month. “At this time, we think there is no reason to believe that the FDA will back off the, as yet, unseen proposal they presented to the White House,” said Lyle Beckwith, senior vice president of government relations for NACS. “If anything, we expect the commissioner to spend his final month pushing even harder for it as his legacy achievement.”
NACS officials cited reports that Gottlieb presented a plan to the White House to effectively ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes at c-stores, excluding mint, menthol and tobacco flavors. The agency’s plan, however, allows for those flavored products to be sold in vape stores or other adult-only establishments as well as online.
NACS officials said the FDA is “unfair in targeting convenience retailers in its effort to crackdown on the underage usage of e-cigarettes.”
The association urged members of the c-store industry to contact their congressional representatives and ask them to tell the White House to stop the FDA’s proposals.
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