FDA Loses E-Cig Battle

With a move that shocked all of us, the Food and Drug Administration this week announced they would quit trying to regulate smokeless cigarettes as medical delivery products. They’ll alternatively be regarded cigarette products and fall under the regulations of the “Family Smoking Prevention & Tobacco Control Act”. Passed last year, this act allowed the Food and Drug Administration capacity to regulate many elements of the tobacco marketplace for example the way they advertise and sell their products.

Until now, Ecig had been in a sort of grey-area of the law. The Food & Drug Administration at first attempted to classify them as prescription drug delivery systems and require all of them to pass comprehensive scientific trials as well as an application process identical to prescribed drugs. The e cigarette companies fought back and achieved an appellate court decision in December of 2010 forbidding the Food and Drug Administration from categorizing them as drug delivery systems. Some people assumed this effort to control electronic cigarettes was likely motivated by pressure from cigarette manufacturers.

Monday was the deadline for the FDA to make a decision whether to appeal last December’s verdict to the U.S. Supreme Court and classify e-cigarettes as a drug. Recognizing they would in all likelihood lose another courtroom challenge, they went with a tobacco classification. Electric cigarette providers and vendors worldwide cheer the new decision.

I talked with the proprietor of the USA’s leading E-Cig/Eliquid provider Jeffrey Eaton. He said “We are all ecstatic over here at WordUpEcig.com. We have worked so hard to put our brand on top of the others and now we no longer have to worry about the FDA putting unnecessary restrictions on us.” He also thinks this may put pressure on the numerous suppliers of counterfeited products either to step up their performance or leave the industry. His sentiments are most likely embraced amongst all ecig suppliers.

For the moment it looks as if electric cigs are here to stay. The Food and Drug Administration says on their website that as long as e-cigs are not promoted as having any type of medicinal benefit, for example a nicotine substitution or stop smoking device, they are going to be viewed as a tobacco product. I believe we should all give a big thumbs up to the numerous buyers, vendors and producers of e cigarettes that struggled for this ground breaking decision!

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