By Legislator Arnold W. Drucker
For much of my decade-long tenure in the Nassau County Legislature, the fight to loosen the addictive grasp of nicotine upon our society has been at the forefront of my legislative mission.
My passion for this issue, and the years of work we have collectively done to protect our youth, makes two recent edicts by President Trump’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) especially appalling to me.
On Aug. 4, the FDA signed off on a series of On Plus nicotine pouch products made by Helix Innovations LLC. It’s used in a similar fashion to what anti-tobacco crusader, MLB catcher and broadcaster Joe Garagiola used to refer to as “spit tobacco,” but without the stained teeth or the disgusting spit.
Considering how the recently approved flavors include Rich Berry, Autumn Spice, and Cappuccino, it’s little wonder why these highly addictive products are soaring in popularity with our youth. Nevertheless, the FDA gave them the green light anyway.
Then, there was the similarly inexplicable decision this spring in which the FDA awarded its first-ever approval for the sale of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes, ostensibly under the guise that they were aimed at adults hoping to cut back or quit smoking.
The data is clear - flavored products get kids hooked on nicotine. Former FDA Administrator Dr. Marty Makary - who the Trump administration forced out of his role this spring - said so himself in an interview with ABC News last year. Yet, as teen vaping rates have reached their lowest levels in a decade, the FDA retreated, and the Big Vape lobby is reaping the rewards at the expense of public health.
When I was elected to the Legislature in 2016, I was entrusted with the great honor and awesome responsibility of succeeding the late, great Judy Jacobs in office. Judy was ahead of the curve in many meaningful ways, especially when it came to protecting our young people from the influence of Big Tobacco and the scourge of nicotine addiction.
Prior to her untimely passing, she was the lead sponsor for legislation that sought to prohibit the sale of nicotine products in Nassau County to anyone under the age of 21. When I took office, I knew that getting “Tobacco 21” passed and signed into law would be one of my first and most important priorities, and in May of 2018, we were successful – making it so that, from Manhattan to Montauk, you had to be 21 years old to buy nicotine products.
However, it became apparent that the battlefield was rapidly evolving. As was proven to be true in the past, the tobacco and nicotine industries were targeting our youth for addiction – but instead of Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man being their Trojan horses, their new vessels were candy- and fruit-flavored vaping products.
I responded by authoring and passing bipartisan legislation in late 2019 that banned the sale of most flavored vape products in Nassau County, which became a model for statewide prohibition, and banning advertising of flavored vape products near places where children commonly congregate, like playgrounds, schools, and parks.
The Trump administration’s latest actions threaten to dramatically undermine years of hard-fought progress across our nation, and it is an absolute travesty - but not terribly surprising - that his FDA would prioritize Big Vape’s profits over the long-term health and wellness of our children.
We would all be far better served if Trump, his FDA, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. paid more attention to keeping our lettuce and blueberries safe than carving out giveaways for the corporate robber-barons who get rich off people who become addicted to nicotine.
In the aftermath of these dangerously misguided decisions, the laws we passed in Nassau County have become even more important in the fight to protect our youth from being exposed to addictive substances, and I will not waver in my commitment to do all I can to restore sanity to our public discourse on this critical issue.
Arnold W. Drucker, of Plainview, is the Deputy Minority Leader of the Nassau County Legislature. He was elected to the Legislature in 2016.