By Carl MacGowan (source)

New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday announced she filed a federal lawsuit alleging that more than a dozen vaping manufacturers, distributors and retailers, including one based in Farmingdale, illegally market products such as flavored e-cigarettes to underage customers.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court, states that popular brands such as Candy King, Fifty Bar and Fruity Pebbles are packaged to appeal to teenagers, using colorful labels accompanied by social media and influencer campaigns.

E-cigarette consumers in New York must be at least 21 years old.

The state is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation and penalties, public statements from the defendants about the dangers of flavored vapes and a court order banning those companies from selling in New York.

WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND

• A state lawsuit alleges that various vape companies, including one in Farmingdale, illegally market products to underage customers.
• Attorney General Letitia James said she is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation and penalties, and a court order barring the defendants from selling in New York.
• The Food and Drug Administration says vape products contain harmful chemicals and highly addictive nicotine.

“The vaping industry is taking a page out of Big Tobacco’s playbook: they’re making nicotine seem cool, getting kids hooked, and creating a massive public health crisis in the process,” James said in a statement. “For too long, these companies have disregarded our laws in order to profit off of our young people, but we will not risk the health and safety of our kids."

Among the 13 defendants named in the lawsuit is Farmingdale-based Price Point Distributors. A person who answered the phone Thursday took a message, which was not returned.

The company's website features dozens of vape products with flavors such as "sour watermelon drop," "strawberry kiwi ice" and "orange dragon."

Other companies named in the lawsuit include Puff Bar, MYLE Vape, Pod Juice, Mi-One Brands, Happy Distro, Demand Vape, EVO Brands, PVG2, Magellan Technology, Midwest Goods and Safa Goods. Attempts to reach them were unsuccessful.

Jim McCarthy, spokesman for American Vapor Manufacturers, a Prescott, Arizona, trade group, disputed James' allegations and said the industry had worked closely with federal health officials to advocate for laws banning vape sales to minors. He said vaping is a safe alternative to nicotine smoking.

“It’s outrageous that Letitia James is squandering taxpayer resources and money to try to deprive Americans of these lifesaving products,” McCarthy said in a phone interview Thursday.

“Vape shops around the country … have done a better job of preventing those underage sales than any other category of retailer," he said. "The vape companies … want nothing more than to sell to adults. Those are our customers and that’s who we’re trying to help.”

The Food and Drug Administration website states that e-cigarettes generally carry lower risks than conventional nicotine cigarettes but are not entirely risk-free.

The FDA advises nonsmokers, including both adults and adolescents, not to use e-cigarettes because they contain harmful chemicals and highly addictive nicotine.

FDA officials reported in September that teen vaping had reached a 10-year low, calling the milestone "a monumental public health win."

In court papers, James said products marketed under names such as “Strawberry Donut,” “Banana Taffy,” “Baja Slushie” and “OMG Blow Pop” often are sold with "technological gimmicks" such as games and wireless devices "to make sure that once a child picks up that device, it is extraordinarily difficult to put it down."

The lawsuit added: "A significant part of this crisis is attributable to each defendant’s illegal and/or fraudulent commercial and marketing conduct, which, among other things, has targeted underage users and created broad misapprehensions about the legality and safety of the Flavored E-Cigarettes they distribute in massive quantities within New York."

Jeffrey Reynolds, president and CEO of Family & Children's Association, a Garden City substance abuse and mental health services provider, welcomed the lawsuit.

Vape products, ubiquitous in stores across Long Island, typically feature colorful packaging clearly intended to attract underage customers, Reynolds said in an email.

“There is little chance that a 40-year-old man is looking for cotton candy-flavored vapes in pink and purple cartoon-ish packaging," Reynolds said. "This is a play on the part of the industry to lure kids into a lifetime of addiction. Like tobacco companies and opioid manufacturers, they should be stopped and forced to help clean up the public health mess they’ve created.”

Steve Chassman, executive director of the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, said underage use of e-cigarettes leads to problems such as anxiety, hyperactivity and sleep disorders. He likened the packaging to nicotine cigarette ads featuring Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man.

"None of this stuff is targeting adults,” he said.

The lawsuit was backed by the New York Association of Convenience Stores, which represents 1,600 shops across the state.

In a statement, the Albany group's president, Alison Ritchie, said she hoped the lawsuit would spur "a long-awaited, coordinated enforcement effort that will stop these dangerous products from crossing our state lines."