Mayor of New York City Eric Adams announced a lawsuit against 11 businesses on April 4 while flanked by committed anti-vaping campaigners and city health authorities at a platform. The firms are said to be selling flavored disposable vapes that are banned. The announcement of legal action against a separate group of vape distributors last year was almost exactly the same.
The lawsuit filed in a state court in Manhattan's New York County this year is less ambitious than the federal action brought in the U.S. District Court last year. The companies are accused of breaking the city administrative code, the New York City Public Health Law, and a "public nuisance" act, same as in the previous year's complaint. However, the outrageous allegations of racketeering and wire fraud have been dropped.
Only a few months after New York City enacted a similar rule, New York State outlawed the sale of flavored vapes in 2020, with the exception of tobacco flavor. The New York legislation is largely disregarded, as is the case with other vape prohibitions, and flavored goods are readily accessible everywhere.
"Part of protecting the safety of the public means protecting the health of New Yorkers, including the most vulnerable—our children—and this administration is committed to upholding the law when it comes to illegal vape sales," Adams said in a news statement. "This lawsuit will assist in holding 11 wholesalers accountable for their involvement in the illicit sale of flavored disposable vaping devices at a time when middle and high school students are experiencing an explosion in nicotine addiction."
"It might be because Mayor Adams is pursuing a nonexistent pandemic that his team had to go through historical survey data to discover proof of high rates of teenage vaping."
Of course, the problem of "nicotine addiction" is not becoming worse in New York or any other part of the nation. The percentage of middle and high school kids using vaping products has decreased by more than 60% from its peak in 2019, and the percentage of students smoking cigarettes for at least 30 days has remained below 2% for the previous three years. Just under a fourth of the 7.7% of students who reported using e-cigarettes on the 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey stated they did so every day, or less than 2% of all pupils.
It might be because Mayor Adams is pursuing a nonexistent pandemic that his team had to go through historical survey data to discover proof of high rates of teenage vaping. It also explains why Parents Against Vaping (PAVE), an organization that opposes e-cigarettes, sent an officer to flank Adams at that platform.
Adams is the subject of a lawsuit claiming he sexually abused a former police colleague, and he is also being investigated by federal and local authorities for suspected irregularities in campaign finance. When the vaping lawsuit from last year was made public, he was also embroiled in a campaign controversy.
All of the businesses included in the city's complaint are based in New York State:
- EnvironMD Group LLC - Brooklyn
- KLCC Wholesale Inc. - Brooklyn
- Star Zone Inc. - Oceanside
- Pioneer Distribution, Inc. (Wevapeusa.com, Seller Supreme LLC) - Brooklyn
- GT Imports - Plainview
- V. Trading, LLC - Brooklyn
- Kayla Wholesale, Inc. (doing business as The Vapery) - Jericho
- RZ Smoke Inc. - New Hyde Park
- Vape More Inc. and More LLC - Latham
- Urban Smoke Distributors - Woodside
- Vape Plus Distribution Corp. (G&A Distribution) - Brooklyn
