UCA students and Conway smoke shops are not pleased with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decision to ban the sale of R.J. Reynolds Company’s Vuse Alto menthol e-cigarette pods.

The FDA said Oct. 12 that it was banning three menthol-flavored and three mixed berry-flavored products offered in three different nicotine strengths.

Gabe Mince, a senior majoring in international studies and minoring in linguistics, said the ban is “shortsighted and seems to be a decision made to appease whatever groups are against vaping.”

He said Vuse pods are more accessible than other vapes, such as Elf Bars. 

“You only ever need to buy one alto body, and they tend to last longer and are cheaper,” Mince said. “Elf Bars are expensive and fairly unreliable for the most part.”

“I know vaping certainly isn’t good for you, nor is any nicotine,” he said. “But if I had the choice, I’d choose to vape before smoking cigarettes.”

Mince said the ban would “have the opposite intended effect” and push more people to vape.

“It’ll drive more people of legal age to source these pods through extra-illegal means and end up spending far more money to get them,” he said.

He said it would be similar to the Prohibition era, though “significantly” less serious, and severely harm those vaping as a means to quit smoking cigarettes. 

“It becomes a matter of consumer choice, and vaping makes quitting smoking much easier, and it’s a healthier alternative to smoking actual cigarettes,” Mince said, “It’s much better than going cold turkey.”

He said the conversation should be less about regulation and reframed to ask “why” underage people are vaping.

“I think honestly the best way to go about underage vaping is to just put the smoking age back at 18 because it’s counterintuitive to say that an 18-year-old is an adult and then go about treating them still as children,” Mince said. “As for the underage side of things, there just needs to be a culture shift because regardless of smoking age and whatever measures are put in place to prevent underage vaping, it’s still gonna happen.”

Allison Toomer, a junior majoring in English and minoring in creative writing, said she’s unsure of how effective the ban will be.

“I want to trust the FDA that they know what is right, but I also wonder why they are banning Alto Vuse Pods when cigarettes and cigars aren’t exactly ‘banned,’ only legal to a certain age group,” Toomer said.

She said the ban would be counterproductive for cigarette smokers trying to quit by vaping.

“Where smokers previously had control over their own decisions to quit smoking via e-cigs, now the ban completely strips that ability to make that decision,” she said. “I think smokers would either go back to smoking cigarettes or have a really difficult time quitting smoking entirely.”

Johnny Luna, a senior majoring in film and minoring in art history, said, “The FDA is a mausoleum of an industrial regulator, and its decisions are about as effective as rules at summer camp.”

He said banning Vuse pods creates “an enormous value on it.”

“At this point, people smoke cigarettes simply to not be the people who vape,” Luna said.

If the FDA wants to reduce vaping, “we allow them to be advertised again,” he said.

Luna said, “The mystification of tobacco, alcohol, weed and other substances or practices is what got us in this crisis in the first place.”

“Lots of young people also have the self-control to quit vaping,” he said. “The assumption being made by old people is that teens or young adults can’t decide for themselves what do with their body and health.”

A manager from ZaZa Vape Shop on Oak St, who didn’t feel comfortable sharing his name, said he had to remove the products from his store and would lose up to 40% of his customers. 

“I’m losing a lot of customers,” he said. “ … I don’t know why they banned it like that.”

Dave Ward’s Mr. Smoke manager, Sydney, said, “We do kind of lose sales because of it.”

She said her boss made them remove the product, which they placed in the store’s office, in case the ban is lifted.

“People are losing their minds about this,” Sydney said.

She said vapes are worse than cigarettes, citing their high nicotine content and ability to hit frequently. 

“It has a lot more chemicals than actual cigarettes do because it’s man-made nicotine,” she said.

Stephanie Rose, an assistant professor in the health sciences department and director of the addiction studies program, said, “I think the decision by the FDA is a good one.”

She said menthol enhances the effects of nicotine on the brain.

“Unfortunately, when vaping started, … people were falsely told that vaping would assist them with stopping nicotine use,” Rose said. “These devices often have more nicotine in them.”

Vuse manufacturer Reynold’s parent company, British American Tobacco, said it would challenge the FDA’s decision in court.