LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- On Thursday FDA officials ordered electronic cigarette maker Juul to pull its electronic cigarettes from the U.S. market, and the ban is lighting up a debate about vaping.
Juul is accused of fueling a surge in youth vaping across the country.
"It's a big problem," said Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky CEO Ben Chandler.
The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky calls the problem an epidemic -- and is pushing the FDA to do even more.
"While we welcome the ban on Juul -- we think that's a good thing -- it is not nearly enough, and until they actually come to grips with the nicotine problem, they're not going to solve this," Chandler said.
"The central problem here is that we are addicting an entire new generation of young people to nicotine," Chandler said.
Juul filed a federal appeal on Friday asking a judge for a stay. The emergency stay was granted for Juul despite the appeal only being filed in the morning.
Greg Troutman, an attorney in Louisville, said "that would allow the products to stay on the market pending the outcome of the case, which would be a year or two away."
Data shows about 26 percent of Kentucky middle and high schoolers use e-cigs, but vaping advocates say bans will only push teens back to something more harmful: traditional tobacco cigarettes.
"Their attitude is, they are prohibitionists," Troutman said, "and what they are going to get is a black market. If you can imagine what prohibition would have been like with social media and the internet, that's what we're going to have here."
Troutman said laws "couldn't stop alcohol in the 1920s and 1930s during prohibition. They're certainly not going to be able to stop much smaller, concealable, more portable products today."
Troy LeBlanc, the owner of Derb E Cigs, says he's against young people using vape products, and feels action should have been taken sooner. "The FDA should have acted years ago when they knew that it was a problem in the schools."
LeBlanc says he believes vape products, when used correctly, can be a safer alternative to traditional cigarettes, and feels the vaping industry is being unfairly targeted. "Juul helped people quit smoking. It was an amazing tool; however, it was so convenient and it was so easy to purchase that it fell into the wrong hands."
This photo dated June 24, 2022, shows Troy LeBlanc, president of Derb E. Cigs in Louisville.
He wonders why the government continues to focus on vaping products while allowing unrestricted sale of tobacco products. "The bottom line is the government just took vapor products off the shelf and left cigarettes on. It's like banning beer and keeping hard liquor on the shelf -- it doesn't make any sense."
For now, the FDA's ban only impacts Juul products, but a CDC study released last year shows teens are actually using other brands of vapes more than they use JUUL.
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