With e-cigarette use now epidemic among teens, and cigarettes still the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration announced a series of moves meant to drive young people away from tobacco products.

According to data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention's National Youth Tobacco Survey, which is expected to be released in its entirety very soon, it will show that 3.6 million middle and high school students currently use e-cigarettes. According to Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, "These increases must stop, and the bottom line is this: I will not allow a generation of children to become addicted to nicotine through e-cigarettes."

The announcement comes just over two months since Gottlieb ordered manufacturers to fix what he called "epidemic" levels of teens using e-cigarettes and specifically instructed five brands Juul, Vuse, MarkTen, Blu E-cigs and Logic to submit plans detailing how they will prevent teens from using their products.

Preempting the FDA’s crackdown, Juul Labs, the maker of Juul, made an announcement it would stop selling its fruit and dessert-flavoured products in more than 90,000 brick-and-mortar retail stores, and halt its marketing on Facebook and Instagram.

Commissioner Gottlieb called on other manufacturers to take similar voluntary measures. He said, “They can stop certain marketing and sales practices — the ones we believe are part of the youth access and youth appeal problem — right now.” 

Gobi Support Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping teens and their families rethink their relationship to drugs and alcohol.  Gobi is not a treatment program. Gobi's digital offerings encourage self-knowledge, reflection and problem solving, to build better communication within families.