DETROIT (WXYZ) — On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration announced a ban on the sale of Juul e-cigarettes and other products in the U.S.
The decision comes after the agency completed a nearly two-year review of Juul's application to sell vape, tobacco and menthol-related products.
Joseph Sakhria, the owner of Puff Club Smoke Shop in Detroit's Midtown, said 50% of his business is in vape.
“That’s affecting us personally. That’s all profit right there that’s sitting on the shelf that we have to just pull out and put in the trash," he explained.
Sakhria said the FDA is making a big mistake.
“It affects the business. It affects people trying to quit smoking. They’re trying to quit cigarettes. People that have been smoking for over 30, 40, 50 years," he explained.
The business owner said if minors becoming addicted is the concern, then that responsibility falls on greedy, unethical businesses selling to minors.
Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-free Kids, said the FDA’s decision is the most important action the FDA has taken to reverse what he calls “the youth e-cigarette epidemic.”
“Juul was almost single-handedly responsible for creating an epidemic among our nation's youth, between 2017 and 2019. The number of adolescents who smoked e-cigarettes more than doubled. It was largely responsible because of Juul," Myer said.
Juul Labs, the company behind Juul e-cigarettes, told ABC News it would try to suspend the decision and that it's "exploring all of our options under the FDA's regulations and the law, including appealing the decision and engaging with our regulator."
