DEA Joins the War on Vaping

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has joined other federal agencies to prosecute the Trump administration’s growing war on vaping. This week, the DEA announced it had just completed a week-long “operational enforcement action” that resulted in the seizure of more than two million vape devices and cartridges.

The actions were part of “Operation Vape Trail,” which the DEA describes as a “collaborative enforcement effort” between the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), and the FDA.

During the five-day enforcement “surge” last week, the DEA says it seized over 2.3 million vaping devices and refills, along with millions in cash and other assets, and arrested 106 people.

The Trump administration was supposed to save vaping

The DEA actions came a week after the FDA and DOJ carried out separate raids and seizures at vaping distributors and retailers in six states, and announced a major seizure of Chinese vaping products shipped to Chicago.

President Trump promised to “save vaping” during his election campaign, but his executive agencies have done the exact opposite, carrying out a regulatory blockade and campaign of legal enforcement against Chinese vaping product imports and domestic vape businesses. The federal agencies' actions havemirrored the utter contempt FDA Commissioner Martin Makary has shown for users of vaping products.

In addition to the agencies named above, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have also taken part in recent enforcement actions. Even the U.S. Postal Service has been involved.

The DEA is the primary Department of Justice agency assigned to enforce federal controlled substance laws. As the government’s drug police, the DEA became the U.S. agency most associated with the punitive excesses of the late-20th century War on Drugs.

Operation Vape Trail: everything is “vaping”

Most of the vaping products seized during the DEA actions apparently contained or were designed to deliver non-nicotine substances, including various cannabinoids (many of which are legal) and kratom-derived 7-OH, which is also currently legal under federal law.

But the DEA press release took pains to associate its actions with “vape shops,” implying that stores primarily engaged in selling nicotine vaping products could also be involved with distributing illegal drugs.

“Vaping devices were originally designed for nicotine and marketed as a cigarette alternative,” said the DEA. “However, recent data suggests a significant portion of e-cigarette sales involve illegal substances, highlighting a growing public safety and health concern. Also being sold in vape shops are illegal and addictive substances such as synthetic marijuana, synthetic cathinones, and hydroxymitragynine, also known as 7-OH or synthetic kratom. Many of these products feature bright packaging and imagery inspired by popular cereals, candies, and snacks, which appeal to young people.”

The smearing of vape shops seems intentional and coordinated with FDA boss Makary, who has specifically slammed vape shops in nearly all of his many anti-vaping rants. 

“It’s time to take action on illegal products sold in vape shops popping up in every neighborhood in America, harming our nation’s children,” Makary said July 29 on X (Twitter).

Many stores formerly called smoke shops or tobacco shops have added the word “vape” to their signs for business reasons, because smoking is declining and vaping is growing. True vape shops generally don’t sell tobacco products, and cater mostly to full-time vapers who use open-system (refillable) devices and bottled e-liquid.

The raids the DEA chose to highlight in its press release as “notable seizures” involved seizures of marijuana plants and flower, processed cannabis products, cocaine and firearms---none of which have anything to do with nicotine vaping or vape shops.