Chinese vape makers exploit legal loophole with nicotine substitute, ex-ATF official warns

A former senior law enforcement official is sounding the alarm over illegal Chinese e-cigarette companies attempting to exploit loopholes by replacing nicotine with an unregulated substitute to continue selling flavored disposable e-cigarettes to children.

Former Deputy Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Edgar Domenech said in an interview on Fox News Digital: “Organized crime groups in China have realized that if they go ahead and just change the materials in the packaging, then they create confusion and there is no enforcement or regulatory agency responsible for addressing these illegal, illicit, disposable e-cigarettes.”

The synthetic compound 6-methyl nicotine, also known as 6MN or “NIX,” is a nicotine analog marketed under brand names such as Nixodine and Metatine, and some manufacturers argue that 6-methyl nicotine products fall outside the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Domenech, the former sheriff of New York City, said that while nicotine is a well-known addictive substance regulated by the FDA, the nicotine substitute “produced illegally in China” is an “unknown variable” that has not been adequately researched.

FORMER DHS ACTING SECRETARY WARNED THAT CHINESE CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS ARE INfiltrating AMERICA’S CANNABIS INDUSTRY

“This is a different kind of substance,” he said. “Now, all of a sudden, there’s no FDA oversight, but it’s the same product. A disposable vape product with flavors that target our children and teens with unknown chemicals.”

Pointing to the role of law enforcement in combating illegal trade, Domenech said companies had created “confusion” by changing the content of the product, causing law enforcement and regulatory bodies to take “no action.”

“Organized crime groups are five steps ahead of us,” he said. “By changing the substance, they create additional new obstacles that now need to be solved.”

Domenech said companies keep the same branding, packaging and flavors while changing only one ingredient, allowing them to profit from children who are unaware of what they are consuming.

CORPORATE AMERICA’S DEPENDENCE ON CHINA HAS BECOME A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT

A woman holds a Puff Bar flavored disposable vaping device on January 31, 2020 in New York City. (Marshall Ritzel/AP Photo)

“In these big stores, they put these products side by side because the packaging is the same.” “All they do is change one of the ingredients in the product.”

Domenech said companies are targeting “our youngest, most vulnerable generation” with flavored disposable e-cigarettes that contain chemicals with unknown long-term health effects.

“They target our youth with flavors,” he said. “Whether it’s fruity flavors, candy-type flavors, sweet flavors. They’re targeting our kids to get them to consume these products with unknown results because we don’t know what’s in them to begin with.”

Domenech said that as the use of electronic cigarettes has become widespread among young people, bathroom sensors that detect electronic cigarettes have been installed in some schools and added, “We have 11-year-old, 12-year-old and 14-year-old children who use these products.”

EXPLOSIVE HOUSE REPORT REVEALS THE SECRET OPERATION IN CHINA AT THE CENTER OF SOUTH KOREA’S STRUGGLE WITH THE US COMPANY

A selection of colorful disposable e-cigarettes go on sale at a gift shop in London on January 29, 2024. (Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Photo)

He said the products could lead to “unknown future health and mental health problems.”

“There is nothing healthy about flavored illegal disposable e-cigarettes targeting our children,” he said.

A. Duke University’s latest study He found that 6-methyl nicotine may be more potent than nicotine, raising concerns that it could be more addictive. Public patent records list Geoff Habicht, CEO of Arizona-based Mi-Pod, which Fox News Digital previously reported as part of an investigation examining ties between the vaping industry and China, as the inventor of U.S. patents citing 6-methyl nicotine and related compounds.

Raising awareness among legislators, healthcare professionals, parents and schools is vital to closing gaps in legislation and preventing more children from using these products, according to Domenech.

“Education is very important for us in combating this problem,” he said. “We have to educate our policy makers, we have to educate our healthcare workers, we have to educate our parents, we have to educate the education system to make sure they understand that these products are illegal, that they have unknown consequences, unknown ingredients that can have health consequences.”

Domenech said lawmakers and law enforcement need clearer guidance to identify and seize products.

“We need to make a concerted effort to educate our policymakers at the federal level, but also at the state and local level, because we need to get on the ground to understand what they can do when legally seizing these products,” he said.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD FOX NEWS APPLICATION

Domenech described the companies as a “national security problem” and said that the products “should be confiscated as soon as they enter this country.”

“We are losing a generation of our future, our future leaders, because of this product,” he said.