The Department of Justice and the FDA, now under President Trump’s administration, have initiated a sweeping campaign of raids across the nation—seizing millions of dollars’ worth of nicotine products. Many of these are from American businesses that followed the rules, employed fellow citizens, and sold only to adult consumers. Yet Washington seems intent to punish those same businesses rather than protect them.
Here’s what’s going wrong: the FDA’s approval process is repeatedly being used to shut out America’s independent manufacturers and retailers, while only Big Tobacco companies seem able to successfully navigate the bureaucracy. Small businesses are denied application after application under the PMTA process, often with opaque rationale, regulators’ delays, and shifting standards. Meanwhile, longstanding tobacco giants reap approvals using deep resources and established influence.
This is not about public health alone. This is about choice, fairness, and protecting American enterprise. In Florida, from Miami to the Panhandle, honest shop owners are being crushed under regulations that favor the powerful.
Let’s be clear: we support cracking down on Chinese illicit disposable vapes—especially those being smuggled in. They threaten safety and undermine consumer trust. But what we cannot accept is an administration that enforces selectively. American companies who abide by the rules deserve due process. They deserve a fair pathway through the FDA, not endless rejection.
President Trump once stood for small businesses, economic freedom, and fighting regulatory overreach. Today, we need that same urgency. Florida’s small businesses, local jobs, and the broader vaping community cannot survive if FDA and DOJ continue practices that favor Big Tobacco while penalizing honest competitors.
On behalf of the Florida Smoke Free Association, I call for immediate reforms to restore fairness:
· A transparent, consistent, achievable FDA evaluation process for nicotine products.
· Enforcement laws targeting Chinese illicit vapes- not the shop owners in the United States.
· Protections for small businesses who follow the rules, including legal recourse when they are unfairly blocked.
If this administration will not act to correct this bias, then Congress must step in. Florida’s small businesses are counting on all of us to protect free enterprise.