A former top law enforcement official is sounding the alarm on an attempt by illicit Chinese vape companies to exploit legal loopholes by replacing nicotine with an unregulated substitute to continue selling flavored disposable vapes to children.
“These Chinese organized crime groups, what they realized is if they go ahead and just change the ingredients in the packaging, then they create confusion and there is no enforcement or regulatory agency that then is responsible to address these illicit, illegal, disposable vapes,” former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Deputy Director Edgar Domenech told Fox News Digital in an interview.
The synthetic compound, 6-methyl nicotine, also known as 6MN or “NIX,” is a nicotine analog marketed under brand names including Nixodine and Metatine, with some manufacturers arguing 6-methyl nicotine products fall outside the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authority.
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 “manufactured illegally in China” is an “unknown variable” that hasn’t been studied enough.
“It’s a different type of substance,” he said. “Now, all of a sudden, the FDA doesn’t have oversight, but it’s the same product. It’s a disposable vape product with flavors targeting our kids and our youth with unknown chemicals.”
Pointing to law enforcement’s role in combating the illicit trade, Domenech said the companies create “confusion” by changing the product’s ingredients, causing law enforcement and regulatory agencies to “take no action.”
“The organized crime groups â they’re five steps in front of us,” he said. “By changing the substance, they are now creating additional new obstacles to figure out.”
Domenech said the companies keep the same branding, packaging, and flavors while changing just one ingredient, allowing them to profit from children who may not realize what they’re consuming.
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“They’re putting these products side by side in these big shops, because the packaging is all the same,” he said. “All they’ve done is changed one of the ingredients in the product.”
Domenech said the companies are targeting “our youngest, most vulnerable generation” with flavored disposable vapes containing chemicals whose long-term health effects remain unknown.
“They’re targeting our youth with flavors,” he said. “Whether it’s fruity flavors, candy-type flavors, dessert flavors. They’re targeting our kids to go ahead and ingest these products with unknown consequences because we don’t know what’s in them to begin with.”
As youth vaping has become more widespread, Domenech said some schools have installed bathroom sensors that detect vaping, adding, “We’ve got 11-year-olds, 12-year-olds, 14-year-olds vapin
