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Nicotine Gummies Could Save You, But FDA Prefers You Smoke & Die

Gummies and vapes
Written by Sarah Friedman

So, we know smoking damage is the absolute biggest killer. When it comes to deaths from drug damage, nothing else compares. Not in the US, and not outside. Yet, every new advance to get people away from smoking, has been met with resistance by the FDA. Vapes are constantly demonized, dry tobacco vapes are massively underplayed, and now nicotine gummies are on the horizon, and the FDA would still rather have you light up and die, than eat them.

Nicotine gummies just came out, and the FDA is already trying to keep them from you….so you won’t stop smoking. This publication is geared toward the expanding cannabis and psychedelics spaces with news stories covering important topics and happenings in these industries, and beyond. Subscribe to the Cannadelics Weekly Newsletter for regular updates, and for access to a range of awesome offers on a load of products like vapes, smoking devices, edibles, other cannabis paraphernalia, and the growing-in-popularity cannabinoid compounds like Delta 8 & HHC. Head to our ‘best of’ lists for all the details, and make sure to purchase the products you’re perfectly comfortable to use.


Nicotine gummies? For real?

Yup, guys, nicotine gummies are for real, and if you ignore government lines, they’re one of the best things to happen in light of the issue of smoking damage and death. The story came to national attention last month, when the FDA started sending warning letters to VPR Brands, which is the parent company to Krave, Inc., an outfit selling a line of flavored nicotine gummies, each containing one milligram of nicotine. The gummies come in three different flavors. The letters were of the cease and desist nature.

There are currently a lot of issues with cannabis companies using the packaging and candy designs of big-name brands in order to sell their products. Mars, Inc. just won a lawsuit against some of these companies for breaking trademark law. But that issue stems from the cannabis companies using nearly exact replicas, so close that trademark law is broken. The lawsuits weren’t about ruling out all weed gummies (all of which look like something a kid would like); and weed gummies (and edibles in general), are legally sold in tons of dispensaries.

So, the line about confusing children, well, it just doesn’t apply here. Just like it doesn’t apply to any kid-friendly looking candy sold in legal dispensaries, so long as those edibles don’t break trademark law. Yet, that’s the FDA’s ammunition. That the nicotine gummies might look a little too much like something a kid likes. And this, even though they provide an alternative to the smoking damage, which kills 480,000 people a year in the US alone, according to the very government trying to stop these new products.

Nicotine gummies
Nicotine gummies

The nicotine gummies, of course, are meant for adults. And were advertised as a safe way to get nicotine in a person without smoking. If a person doesn’t have to light a cigarette, and breathe in the products of smoke, not only do they have way less chance of developing the cancers, cardiac diseases, and pulmonary issues associated with smoking, they also can’t hurt another person with their secondhand smoke. What’s the FDA’s response to this? That said nicotine gummies are a “a public health crisis just waiting to happen among our nation’s youth.”

It said the same thing about Juul nicotine vape products. Products specifically fingered for helping people stop smoking. And products for which not one claim of a health issue has come out. And yet the FDA recently banned their products from sale, because of possible (yet currently non-existent) dangers, while leaving cigarettes on shelves! Funny move if the idea is to protect children. Somehow, nowhere in any of their letters or statements, did the FDA detail how these products could pose even a fraction of the risk of smoking.

In the fight against vapes, the FDA used vaping fear campaigns to push its point. But this time around, those fear campaigns can’t apply, because vapes aren’t a part of it. Though vaping is roundly NOT associated with the issues of smoking, the FDA has been on a mission to launch fear of these products into the public’s minds, even as we – the smokers – can physically feel the difference between the two. Now, it doesn’t have that ‘vapes are bad’ line, as all those issues which it used for vapes, don’t apply to gummies.

So, it’s just talking about kids. And instead of having a realistic conversation over what smoking dangers are, and how these gummies can prevent them, its trying to scare you from using them. Let’s remember, if you’re not buying cancer sticks, the government doesn’t make an insane profit from exorbitant cigarette taxes. The exact taxes put on to dissuade people from smoking, but which actually just bring in loads of revenue for the government. The government’s antics imply an expectation that people can and will simply stop smoking, without the need for an alternative; even as reality repeatedly proves this is not true.

How bad is nicotine? Or…is it bad at all?

I don’t know, do you think coffee is bad? They’re on par, if you haven’t noticed. They’re both minor stimulants that give a little kick, without a cocaine-like burst. That’s why nicotine and caffeine users use so much. It’s pretty standard in this world to go through 2-10 cups of coffee a day. I picked those numbers based on what I tend to see around me, but we all know the general range. And let’s not forget tea products, soda like Coke, Pepsi, and Mountain Dew, chocolate products, energy drinks, and all the other non-caffeine products that get caffeine shoved into them, so you can get that boost more often. It’s literally everywhere.

Has anyone ever complained about the detriments of caffeine addiction? Nope. Want to take a wager on why? I’m going to go out on a limb here and say it’s the inherent lack of a death or injury toll associated. But make no mistake, caffeine-addicted people have a monumentally hard time breaking the habit, and are often cranky and irritating when they don’t get their fix. Just like smokers.

Coffee addiction
Coffee addiction

The reality of nicotine is that it doesn’t hurt or kill anyone. There’s no death toll associated with it, and it doesn’t seem to be wildly different than caffeine in addiction potential, or overall use. In fact, let’s be honest for a second, not everyone smokes, but nearly everyone ingests caffeine, at least sometimes. If this doesn’t sound like what you hear from government agencies, check it out yourself. Look up death statistics for nicotine. Not for smoking, but for nicotine itself. I couldn’t find even one.

Its not about nicotine. Which means its not about tobacco, as the part of tobacco always spoken about as the danger point, is nicotine. What it really is, is that lighting anything on fire and breathing it in, means breathing in carcinogens. And nicotine is addictive enough to keep people doing that, since there aren’t a million ways to get nicotine outside of cigarettes. If you don’t want coffee or tea, there’s Coke and Mountain Dew, but the only alternatives to cigarettes, keep getting taken away under fear campaigns. Even as they act as alternatives to a yearly 480,000 death toll.

Will nicotine gummies make it?

My expectation is yes, and that’s a good thing. The fact the FDA is already trying so hard, means there’s something threatening its tax revenue line, enough that it wants to attempt to put the kibosh on it now, before you even hear about, or get used to the products. Maybe it likes using the tagline of worrying about children, but what about the adults who can benefit?

And for that matter, let’s bring it back to the kids. See, it actually is good for kids. Maybe its best they don’t develop a nicotine addiction, but don’t we want them gravitating toward the safer option if they are going to do it? And since when did telling kids not to do something, ever work? We need to expect that a certain number will take up nicotine, and for that, we want them acclimated to a version that won’t kill them.

The popularity of vapes, and the gravitating toward them in spite of smear campaigns, is a powerful indication that regardless of government lines meant to stop people from doing the healthier thing, people seem to know. Maybe it’s a subconscious understanding, maybe its an outright distrust of government.

Maybe it’s just the underlying logic that one causes noticeable damage, and the other doesn’t. Whatever it is, the smear campaign lines are getting weaker, and that’s very positive. It’s even becoming more obvious, as countries like the UK publicize reports speaking of the detriments of any smoke damage, and how vapes should be encouraged to bring down smoking numbers.

Nictone gummies instead of smoking
Nictone gummies instead of smoking

One last thing to remember… There are tons of cigarette brands including small, barely-known ones. But the majority of cigarette sales come from big cigarette companies, which are fully taxed. What the US (and all other countries) is having a hard time doing, is reining in black markets related to vaping and edibles. It doesn’t have big main companies to tax, and it can’t really get to these other, smaller companies.

So, when you switch to vaping or edibles from smoking, it means all that tax money collected from your Marlboros, probably isn’t collected by the mom-and-pop vapes or edibles company you now buy from, and therefore, not going to the government. All that money you’d pay to continue smoking, is now lost to the government. Is it really any wonder that the same country allowing the continued sale of opioids through regulation (despite overdose numbers close to 100k a year), would also prefer you continue to smoke over using healthier options?

Conclusion

If you’re a smoker, and you want to quit the actual act of smoking, switch to vapes or edibles, if you can. Until any real death statistics come out related to these products, ASIDE from additives that don’t need to be used, these are your better options. And it’s actually, and fundamentally not up for debate. Not until these methods start killing anywhere near 480,000 people a year, in a place the size of the US.

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1 Comment

  • The government doesn’t want you to sell them because nicotine helps to fight Covid and any symptoms from the Covid shot. The nicotine helps to release the venom from the receptors in the brain.

About the author

Sarah Friedman

I look stuff up and and write stuff down, in order to make sense of the world around. And I travel a lot too.