Thursday, October 1, 2026
For much of my decade-long tenure in the Nassau County Legislature, the fight to loosen the addictive grasp of nicotine on our society has been at the forefront of my legislative mission. My passion for this issue, and the years of work we have done collectively to protect our youth, makes two recent edicts by President Trump’s Food and Drug Administration especially appalling to me.
On Aug. 4, the FDA signed off on a series of On Plus nicotine pouch products made by Helix Innovations LLC. They are used in the same way that anti-tobacco crusader, former major league catcher and broadcaster Joe Garagiola used to refer to as “spit tobacco,” but without the stained teeth or the disgusting spit.
Considering how the recently approved flavors include Rich Berry, Autumn Spice and Cappuccino, it’s little wonder why these highly addictive products are soaring in popularity among our youth. But the FDA gave them the green light anyway.
Then there was the similarly inexplicable decision this spring, when the FDA awarded its first-ever approval for the sale of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes, ostensibly under the guise that they were aimed at adults hoping to cut back or quit smoking.
The data is clear: Flavored products get kids hooked on nicotine. Former FDA Administrator Dr. Marty Makary — whom the administration forced out of his role this spring — said so himself in an interview with ABC News last year. Yet as teen vaping rates have reached their lowest levels in a decade, the FDA retreated, and the Big Vape lobby is reaping the rewards at the expense of public health.
When I was elected to the Legislature in 2016, I was entrusted with the honor and responsibility of succeeding the late, great Judy Jacobs in office. Judy was ahead of the curve in many meaningful ways, especially when it came to protecting our young people from the influence of Big Tobacco and the scourge of nicotine addiction.
Before her untimely passing, she was the lead sponsor of legislation that sought to prohibit the sale of nicotine products to anyone under age 21 in Nassau County. When I took office, I knew that getting “Tobacco 21” passed and signed into law would be one of my most important priorities, and in May 2018, we succeeded — making it the law that, from Manhattan to Montauk, you had to be 21 to buy nicotine products.
It became apparent, however, that the battlefield was rapidly evolving. As was proven to be true in the past, the tobacco and nicotine industries were targeting our youth for addiction — but instead of Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man being their Trojan horses, their new vessels were candy- and fruit-flavored vaping products.
I responded by authoring and passing bipartisan legislation in late 2019 that banned the sale of most flavored vape products in Nassau, which became a model for statewide prohibition, and banning advertising of flavored vape products near places where children commonly congregate, like playgrounds, schools and parks.
The Trump administration’s latest actions threaten to dramatically undermine years of hard-fought progress across our nation, and it’s an absolute travesty — but not terribly surprising — that his FDA would prioritize Big Vape’s profits over the long-term health and wellness of our children. We would all be far better served if Trump, his FDA, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. paid more attention to keeping our lettuce and blueberries safe than carving out giveaways for the corporate robber barons who get rich off people who become addicted to nicotine.
In the aftermath of these dangerously misguided decisions, the laws we passed in Nassau County have become even more important in the fight to protect our youth from being exposed to addictive substances, and I will not waver in my commitment to do all I can to restore sanity to our public discourse on this critical issue.
Arnold W. Drucker, of Plainview, represents Nassau County’s 16th Legislative District and is the Legislature’s deputy minority leader.
