Naples schools cracking down on e-cigarettes and vaping

The FDA says e-cigarette companies are using designs that look like candy packaging to get kids vaping.

And now, those companies have 60 days to shape up or get taken off the shelves.

Naples schools are increasing their punishment for kids caught with vape devices like Juuls because they are seeing them too frequently.

They want to educate parents about the dangers of vaping.

Lisset Solis is mad that e-cigarettes aimed to help adult smokers are ending up in the hands of children.

“You get home and you think it’s a USB drive–homework-or something that’s going on in school so it’s really really scary,” she said.

Statistics from the Food and Drug Administration show teens are using e-cigarettes, especially the Juul brand, at an alarming rate.

“Kids are just like, ‘oh give me the orange one or give me the green one there’s like mango cucumber,’ they have all sorts of flavors.”

Now, the FDA is cracking down on five e-cigarette manufacturers and thousands of retailers, telling them to show how they will pro-actively keep their products away from teenagers, whether that’s changing the colorful packing that looks similar to candy, or flavors that taste like it.

Some kids say that won’t stop the problem and teens will keep finding a way to get e-cigarettes.

In a statement, Juul labs says they will work with the FDA and are committed to preventing underage use.

“We’re seeing it as a wide-spread phenomenon because these products are really attractive and are being marketed to be attractive to adolescents so it’s a wide spread issue,” said Dr. Stephen Delisi.

Dr. Delisi works at Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, an addiction treatment center.

“The younger that there’s an exposure to any substance that has nicotine as part of it the more the risk of later in life addiction,” he said.

Both teens and parents say this FDA crackdown is a step in the right direction.

The FDA says that if those e-cig companies don’t show them how they’ll cut back on teen usage in the next two months, they’ll consider pulling them out of the marketplace.