Tobacco Free Nicotine Has Arrived. Made For Vaping.

Ever since the FDA claimed that electronic cigarettes are a tobacco product and they have jurisdiction to regulate, vapers have been wondering about tobacco free nicotine. After all, if the claim that e-cigs are a tobacco product are based on the fact that nicotine is derived from tobacco plants. But what if there was a synthetic nicotine? Would that be a way to ensure that smokers have the right to be smoke free with vapor products if the FDA destroys the e-cig industry?

While we cannot answer those pressing questions right now we can say that tobacco free nicotine is now a reality. Last year when the FDA announced the specifics of vaping regulations, the regulations claimed domain over anything and everything remotely related to vaping. From coil wire to batteries. And certainly e-liquids.

At that time there was discussion of potentially sourcing nicotine from other plants such as the potato plant. However the extraction process would be expensive. There was talk of synthetic nicotine but that was also deemed to be too expensive to be practical. But necessity is the mother of invention and Next Generation Labs has developed a synthetic, non-tobacco nicotine.

Synthetic Nicotine

Next Generation Labs owns a patented process to develop a non-tobacco nicotine. According to Next Generation Labs, their synthetic nicotine is not derived from any part of the tobacco plant. Not the leaf, not the stem and not even the dust. They state that their nicotine is the purest and cleanest available. It is also apparently odorless and tasteless so the flavor of the e-liquid reportedly really shine through.

Next Generation Labs is confident that their nicotine will fall outside of FDA jurisdiction for regulating tobacco products. In a recently posted response the FDA said the following:

“It’s possible that a disposable, closed system device that contains an e-liquid with truly zero nicotine (or synthetic nicotine) would not be regulated by the FDA as a tobacco product, if it is not intended or reasonably be expected to be used in such a fashion.”

So the FDA is raising the possibility that synthetic nicotine will not be treated as a tobacco product. Now if the vaping industry shifts to synthetic nicotine you can expect a court battle to evolve. But given the FDA’s past statements about basing domain over vaping based on derivation from tobacco plants, it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Tobacco Free Nicotine In E-Liquids

There are now non-tobacco e-liquids on the market. E-liquids with synthetic nicotine. Above you can see the label from Lost Art E-Liquids Strawberry Strike vape juice. The tobacco free nicotine has the same biological effect as nicotine derived from tobacco. In addition Next Generation labs says vapers will notice less odor and less harshness. Will this be a game changer for the vaping industry?

As it stands now, every flavor of e-liquid at every nicotine strength will have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to get a stamp of acceptance from the FDA. Imagine that. Take one e-juice or e-liquid. Let’s say Wow Cloud Vapes (made up name) has a peach flavored e-juice in Max VG or 50/50 with 4 nicotine strengths. That’s a total of eight variations. each of those eight variations will have to submit independently. It will costs millions for that one e-juice flavor.

If synthetic nicotine is not considered a tobacco product, Wow Cloud can meet every quality standard and avoid the harsh financial penalties. This could be the difference between Wow Clouds staying in business or folding.

It is likely that additional companies will begin opting for synthetic, tobacco free nicotine. This is an interesting development indeed. As they say…. watch this space.

ECCR