Happy Unicorn Day – Celebrating Unicorn Poop and Other Tobacco Harm Reduction Products

Even though most people think of Tax Day when April arrives, there is another tradition called National Unicorn Day, a day to celebrate the mythical creature, that is recognized every April 9^th. As a strong advocate for tobacco harm reduction products, I’d prefer to celebrate Unicorn Poop – a real vaping flavor loathed by politicians that seemingly confuse it with JUUL and tobacco companies’ vapor products.

At a 2019 White House roundtable with then-President Trump and members of the pro and anti-tobacco and vaping communities, Senator Mitt Romney(R-Utah) turned his attention to cotton candy and Unicorn Poop-flavored e-liquid and erroneously declared that “most adults are not using flavors.” The Mormon Senator also falsely claimed that “half the kids in [Utah] high schools are vaping,” despite the fact that data from the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey indicate that only 30.5 percent of Utah high school students reported ever trying an e-cigarette – compared to 50.1 percent of U.S. high school students. And, only 9.7 percent reported past month use, compared to 32.7 percent of high school students using a vapor product on at least one occasion in the 30 days prior to the survey. But that’s another op-ed.

Unlike the mythical horned horse creature, many adults not only use flavors, but rely on flavors to be smoke-free and kick the deadly habit of traditional cigarettes. Numerous studies provide significant evidence that flavors provide a unique deterrent in keeping former smokers away from cigarettes, as well as appeal to the staunchest of cigarette smokers that refuse to quit.

A 2017 study published in Preventive Medicine Reports examined flavored e-cigarette use among youth, young adult and adult e-cigarette users. The authors found that among adult e-cigarette users, in the 30 days prior to the survey, 69.3 percent of adults were vaping “an e-cigarette flavored with something other than tobacco.” And, a 2018 survey of nearly 70,000 American adult e-cigarette users found that 83.2 percent and 72.3 percent of survey respondents reported vaping fruit and dessert flavors, respectively. Last year, a study published in JAMA Network examined flavored e-cigarette use and smoking cessation among nearly 18,000 participants and noted that “adults who began vaping nontobacco-flavored e-cigarettes were more likely to quit smoking than those who vaped tobacco flavors.”

Even if anti-tobacco crusaders want to ignore the numerous studies, there is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) regulations that provide evidence to not only the importance of flavors in e-cigarettes, but the magnitude of such flavors. The PMTA is an arduous regulation imposed on newly deemed tobacco products including e-cigarettes and vapor products. All tobacco and vapor companies must have submitted a PMTA by the September 9, 2020 deadline in order to still legally market their products in the United States. As of mid-January, 2021, the FDA “has processed applications for 4.8 million products from 230 companies.” Many, if not the majority of these products, are flavored e-liquids.

Despite all of this, millions of American adults are either living in states with flavored vapor product bans or are fearing future prohibition. Adults in Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island are already barred from legally purchasing flavored e-cigarettes. Legal-aged persons in localities in California, Illinois and Minnesota face similar prohibitions. In 2021, amid a pandemic that has shuttered businesses and local and state economies, more states including Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington have proposed statewide bans on both flavored e-cigarettes and tobacco products.

It should be noted that Unicorn Poop flavored e-liquid isn’t a particular flavor. A quick Google search will find companies with differing flavor profiles under a Unicorn Poop flavor. In fact, one company’s Unicorn Poop product “tastes like blueberry cupcakes with white chocolate frosting and a raspberry on top!” And, another company’s flavor profile is “rainbow sherbet.” Another company’s version of Unicorn Poop consists of flavors including “Rainbow, Sweet, Fruity, Candy, Orange, Lemon, Citrus, Lime, Strawberry.” It seems odd that lawmakers would keep touting this flavor name despite not understanding that there is no particular flavor associated with it. The lawmakers use the faulty logic that it just sounds kid friendly and flavors are bad because they attract kids to nicotine.

FDA-approved nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), including gums and lozenges, aren’t offered in only tobacco flavored profiles. In fact, NRT gums are offered in numerous flavors including mint, fruit, cinnamon and spearmint. Similar to e-cigarette flavors, studies have found that flavored NRT products help assist with cessation. A 2002 study on flavored NRT gum found that “[i]mproved flavor of nicotine gum does not increase abuse liability, but may be associated with enhanced craving reduction.” A 2012 study examined the effects of bettering the taste of NRT gums by adding “aspartame as the sweetener and cherry and eucalyptus as the flavoring agents” to address the “bitter taste of such gums.” The authors reported that such flavors “were more effective to eliminate the bitter taste of nicotine” and that nicotine-containing “gums of pleasant taste may, therefore, be used as NRT to assist smokers quit smoking.”

Despite the rhetoric touted among anti-tobacco harm reduction zealots, adult vapers who use flavored tobacco products are not in the minority. As Unicorn Day is celebrated by honoring the many flavored tobacco harm reduction products, it must be remembered that unicorns are mythical creatures, adult vapers vaping Unicorn Poop are not. Lawmakers understanding of tobacco harm reduction is just another fantasy like the mythical Unicorn.