• Posted July 31, 2025

Bans on Flavored Vapes Have Pros And Cons, Study Finds

State bans on enticing flavors of e-cigarettes bring real benefits in terms of lowering vaping among adults of any age, new research finds.

But it points to a downside, too: A slowdown in statewide declines of cigarette smoking after flavored vapes were banned. 

“Both e-cigarettes and combustible cigarettes are essentially a source of nicotine for people who may have nicotine dependencies,” said study senior author Douglas Levy, who directs policy research at the Tobacco Research & Treatment Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. 

“We're trying to solve the problem of youth vaping, but we need to carefully consider impacts on more harmful combustible cigarette use,” he said. 

The study was published July 30 in JAMA Network Open.

Over the past decade flavored forms of e-cigarettes, with enticing fruit or candy flavors, have been a focus of attack by health-minded state legislatures. That's because it’s thought these products are especially alluring to kids and teens. 

To reduce youth vaping, a number of states — including Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Maryland and Utah — put bans on the sale of flavored vapes, with many policies going into place in 2020.

What impact have those bans had on the use of nicotine products such as cigarettes and e-cigarettes?

To find out, Levy and colleagues looked at national surveys conducted between 2019 to 2023. 

Among their findings:

• In states that enacted bans in 2020, e-cigarette use by young adults (ages 18 to 24) dropped by 6.7 percentage points in 2022, compared to other states, the study found.

• Using 2023 data, that trend was smaller (a 1.2 percentage point drop since 2020) but still significant for adults ages 25 and older.

• Among high school-aged youth, between 2019 and 2023 e-cigarette use fell from 24.1% to 14.0% in states that had enacted flavored vape bans, compared to a drop from 24.6% to 17.2% in other states, the researchers said.

On the flip side, ongoing declines in cigarette smoking slowed for states that enacted bans on flavored vapes, the study found. 

For example, by 2021, smoking rates among high school-aged youths was 1.8 percentage points higher than would otherwise have been expected in those states that had bans in effect, and cigarette use among young adults was 3.7 percentage points higher than expected, the study found.

Trends also differed somewhat between states that enacted bans. 

For example, vaping fell steeply in Massachusetts, the researchers said, likely because that state had stronger enforcement and residents had already been subject to earlier local-area bans. 

Less pronounced effects from the bans appeared in states such as Utah and Maryland, they noted. That might be because their bans had allowed for exemptions — for example, menthol flavors were allowed, or certain specialty shops could still sell flavored vapes. 

The study was funded by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.

More information

Find out more about you can quit vaping at the Truth Initiative.

SOURCE: Mass General Brigham, news release, July 30, 2025