There is a specific kind of shelf in American gas stations that tells you more about nicotine policy than any expensive government report can. It sits behind the counter, usually to the right, somewhere between the lottery tickets and the rolling papers. A few years ago, it held a selection of vaping products. Today, in a growing number of gas station stores, it holds almost nothing.

Not ‘nothing’ in the dramatic, post-apocalyptic sense, as there are products on it. A few closed-system devices in tobacco flavor, along with a menthol option, if you are fortunate. But the packaging is toned down, the selection is rather sparse, and the overall impression is of a category that has been overlooked, in some way.

Meanwhile, directly below, the cigarettes remain in full, predictable formation. The usual suspects, such as Camels, Marlboros, and Newports, all lined up with military discipline, are available in every strength and variety. 

This is the American convenience store in 2026, and the question it poses is glaringly obvious: how on earth did the product that kills people end up with a far wider range and much better shelf placement than the products trying to help people stop?

Forty-One Products for a Nation of Thirty Million Smokers

The FDA has authorized exactly 41 e-cigarette products for legal sale in the United States. Forty-one. This is for a country with roughly 30 million active smokers, many of whom have been told, repeatedly and almost aggressively, that they should consider alternatives to combustible tobacco.

The authorized products are, almost without exception, tobacco- and menthol-flavored closed systems from a very small number of large corporations. There are no fruit flavors, interesting dessert blends, or anything whatsoever that might make quitting smoking marginally less miserable than continuing to smoke.

The approval process, otherwise known as the Premarket Tobacco Product Application, requires separate filings for each product, each flavor, and each nicotine strength, at a cost that can reach a frankly laughable $2.5 million per submission. The FDA received applications for nearly 27 million products, and authorized 41. 

Small manufacturers, the ones most likely to produce the diverse, affordable products that adult smokers actually want, have been priced out of the game entirely. What remains is a market fueled and shaped not by consumer need but by who can afford the bureaucracy.

What Happened to Flavor?

In April 2025, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the FDA was within its rights to block flavored e-liquids. The reasoning was predictably short-sighted: flavors appeal to teenagers, teenagers must be protected, and therefore no adult in America should be permitted to purchase strawberry vape juice ever again.

The logic has a certain internal consistency, provided you do not think about it for more than thirty seconds. Teenagers also prefer flavored milk, flavored vodka, and flavored everything else, and yet the dairy aisle has not been subjected to congressional scrutiny in that regard, so why has the vape industry taken such a hit?

The assumption that enjoyment is inherently suspicious – that a product designed to help adults quit smoking should taste as joyless as possible – belongs to a strain of public health thinking that mistakes misery for rigor.

The practical consequence is visible on that gas station shelf. The smoker who might have been tempted by something that tasted like an improvement on burning tobacco is now offered a choice between tobacco-flavored vapor and actual tobacco. One of these options will kill him, while the other tastes like a reminder of the thing he is trying to quit.

A Shelf That Looks Rather Different

In the United Kingdom, the situation is instructive. Retailers stock thousands of vape liquid products across every conceivable flavor, all registered with the relevant health authority, all subject to strict limits on nicotine strength and bottle size. While the system is strictly regulated, it is far from hostile. It assumes that adults who want to stop smoking should be given options rather than obstacles.

With a smoking rate that has nearly halved since vaping became widely available,  Britain now has more vapers than smokers. Its doctors even hand out free vape kits through the NHS. 

Venture into a gas station over there, and you will see shelves full of various vape products. The broad implications of this attitude towards vaping are considerably better than America’s.

The Man at the Counter

Back at the American gas station, a man in his forties enthusiastically asks the clerk what vaping options are available. The clerk gestures toward the thin shelf, looking visibly uninterested. The man examines what is there, finds nothing that appeals, and succumbs to a pack of Marlboros instead.

The cigarettes were right there, as they always are, unbothered and fully stocked. Meanwhile, the vape shelf will remain overlooked, and American nicotine policy will continue to pretend that these two facts are unrelated.