FDA to Vapers: "April Fools!"

Tensions have been high in recent years between the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the vaping community. All of that came to an end today when the FDA announced that their campaign against e-cigarettes has all been an elaborate April Fool’s joke.

In a combined press conference and keg party held by the FDA and CASAA, the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg spilled the beans to a shocked and relieved crowd.

“We really had you going for a while there, didn’t we?” Hamburg laughed between body shots off the belly of CASAA President Elaine Keller.

“We really thought you’d figure it out when we said we’d make our next announcement in April.”

Hamburg went on to explain that everything from the deliberately misleading statements about e-cigarettes on the FDA’s website, to the seizing of e-cigarette shipments beginning in 2008, was all just part of the joke.  “Even Judge Leon was in on it,” she said. “What a sport.”

Judge Richard J. Leon of the Federal District Court in Washington, who ruled in 2010 that the FDA did not have the authority to seize e-cigarette imports, was present as well. He explained his role in the joke while trying to flip quarters into a plastic cup.  “[Hamburg] called me up in late 2009 and asked if I’d help her out, and I gladly agreed.  These FDA guys really know how to pull a prank.  I mean, sure, it cost taxpayers millions, but you have to admit it was funny.”

When asked if she thought the prank might cause lasting resentment among vapers, Hamburg shrugged it off. “Nobody’s going to believe we were serious. I mean, you don’t see us seizing cigarette shipments, and those things kill people. E-cigarettes get people off them.  We’re not that stupid.”

FDA to Vapers: "April Fools!"