State E-Cigarette Registries Fail to Curb Sales of Flavored Products

Researchers analyzed retail scanner data from January 2021 through April 2025 to measure per-capita nicotine sales and product diversity. The study compared states with active directory laws against those without such mandates, finding that the policies often missed the mark. While Louisiana experienced a brief dip in product availability after its registry launch, sales rebounded within eight months. By April 2025, more than half of all e-cigarette nicotine sales across the three studied states originated from products not included on the state-approved lists.

This resurgence is largely driven by menthol-flavored cartridges and disposable devices that bypassed the directory requirements. According to Rachna Chandora, chief program officer at the CDC Foundation, current implementation methods are insufficient to achieve long-term reductions in flavored product consumption. With 17 states now utilizing these directories, the findings suggest that restrictive lists alone do little to combat a market dominated by thousands of unauthorized flavored items that remain widely accessible to consumers.