April 11, 2002

4:39 AM

FDA stops nicotine lollipop, lip balm salesAs a follow up to This Thread, kiss your pops good bye... CNN Says The Food and Drug Administration warned three pharmacies Wednesday to stop selling nicotine lollipops and nicotine lip balm on the Internet, calling the products "illegal." They said said the lollipops and lip balm are "unapproved drugs" that need, but do not have, FDA approval. And the pops are "candy-like products present a risk of accidental use by children."
posted by Blake (6 comments total)

And the pops are "candy-like products present a risk of accidental use by children."

I'm sure children will get their hands on anything, not to mention these are prescription only. The lollipops make a lot of sense when you need to deliver nicotine in non-smoking form. Its oral, so the smoker on the plane (or wherever) won't get fidgety with her hands and will have a slow and regular nicotine feed.

I'm a fan of anti-smoking laws in some public places, but if the government isn't going to allow other ways to get nicotine other than chewing tobacco then these things should be legal.
posted by skallas at 5:43 AM on April 11, 2002

The nicotine lip balms and lollipops "appear to be compounded and dispensed without a doctor's prescription," the agency said.

Gasp! Dispensed without perscriptions! How dare people take matters into their own hands and try to quit smoking!

And shame on the pharmacies, they know that unless the government regulates everythig the world isn't safe.
posted by Keen at 7:36 AM on April 11, 2002

So its my understanding that the thing that really makes tobacco bad for you is the inhalation of smoke (which causes irritation of the lungs and mucus membranes) and the exposure to carcinogenic substances (tar) in the tobacco. So wouldn't it be ok for nicotine addicts to just take nicotine, as long as its in a more or less pure form?

Actually, a search on google answered my question. It appears that nicotine may be a precursor to a carcinogen.

Although it still sounds like the tobacco companies didn't want to put up with competition from sugar-free tasty treats.
posted by bshort at 8:04 AM on April 11, 2002

I knew te FDA'd be jumping on this as soon as I saw it on the front page of WSJ.

It's probably a good idea for them to start regulating that sort of thing. Don't worry, though -- some small pharmaceutical firm (or maybe one of the tobacco companies) is already working on taking nic-pops through the proper channels, I'm sure.
posted by me3dia at 12:01 PM on April 11, 2002

Before you market and sell anything as a drug you should get FDA approval. This is supposed to protect people (although I admit it's sometimes not terribly good at doing that)

So the bottom line is, they should get FDA approval. It's the fault of the people who marketed this stuff, not the FDA.

The trouble with these kinds of drugs is that some people might use them and continue to smoke, in which case they could OD on them, get ill, and even die.

The second problem is that over the long term, people could get cancer of the mouth or (in the case of the lip balm) the lips. I think the nicotine lollipop could well be a helpful drug for people who are trying to stop smoking because as skallas said, they provide an oral gratification as well as helping to modulate nicotine levels for people who are withdrawing from tobacco. But (and granted I don't know anything about it) the lip balm stuff seems fairly useless, and may prove to be harmful if used over a long period of time.
posted by lucien at 12:15 PM on April 11, 2002

So wait. The cigarrettes are A-okay, but no on the lollypops? Uh-huh.
posted by ODiV at 2:52 PM on April 11, 2002