Over one and a half million teens in America are vaping, which lawmakers say is due in large part to the Chinese Communist Party.

“The Chinese are selling billions and billions of dollars worth of vape into this country that contains nicotine,” explained doctor and Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) during a Friday appearance on “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.” “Of course, you can’t trust the Chinese to actually put in the right level of nicotine or a safe level of nicotine.”

Harris called for a ban on all Chinese vape products. “You don’t know what’s in these vape devices,” he continued. “The bottom line is we should just ban these devices, and we should enforce the ban. They’re already illegal. We’re not enforcing it.”

Forbes reported that daily nicotine vaping among youth rose from 15% in 2020 to 29% in 2024, while unsuccessful quit attempts among daily vapers rose from 28% to 53%. In 2025, Shenzhen, a city in China, became the biggest source of vapes coming into America, Reuters noted. According to Chinese customs data, China exported more than $3.6 billion in vapes to the U.S. in 2024. 

“It’s not like we’re going to be depriving people of access [to vapes], but we will be depriving them of access to these illegal Chinese vape devices with unknown amounts of nicotine. We don’t know what chemicals are in there, and people are inhaling this. That has to be regulated,” Harris asserted. He also described the Trump administration’s recent decision to lessen the regulations on kratom, a stimulant often in e-liquid vapes. “The administration is going in the wrong direction on this one,” he explained.

In 2024, the Mayo Clinic reported that kratom causes several side effects, including dizziness, drowsiness, hallucinations, delusions, depression, trouble breathing, confusion, tremors, and seizures. It continued, “Kratom products have been linked to a small number of deaths,” but noted that the kratom death rate is “small compared with deaths from other drugs” and that “nearly all deaths from kratom also involved other drugs or substances that might have been harmful.”

Harris added that kratom is easily accessible. “The bottom line is people are dying from kratom. It’s sold in the same stores and gas stations that the hemp derivatives are. All these things should be much more highly regulated because they’re addictive. And in the case of kratom, it can be lethal.”

“The public needs to know that people are dying from it,” the congressman added. “…We are ruining young people’s lives with kratom and its derivatives. It should be regulated, and the administration instead is taking a position where it should be treated as a nutritional supplement; there’s nothing nutritional about kratom. They want to do the same thing with hemp; there’s nothing nutritional about hemp. These are pharmacologic agents. They should be treated that way by the FDA.”

Last week, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Susan Collins (R-Maine) wrote a letter to Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terrance Cole and acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Kyle Diamantas asking for better regulations on kratom-labeled products. 

“We frequently hear from constituents and concerned parents who have lost loved ones, and recovering users who warn us constantly about the addictive nature of kratom and its analogues,” the letter reads. “We worry the availability of these products is providing consumers with a false sense of security because they are readily available and marketed as ‘natural.’ We urge DEA, in consultation with FDA, to initiate proceedings to permanently schedule all harmful substances found in kratom, including 7-OH, MGM-15, MGM-16, and mitragynine pseudoindoxyl.”

Harris concluded that if the Trump administration does not act to better regulate Kratom, members of Congress will. The senators asked the administration to reply to their letter no later than October 15.