The Food and Drug Administration is allowing electronic cigarette maker Juul to market and sell five of its products.

The FDA said that Juul can market its namesake device, which turns the liquid inside disposable Juul pods into vapor. The company will also be able to sell menthol and Virginia tobacco flavored pods in 3% nicotine concentration and 5% nicotine concentration varieties.

Juul is now one of two companies authorized to sell menthol flavored vapes. The other company is NJOY.

Juul previously offered fruit and candy flavors that some blamed for a rise in underage use of vaping products, resulting in lawsuits filed by states and other jurisdictions against the company.

Advocates denounced the new marketing authorization.

“It is a big step in the wrong direction to authorize sales of the product that was responsible for this public health crisis in the first place,” Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids CEO Yolonda Richardson.

A scientific review found that the authorized Juul products met the legal standards set in the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, meaning that any risk they pose to children and adults who do not use tobacco products is outweighed by benefits to people who currently use a more harmful tobacco product.

The FDA emphasized that the authorization “does not mean these tobacco products are safe, nor are they ’FDA approved,’” adding that “there is no safe tobacco product. Those who do not currently use tobacco products should not start. Youth should never use tobacco products.”

Juul said in a statement that “while more than two million Americans have switched completely away from combustible tobacco using JUUL, we’re focused on making the cigarette obsolete. And for us, that mission is non-negotiable: we’re the only company in the U.S. market with a vapor [authorization] that doesn’t also sell cigarettes.”

The company also said that underage use of Juul products has dropped by 98% since 2019 and that it supports “category-wide standards to limit access by those underage to all tobacco products.”

•​ This story is based in part on wire service reports.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.