Transcript: Mayor Adams Makes Public Health and Law Enforcement-Related Announcement

November 7, 2024

Allison Stoddart, Chief Counsel to the Mayor and City Hall: Hi, good afternoon. My name is Allison Stoddart, and I serve as chief counsel here at City Hall. Public safety and public health are key priorities of this administration, and we use a variety of tools to help keep New Yorkers safe. To tell you more about our latest effort to keep kids safe from e-cigarettes, I'd like to introduce Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks so much, Allison. I really thank the team that's here, a combination of New York City Public Schools, Sheriff's Department, the corp counsel, and, of course, City Hall. We have been zero focus on this issue for some time now. Vaping and these illegal products really have an impact on our children. It starts them out at an early age of being really dependent on these illegal devices and illegal actions, we would say. And so this falls in line with our overall agenda to ensure that this city is the safest big city in America. I say it over and over again, we want to make it the safest city, period, in America, and this plays a major part on that. 

Protecting our young people means stomping out illegal vape and e-cigarette sales that target our kids. While we go out with the Sheriff's Department on some of these locations where raids take place, we have identified that these products clearly focus on young people. Far too many of them are doing that. So today we're announcing that we have filed a new lawsuit against Price Point, a major distributor, for their part in the illegal sale and shipment of flavored, disposable e-cigarettes. They are the most widely used vaping devices among our middle school and high school youth, and we know for many years that nicotine addiction among middle and high school youth— currently this addiction is exploding, and we have to get at the source of this problem, and one of these distributors is a major problem that we're seeing in our city. 

And thanks in no small part to the actions of businesses like Price Point Distributors, they are feeding this problem, and it is hooking our teenagers on vaping and e-cigarettes. They have raked in thousands of dollars while putting our kids on the path to addiction, and it is a major health care issue that we are facing. They are making them customers and users. When they start out young, they become dependent for, if not a lifetime, for many years, and exposing them to unknown long-term health effects. 

Price Point's greed has been pushing nicotine on our kids for too long, and today we say no more. We will not sit idly by as they continue to harm our kids, and we will not tolerate crime and disorder of this magnitude, which includes illegal sales of drugs, vapes, and other illegal cannabis products. We have already banned flavored e-cigarettes in the city, and from the moment we were given the additional authority from the state we needed, we were able to close over 1,200 unlicensed smoke shops and confiscate an estimated $84 million worth of illegal products and seize thousands of illegal vapes and vape products. 

And as I indicated, when you walk in these stores where illegal cannabis is sold, side by side to the cannabis, you're seeing the illegal vaping devices and other mushrooms and other items, illegal mushrooms, are being sold as well, with the coloring and packaging that focus on our young people. 

A few weeks ago, we sent 1,200 pounds of illegal vapes out for destruction. That's 1,200 pounds. These illegal smoke and cannabis shops undermine the legal cannabis market and target our young people with e-cigarettes and vapes. And so today's lawsuit and the continued shutting down of illegal smoke shops go hand in hand with the work we are doing to bring down overall crime in our city. They feed on each other all the time. Many of these illegal shops are victims of robberies and other crimes. Loitering just really erodes the quality of life in our neighborhood. 

So New York City has seen 10 straight months of crime reduction, with overall index crime down 6.1 percent in October and 2 percent year-to-date. Last month alone, we saw decreases in robberies, felony assaults, burglaries, and grand larcenies, as well as drops in transit crime and car theft. We've taken over 7,000 ghost cars off the street, and we remain and will continue to be the safest big city in America. But it is imperative that we go after these quality-of-life issues that impact and target our young people. 

And that is why we're here as a combined team. The corp counsel announcing this lawsuit, New York City Public Schools doing their educational apparatus, and the Sheriff's Department continuing to take the appropriate action of closing down an illegal cannabis shop. Again, Allison, thank you.

Stoddart: Thank you, mayor. There is an extraordinarily talented, proactive, and thoughtful team in the Affirmative Litigation Unit at the city's Law Department who crafted today's litigation effort. And to tell you more about today's case, I'd like to welcome Acting Corporation Counsel Muriel Goode-Truffant.

Muriel Goode-Truffant, Acting Corporation Counsel, Law Department : Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Muriel Good-Truffant, and I am the acting corporation counsel of the City of New York. Thank you, Mayor Adams, Chief Counsel Stoddart, DOE Director Rampersant, First Deputy Sheriff Glover, and all of the other agency officials who have joined us in this important endeavor today to protect the health of the young people of our city. I'd like to specifically recognize Deputy Chief Eric Proshansky and Assistant Corporation Counsel Aatif Iqbal and Alexandra Young of the Law Department's Affirmative Litigation Division for their work on this case and related litigation on behalf of the city. 

Exotically and candy-flavored e-cigarettes, or vapes, are designed to eliminate the harshness of smoking traditional cigarettes. They facilitate the consumption of high levels of nicotine, one of the most addictive products on Earth, as well as other toxins. These vapes have yielded the largest increases in youth nicotine use ever recorded and have reversed a decades-long decline in youth tobacco use. The surgeon general has said an epidemic of youth e-cigarette use may condemn a generation to a lifetime of nicotine addiction and associated health issues, including death. Laws at every level of government have been enacted to address this public health threat. 

Yet, defendants in this case that we have filed today continue to flout the law and put profits over the well-being of our youth. After just a few points and clicks, our investigators were able to purchase and have delivered to addresses in New York City disposable-flavored vapes, such as cotton candy, raspberry, watermelon, and cherry cola. We have also had dozens of flavored vapes sent to addresses in other states as well. 

Price Point says it is a wholesaler as well as a retailer of these vape products. Based on our analysis of PricePoint's web traffic, we believe that they conduct significant nationwide business. The shipments made to city investigators violated numerous federal, state, and local statutes, including the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act and constitute mail fraud under RICO. 

The deliveries also violated bans of disposable vapes under New York City public health law and New York City's administrative code. The city's case also alleges a public nuisance, conduct harming the health of a large number of people in our communities. We're asking the court to enjoin Price Point from making these illegal sales. As we proceed in the litigation, we will also seek statutory penalties and damages, which can be significant. 

This lawsuit should send a message to any company or individual who thinks they can illegally line their pockets at the expense of harming kids. The city of New York will hold them fully accountable. Thank you.

Stoddart: Thank you. This administration's work to protect children and teens from e-cigarettes goes beyond this singular lawsuit. To tell you about the protections we're putting in our school system, I'd like to welcome Public Schools director of Security, Mark Rampersant.

Mark Rampersant, Director of Security, NYC Department of Education: Thank you. First of all, I'd like to thank our mayor and thank our corporation counsel for their relentless pursuit to continue to keep our young people safe in our city. 

In New York City public schools, we are taking this very seriously. Some of the things that we are doing, first and foremost, every parent, we are committed to the pursuit of keeping young people safe in our schools. We are taking proactive approaches to reducing the prevalence on vaping in our schools and substance overall. 

Our substance abuse counselors, who are providing direct services to our students and to our families, are relentless in their efforts to continue to provide this support, starting from our pre-K students, believe it or not. We are using an evidence-based classroom lesson approach to meet our young people where they are and educate them on the harmful effects of vaping. 

We are utilizing our counseling supports to provide direct support for those students who may have indulged in some of these items that look like candy and they are attractive to young people. Unfortunately, our young people are falling prey to this. We are aggressively, aggressively working to educate each and every young person in our schools and we want parents to know that we have doubled down. We are utilizing the work of all of our caring adults to provide direct services to our young people. 

We are at 296 substance abuse counselors throughout New York City public schools to date. We are aggressively working with our partnerships with New York City Mental Health and Hygiene as well as New York City Department of Youth [and Community Development]. We are aggressively working to make sure that we are meeting every need, not only of our young people, but we are also providing counseling support services and counseling to our parents as well. So please forgive me. 

We are happy to announce that last year, in partnership with the New York Foundation and the New York City Department of Health and Hygiene, we launched a partnership with Catch Global Foundation to address nicotine as well as the vaping epidemic amongst our youth across the city. And we have announced our Catch Your Breath initiative. The Catch Your Breath initiative is really an initiative to focus on preventing vaping and providing training to young people in classrooms as well as resources available to our parents by way of our health education advisors, starting in elementary school. But this particular initiative is focused on our middle school and our high school students. 

We want you to know that at New York City Public Schools, we know that we are far from done, but we want to assure every parent that is listening that we will continue to keep our fight up to keep our young people safe, healthy, and free from the dangers of vaping. Thank you very much.

Stoddart: Thank you. And we will now take some on-topic Q&A.

Question: I'm not sure who to best address this to, but I'll start with the mayor. 

What is to stop stores that are selling this product right now, from still selling it, in light of the lawsuit? In other words, how quickly might this have any kind of teeth? If I'm a kid getting out of high school right now, couldn't I just go to any bodega in the city, get this product, and enjoy it?

Mayor Adams: Great question. And it is a combination. What we have found to be successful is a multidimensional approach. It's not a one-size-fits-all. It's a combination of, as New York City Public Schools just stated, education, because we want to stop young people believing that vaping is cool, is hip. They need to know the medical and the long-term impact and ramification, particularly nicotine addiction. I think the corp counsel stated it best. We've come a long way from turning back the nicotine source coming from cigarettes and now just to watch this increase again. And so education is crucial. 

The second is enforcement. The team over at the marshals of the sheriff's office, you've witnessed time and time again, we're going in getting large stockpiles of nicotine, vaping, and other illegal products in these cannabis shops. We want to continue an aggressive enforcement because you have to hit them in the pockets. Talking about millions of dollars, $60 million. It says a lot. So we're hurting the economics of this. 

And third, looking at those who are out on the outstretch of our direct enforcement within the city. This office is located on Long Island. They are mailing into our city. Is it illegal to do so, to sell anywhere in the city? And so that's why this lawsuit is significant because we're not going to allow people to skirt the law by going to outside locations. 

And then we want to reexamine our legislation in Albany to see what we could do more, if it means increasing fines, if it means attaching some type of penalty or medical costs that's associated with this. We want to lean into what we could do in Albany. We had, you know, the last legislative session, we were successful in getting the new changes that allow us to close down many of these shops. We want to see where we have to go from here, and we're going to learn that from the team to make that determination.

Question: Is the Department of Investigation, I don't know if the corp counsel wants to speak, still the probe against Sheriff Miranda and some of these raids and perhaps some donations to a Latino officer's group, is that still open?

[Crosstalk.]

Mayor Adams: If you have a question on, you know, an outstanding investigation, DOI is doing that. DOI will make a determination. 

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. 

Mayor Adams: How are you, Dana? 

Question: I'm all right. Two questions for you. First, one of the many health concerns associated with vaping is tooth decay, and I'm curious if you support keeping fluoride in the water supply, given what you mentioned yesterday about being unfamiliar with the debate. And then the second is, I'm just curious if you could tell us who appointed Tarik Sheppard as chief of staff of the NYPD.

Mayor Adams: The fluoride question, like I stated, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene– that's why you bring on experts. Your experts give me the advice, and then I make the final determination on how we're going to move forward. Is there another question?

Question: I believe the number you said is 296 substance abuse counselors. I was hoping you could talk more about other plans to expand that number, and what is the exact classroom education that you're doing to try and prevent uptake of these devices? How are you monitoring success of that? Are you tracking outcomes at all? 

Rampersant: Thank you very much for that question. Again, our substance abuse counselors, which we are very proud of the work that they are doing throughout our New York City public schools, and we are, thanks to City Council and additional funding, we were able to expand that number this year to 296. And while we have 296 vacancies, there are a small number that are not filled at the moment. 

However, the additional 200+ SAPIS workers that are out doing this work right now and are doing it with our respective individual schools. They are doing pre and post lessons with young people, asking questions about their likelihood to indulge, right, starting from the youngest ages, as I just shared with you. So we are keeping the data on the success of the program. I have to tell you, we've been widely successful in educating young people thus far, and we continue to work aggressively to keep that downward trend.

Question: Mr. Mayor, how are you?

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: Good, thanks. As you know, vapes are affecting children across the country, and I wondered, Mr. Mayor, if you'd spoken with the president-elect about the issue, and also to congratulate him, and of course, whether you're hopeful Trump's newly appointed attorney general might help with your criminal case?

Mayor Adams: I didn't hear the beginning. 

Question: You want the beginning? Okay. So vapes are affecting children across the country, and that's, you know, that's an issue across the country. So I wondered if you'd actually spoken to the president-elect about that issue, to congratulate him, and also whether you're hopeful his newly appointed attorney general might help with your criminal case.

Mayor Adams: I communicated with the president yesterday to state that there are many issues here in the city that we want to work together with the administration to address, a lot of our infrastructure issues, a lot of the issues that we shared yesterday with the team here. The city must move forward, and that's what our goal is to do. 

And no, we did not talk about the incoming administration to look at this vaping issue, but these are one of the many topics that I think should be a federal approach to address the problem of vaping in the city. 

Question: Did you congratulate him yesterday?

Mayor Adams: I don't go into conversations I had with people.

Question: Are you hoping to file more lawsuits against other providers, or is this lawsuit intended more as an example for others? 

And then since you brought up that question with Trump, did you address immigration or deportation terms during that conversation?

Mayor Adams: I think that the corp counsel really pointed out something that I hope we all didn't miss. And we fought hard throughout the years to take down the nicotine addiction and what it did and some of the healthcare issues from what Dana pointed out, tooth erosion, to all the other items that are impacting our young people, starting out this early, vaping. 

And so we believe we're going to use every tool in our toolbox, and that includes more lawsuits where we find culprits that are guilty of trying to circumvent the law. Whatever tools we can use, from enforcement to education to lawsuits, litigation, we're going to use them all to accomplish that task. And again, I'm not going to go into private conversations. Liz, how are you?

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. Do you think there's any common ground you can reach with President-elect Trump on public safety?

Mayor Adams: I think I'm the type of person who can reach common ground with anyone and everyone. That's the goal. Public safety is the prerequisite to prosperity. And I think all of us want to be safe, and that is something that I push for. And that's why we continue to be the safest big city in America, because we use all the inroads that are necessary to accomplish that. 

We have thousands of illegal guns off our streets, how we're dealing with ghost cars, how we're keeping our schools safe, decreasing crime on our subway system. So safety is important. And the federal government plays a role in ensuring that the previous administration, at the beginning of my term in 2022, really was engaged, bringing in a new ATF officer so that we can coordinate the illegal guns that were coming on our streets. So I look forward to coordinating with any and everyone to keep this great city safe. I want New Yorkers to be safe, and that's important to me.

Question: Mayor, most of the political world is down at Somos. Why are you not, and why are you not going?

Mayor Adams: We had a—my flight was booked, my hotel was booked, but I wanted to make sure that I'm here. We had a few demonstrations yesterday. I think we had a total of seven, if I'm exact, from the briefing I received. There's a lot to do here. And I need to be here for these next couple of days as we move forward, as we make these transitions. There's a great deal of work that I have to do. I enjoy going to Puerto Rico, but I need to be here in the city right now. There's a couple of things that I'm focused on that I've got to accomplish. No, I'm not going at all.