Illicit Chinese vapes have flooded into the United States by the millions. These black-market products are laced with toxins and put users, especially kids, at risk of nicotine poisoning and life-threatening lung damage. They have never undergone FDA review. Smugglers move them across the border and through ports as part of the same illicit trade criminal networks already run. From there, they reach American teenagers through retailers that assume no one is checking. The smugglers do not care whether a 13-year-old ends up with one.

Federal agents can intercept shipments at the border, but what slips through lands on neighborhood shelves. States are now closing that gap. Legislatures are enacting directory laws that cut off the supply of illegal vapes, close loopholes, and attach penalties with real teeth.