The New York State Department of Health’s statewide awareness push runs through April 26. With youth e-cigarette use still rising, the window to act is narrowing.
The New York State Department of Health launched a statewide anti-vaping public awareness campaign designed to educate teens, young adults, and parents about the risks associated with vaping and e-cigarette use, while also promoting DropTheVape — a free, confidential text-based program tailored for youth and young adults seeking support to quit vaping and other nicotine and tobacco products.
With just days remaining before the April 26 close, the campaign is entering its final stretch — and health officials want New Yorkers to pay attention before it ends.
Why This Campaign Exists
The numbers behind this initiative are not abstract. In 2024, over 13% of New York youth reported using e-cigarettes, and youth nicotine pouch use doubled in just two years. Those figures represent hundreds of thousands of young people across the state developing nicotine dependencies at an age when the brain is still forming — and when addiction takes hold faster and more deeply than it does in adults.
State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said nicotine is stunningly addictive and that vaping continues to pose serious health risks, emphasizing that life is too short to spend addicted to nicotine.
Despite decades of tobacco control progress in New York — including the Clean Indoor Air Act, flavored e-cigarette bans, and aggressive quit-line programs — the rise of e-cigarettes created a new entry point for nicotine addiction that existing frameworks were slow to address. Vaping devices are compact, discreet, and often marketed in ways that obscure their addictive content. For teenagers navigating school hallways and social media, the exposure is constant.
What the Campaign Is Actually Doing
The campaign features digital ads and targeted messaging to reach audiences across multiple platforms, with tailored content for teens, young adults, and parents. That multi-audience approach reflects how vaping spreads — through peer networks among young people, but also through gaps in parental awareness. Many parents still underestimate how common vaping is in their children’s lives, or how quickly casual use escalates into dependence.
The centerpiece of the campaign is DropTheVape, the state’s free text-based quitting program. The program emphasizes setting realistic goals, building on individual strengths, and providing tools to help participants cope, grow, and take control of their health at their own pace. Young people and adults can sign up by visiting DropTheVape.org — no phone call required, no appointment needed, and no cost.
For New York City specifically, the NYC Health Department has also been running parallel efforts. The NYC Health Department launched a paid media campaign called “You Quit, You Win” informing New Yorkers who smoke tobacco about available treatment resources, running citywide in English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese on television, streaming, and digital ads. Tobacco treatment programs are also available at the Health Department’s Tremont and East Harlem Neighborhood Health Action Centers.
Enforcement Is Already Underway
The awareness campaign does not exist in a vacuum. The campaign followed a state crackdown in which authorities seized more than 28,000 pounds of illicit vapor products tied to a Buffalo-area distributor after a three-month investigation.
That enforcement action matters because illicit vape products — often unregulated, unlabeled, and sold without age verification — are a primary vector for youth nicotine use. New York’s ban on flavored e-cigarettes pushed demand toward gray and black market alternatives that carry even less transparency about what users are inhaling. Getting those products off distribution networks is part of the same public health strategy as the DropTheVape campaign.
Ten Days Left — What New Yorkers Can Do
For parents in New York City and across the state, the final days of this campaign are a practical prompt. Conversations about vaping do not need to be confrontational — but they do need to happen. Health officials consistently note that young people are more receptive to honest, direct conversations about addiction than many parents expect.
For teens and young adults already vaping and looking for a way out, DropTheVape.org remains available through and beyond the campaign’s close. The text program is confidential, self-paced, and designed specifically for the realities of young people’s lives.
The New York State Tobacco Control Program recognizes a 25-year legacy of progress, with a comprehensive set of strategies that include health communications, tobacco use treatment, community programming, and statewide action. This campaign is one chapter in that longer effort — but for anyone affected by vaping right now, it may be the most immediately useful one.
The deadline is April 26. The resources are free. The window is still open.
