Giving Compass' Take:

• The FDA Commissioner is concerned about the high rates of young people addicted to vaping and thinks that solutions may require drug therapy. 

• What is the role of donors in funding health-related solutions? 

•  Read about if this e-cigarette addiction in teens is connected to flavors. 

The Trump administration's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner says levels of e-cigarette use among young people are reaching new heights even as traditional cigarette use drops to historic lows.

Commissioner Scott Gottlieb remarked at a public hearing Friday in Silver Spring, Md., that it was shocking to him that the rate of young people addicted to e-cigarettes use, commonly referred to as "vaping," had reached levels where FDA-approved methods for quitting e-cigarettes could be necessary.

"I’m deeply troubled that we find ourselves at this crossroads today. In recent years, we’ve appeared poised to slay one of the most pernicious public health challenges of our times — the death and disease caused by cigarette smoking," he continued, adding: "Sadly, this progress is being undercut — even eclipsed — by the recent, dramatic rise in youth vaping. A few years ago, it would have been incredible to me that we’d be here, discussing the potential for drug therapy to help addicted youth vapers quit nicotine."

The problem, Gottlieb says, centers around an explosion in availability and popularity of e-cigarettes over the past year, in part fueled by the availability and convenience of JUUL brand e-cigarettes. Those factors have caused vaping rates to nearly double among high school students between 2017-2018.

Matthew Myers, president of the anti-smoking group Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, told CNN that rates of vaping among young Americans had reached "disturbing" levels.

"The FDA has concluded that the level of addiction it is seeing among youthful e-cigarette users is so disturbing and so unprecedented that it needs to at least ask whether we need a solution that goes beyond what we ever did with cigarettes," he told CNN last month.

Read the full article about young people addicted to vaping by John Bowden at The Hill