“As an immediate response to the national panic, several states enacted temporary e-cigarette bans. In Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker forbade the sale or purchase of all vape products for four months starting in late September, making the Bay State one of the most restrictive of the bunch. It basically just banned everything with the word ‘vape’ in it and didn’t consider the consequences of pushing users to the illicit market where evidence was showing the dangerous products were coming from. After it was widely understood that the outbreak was not connected to store-bought nicotine fluids or devices, the Massachusetts Public Health Council lifted the ban in mid-December, while signing off on regulations that work as a de facto flavored vape ban. As of June 1, the new law similarly restricts all flavored tobacco, plus adds a new 75% excise tax on all nicotine vaping products. Regardless of whether there was evidence for the flavor ban or not, it was dishonest that EVALI illnesses were cited as the reason to pass a ban on flavored tobacco. The two things have nothing to do with each other. Public health policy should be evidence-based.”
ARTICLE LINK:
C’EST EVALI: HOW DID MASS GET A FLAVORED VAPE AND MENTHOL BAN ANYWAY?
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