Author: Bill Tarling

“A Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge has denied a resident’s application for an injunction against the provincial government’s tough-on-vaping rules. William MacEachern, co-owner of the Cloud Factory Vape Shop in Dartmouth, alleged that increased taxes on vaping products and devices, a ban on flavoured e-cigarettes and vape juice, and a prohibition on sampling such items in stores unduly restricted his access to a critical harm reduction tool. He has challenged the constitutionality of the province’s restrictions, which came into effect between April and September of 2020, on the basis that they violate his right to security of the person, outlined in Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The judge also said he did not adequately prove that the public good would be better served by lifting the vaping rules, than by keeping them in place.”

ARTICLE LINK: Judge upholds Nova Scotia’s vaping restrictions

“Customs officers at Chicago O’Hare’s International Mail Branch have been keen not to let their colleagues at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport hog all the glory. In a jobsworth triumph of diligence, they have ensured that fifty thousand smokers will be denied access to tobacco harm reduction thanks to them implementing searches in accordance with the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The U.S. Customs and Border Protections officers impounded a shipment they labelled, “misbranded consumer goods being imported by an unauthorised agent”. The 50,000 “dragster Mountain Vape Pens” are believed to hold a value of $450,000.”

ARTICLE LINK:   Chicago Crackdown

“If tax collections are any indication, menthol smokers not only haven’t quit, they’ve skipped across the border to New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York and other states to satisfy their habit, taking other convenience-store related business with them. That’s what a new report from the New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association indicates. That group, which opposed the legislation that also placed a 75% excise tax on vaping products, said the menthol ban has cost Massachusetts more than $62 million in lost tax revenue. Massachusetts collected about $550 million in cigarette excise-tax revenue during fiscal 2019, Boesen said, and lawmakers predict a loss of $93 million in fiscal 2021 revenue due to the flavored-tobacco ban. Meanwhile, New Hampshire has gained more than $28 million in tobacco excise taxes since the ban took effect on June 1. Overall, New Hampshire cigarette sales are up 46%, while in Massachusetts they’re down almost 24%. It didn’t work with a nationwide prohibition on the manufacture and consumption of alcohol, and a century later, Massachusetts has experienced the same result on a far smaller scale.”

ARTICLE LINK:   Menthol-tobacco prohibition: Ban or just Band-Aid?

“The decadeslong decline in U.S. cigarette sales halted last year as people in lockdown lit up more frequently and health concerns around e-cigarettes caused some vapers to switch back to cigarettes. Before the pandemic, U.S. cigarette unit sales had been falling at an accelerating rate, hitting 5.5% in 2019, as smokers quit or switched to alternatives like e-cigarettes. The pandemic put the brakes on that slide. In 2020, the U.S. cigarette industry’s unit sales were flat compared to the previous year, according to data released Thursday by Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc. People had more opportunities to smoke because they spent more time at home and had more money to spend on cigarettes because they spent less on gas, travel and entertainment, Altria said. At the same time, some e-cigarette users turned back to combustible cigarettes because of increased e-cigarette taxes, bans on flavored vaping products and confusion about the health effects of vaping, consumers and industry officials say.”

ARTICLE LINK:    During Covid-19 Lockdowns, People Went Back to Smoking

“Norwich researchers are developing a new study they hope will help people quit smoking. The University of East Anglia (UEA) is looking for participants who smoke tobacco and who have recently started using an e-cigarette within the last three months. This forms part of an observational study launched on Tuesday which will see smokers use a small monitoring device which screws onto tank-based e-cigarettes. The device will then build a personalised profile of the user’s vaping patterns. A 90-day trial will also see participants take part in a short daily online survey about smoking, vaping, mood, stress, alcohol consumption and social support. And it is hoped information collated from this study will help people to quit smoking in the future.”

ARTICLE LINK:    New UEA study hopes to help smokers quit

“The Biden administration and Democratic majorities in both the Senate and House could implement significant changes to federal tobacco and cannabis policy over the next two years. For tobacco, the change in party control of the White House and Senate will likely revive the debate around electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) products. In the 116th Congress, legislation (H.R. 2339) passed the House of Representatives that would ban all flavored tobacco, with an emphasis on curbing use of e-cigarettes. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) will likely reintroduce this legislation in the 117th Congress. Although there is consensus around dealing with e-cigarettes, Pallone will have challenges with a slimmer majority on the committee and in Congress, and many Republican and Democratic members have concerns about banning flavors in specific tobacco product segments.”

ARTICLE LINK:    Tobacco & Cannabis Policy in 2021

“Health authorities should develop targeted health messages for vaping product and e-liquid packaging to encourage smokers to switch from cigarettes to e-cigarettes and to prevent non-smokers from taking up vaping, a researcher at the University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand says. Professor Janet Hoek, a Co-Director of the University’s ASPIRE 2025 Research Centre has led new research analysing the impact of on-package messaging on e-liquids. The research team found messages presenting electronic nicotine delivery systems as a lower risk alternative to smoking could encourage about a third of smokers to trial them. On the other hand, messages about the increased risks of taking up vaping appeared to strongly discourage non-smokers from trying e-cigarettes.”

ARTICLE LINK:   Targeted health messaging needed in era of vaping, researchers say

The new U.S. administration has frozen all new and pending rules introduced in the last days of the Trump administration. Included in the freeze are the new finalized rules for premarket tobacco product applications (PMTA) and substantial equivalence (SE) that were announced on Jan. 19, the last full day of the Trump administration. What this means for the nicotine business is unclear. It does not change the rules concerning the Sept. 9 deadline to submit a PMTA to be eligible to stay on the market for year. Because the rule was not formally published in the Federal Register by the U.S. FDA before the end of Trump’s presidency, the Biden administration could move forward with the rule as is, make changes to the rule or scrap the rules entirely. An note on the Federal Register website reads,” The Food and Drug Administration withdrew this document while it was on public inspection. It will remain on public inspection until the close of business on January 27, 2021. A copy of the withdrawal request is available at the Office of the Federal Register.”

ARTICLE LINK:  PMTA Included in White House Rules Freeze

“Legislation allowing county governments to prohibit smoking on publicly owned beaches(SB334) moved forward in the Senate Community Affairs Committee. Sen. Joe Gruters, the bill’s sponsor, said the legislation won’t issue a blanket ban, but would allow local governments to decide what works best in their own jurisdiction. Some senators raised concerns that as written now, the legislation prohibits smoking in state parks as well.”

SB 334: “386.209 Regulation of smoking preempted to state.—This part expressly preempts regulation of smoking to the state and supersedes any municipal or county ordinance on the subject; however, counties and municipalities may further restrict smoking within the boundaries of any public beaches and public parks that they own. Municipalities may further restrict smoking within the boundaries of public beaches and public parks that are within their jurisdiction but are owned by the county if doing so would not conflict with a county ordinance. School districts may further restrict smoking by persons on school district property. This section does not preclude the adoption of municipal or county ordinances that impose more restrictive regulation on the use of vapor-generating devices than is provided in this part“

ARTICLE LINK: Bill opens way for smoking bans at Florida parks, beaches

“Washington and Del. Jazz M. Lewis (D-Prince George’s) are sponsoring legislation that would ban liquid additives intended for use in e-cigarettes as well as a longtime industry staple, menthol cigarettes. Bruce C. Bereano, the lobbyist for the Maryland Association of Tobacco and Candy Distributors, said the proposed legislation — House Bill 134 and Senate Bill 177 — is unnecessary because sales to persons under 21 are already illegal. “The argument about the children is an absolute Trojan Horse and really has no merit whatsoever,” he said. “The state of Maryland has already banned these products” for people who are under-age. “What government has failed to do is enforce the law,” he added. “What these laws are going to impact is adults.””

ARTICLE LINK: Lawmakers Look to Snuff Out Flavored Tobacco Products