Author: Bill Tarling

“The San Diego County Board of Supervisors Tuesday took a step toward adopting a tobacco retail license ordinance covering unincorporated areas in an attempt to reduce usage by minors and hold retailers more accountable. After an approximately 90-minute public hearing and debate, the board voted 3-2, with Supervisors Jim Desmond and Kristin Gaspar opposed. The board will consider formal adoption at its Nov. 17 meeting. If passed, the ordinance would: allows the county to enforce minimum age laws and a previously adopted ban on flavored tobacco products”

BILL TARLING — Kristin Gaspar has been an amazing defendant against e-liquid vape flavor bans, and recognized the factual science based Harm Reduction aspects they provide adult smokers wanting to break away from health damaging cigarettes. While she neither vapes, nor is she involved in the vape industry in any way; she has always been a very attentive listeners, and is one of the few Politicians that bases her opinions and decisions on actual facts, rather than Political agendas. She presents very balanced and logical arguments, such as during the 2019 San Diego Flavor Ban Hearing

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Supervisors Consider Ordinance To Further Curb Youth Tobacco Use

“A proposal to ban the sale of all flavored tobacco products in Missoula goes back to committee for some fine-tuning. The Missoula City Council made that decision Monday night after some legal questions arose. The proposed ordinance would ban the sale of all menthol, candy and mint flavored tobacco, smokeless tobacco and e-cigarette products. Missoula took up the idea after the state health department earlier this year offered and then pulled back a more limited state-wide proposal on banning flavored e-cigarette products. Opponents say the ordinance would devastate local retailers, who point out they already only sell to adults over the age of 21. Critics also note that Montana’s “Youth Access to Tobacco Products Control Act” prohibits local governments from making regulations more stringent than those already imposed by the state. That specific interpretation is echoed by Missoula’s city attorney.”

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Missoula City Council Will Re-Examine Flavored Tobacco Ban

“After a briefly heated discussion, the Grand Rapids City Commission approved a ban on smoking and vaping in all public parks — except for a city-owned golf course. The ban on smoking, vaping and all types of marijuana and tobacco products from city parks and playgrounds was approved by a 6-1 vote Tuesday evening, Oct. 27, by the Grand Rapids City Commission. The ban, issued in the form of an ordinance amendment to the city’s Clean Air Ordinance, goes into effect Jan. 1, 2021.”

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Grand Rapids bans smoking in parks, but not at city-owned golf course

“It has been a year since the Indian government banned electronic cigarettes, enough time to gauge its impact, whether it has served the intended purpose of preventing teen access and strengthened tobacco policy, and if there are any negative outcomes. Prohibition has rarely worked as a measure against preventing use, and comes with unintended consequences, which in the case of India’s e-cigarette ban is also the removal of safeguards to inhibit access for minors who are now being served by a black market and in the absence of self-regulation from a legal industry. Given the negative health and economic impact of the e-cigarette ban, and the growing tobacco epidemic in India, a course-correction is much needed. In India, where we face a much larger tobacco burden, our policies are galloping in the opposite direction. Bidis, the most used smoking product and by far the deadliest, which cause nearly a million deaths annually, are hardly taxed and were recently exempt even from pictorial warnings, while flavoured tobacco which is being weeded out across the world is being launched in new variants to attract more to take up smoking.”

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Can Banning E-Cigarettes Do More Harm Than Good?

“A medical expert urged the Food and Drugs Administration to base the proposed vape and heated tobacco regulations on science — not on fiction — in the wake of the beleaguered agency’s admission that it received funding from foreign anti-tobacco organizations. The FDA has conducted two public consultations during which members of Congress compelled it to admit receiving funding from The Union and Bloomberg Initiative, US-based philanthropies working to eliminate use of any tobacco product. The admission triggered calls for a full-blown congressional inquiry into the issue. Mata noted that his group participated in the FDA public consultation “hoping for a robust and substantive discussion on science not fiction.” But he said, “We were treated to a farcical consultation, a mere tick-the-box exercise for the sake of simply holding one.””

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Base vape, heated tobacco regulations on science, not fiction, says expert

“Researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have looked at ex-smokers who lapse back to tobacco use. Sarah Victoria Gentry, Emma Ward, Lynne Dawkins, Richard Holland, and Caitlin Notley found that smokers who had switched to vaping didn’t consider their quit attempt over if they briefly lapsed – unlike those who tried to quit using other methods. The study, “Reported patterns of vaping to support long-term abstinence from smoking: a cross-sectional survey of a convenience sample of vapers”, has just been published in the Drug and Alcohol Review journal. The researchers said that while vapers may occasionally have the odd smoking lapse, “they don’t see it as ‘game over’ for their quit attempt and it doesn’t have to lead to a full relapse. The findings suggest that vaping encourages not just smoking cessation, but long-term relapse prevention.”

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Relapse Risk

“Juul Labs Inc. won a ruling that knocked out racketeering claims from a group of hundreds of lawsuits accusing the e-cigarette maker of deliberately targeting teenagers. U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco on Friday said claims brought by consumers, local governments and school districts under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Practices Act — which could have put Juul on the hook for triple damages — didn’t pass legal muster. But the judge said the plaintiffs can amend their court filings and try to make a RICO case. If government entities and others suing over the e-cigarette marketing tactics aren’t successful in reviving the so-called RICO claims, it will take some pressure off Juul and Altria. The judge refused to throw out claims Juul and Altria officials engaged in a “scheme to defraud” through misleading statements about e-cigarettes’ addiction risk. He’s also letting plaintiffs proceed with allegations that executives “sought to grow the market for nicotine-addicted individuals, particularly youth who did not use traditional tobacco products.””

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Juul Beats Racketeering Claims in Marketing Suits, For Now

“Pakistan may do well from regulating and formally introducing alternative smoking products as well. Unofficially, e-cigarettes and vapes of different types and quality are already available in the market through various means. However, these products are usually brought in through grey channels and due to lack of proper sales channels and regulations, are either not reliable or too expensive. If there were proper laws in place, these alternative products could go a long way in improving the overall health statistics of Pakistan.”

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Tobacco Harm Reduction

“The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) continues to face backlash from stakeholders who are now threatening to file graft charges before the Ombudsman following the regulatory agency’s admission of receiving funds from foreign vested interest groups. The FDA conducted virtual public consultations on the general guidelines for e- cigarettes and heated tobacco products (HTPs) on October 6 and 8, 2020, where a ranking FDA official admitted that the agency received grants from The Union and Bloomberg Initiative after questioning from Nueva Ecija Rep. Estrellita Suansing who noted the potential conflict of interest. The public consultation described by some stakeholders as “moro-moro” was suspended upon the request of Deputy House Speaker Deogracias Victor Savellano who also moved to conduct a full-blown House of Representatives investigation on the FDA.”

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Consumers threaten FDA with graft charges over e-cigs and heated tobacco rules

“A judge has ordered New York state to reimburse a vaping trade group’s attorney fees connected to a lawsuit over the state’s attempt last year to impose an emergency ban on flavored e-cigarettes. Acting state Supreme Court Justice Catherine Cholakis on Wednesday sided with the vaping group that argued state officials overreached their authority and thus should cover the legal costs associated with fighting the ban. Vape shops and the Vapor Technology Association trade group filed the lawsuit and are seeking about $381,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs from the state.”

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Judge orders NY to reimburse vaping group’s costs for lawsuit on flavored e-cig ban