Author: Bill Tarling

“The state’s new tax on e-cigarettes goes into effect tomorrow. Prices for cartridge-based e-cigarettes will increase by $1.50 per pod, and containers of refillable e-cigarette liquid will be taxed at 15% of the wholesale price.”

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E-Cigarette Tax Takes Effect Saturday in Kentucky

“In China, the world’s biggest cigarette market, smokers are increasingly switching to e-cigarettes. The state-owned tobacco monopoly is not happy about it. Regulators have already intervened on behalf of China Tobacco, which paid 1.2trn yuan in taxes last year, accounting for 6% of government revenues. In November the authorities banned online sales of e-cigarettes (ostensibly to prevent minors from buying them). Now they can be bought only at physical outlets like convenience stores and karaoke bars. In recent months editorials in state-owned newspapers have claimed (falsely) that vaping is more harmful than conventional cigarettes. It is obvious what China Tobacco’s motivation is. They fear missing out on cigarette sales if people switch to vaping. The Chinese government, insofar as it can be distinguished from the tobacco monopoly, doesn’t want to miss out on tax revenue. More vapers means fewer smokers, hence the online sales ban and scare stories. Does this sound familiar?”

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E-cigarette regulation – money talks

“A comprehensive set of tobacco control measures has been adopted after the president of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, approved the legislation on July 8, 2020. Under the new legislation, the definition of tobacco products has been expanded to include all nicotine products, such as e-cigarettes and heated-tobacco products. The law also bans the import, production, sale and distribution of smokeless tobacco products.”

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Kazakhstan Strengthens Tobacco Controls

Sales of cigarettes in South Korea rose 3.8 percent on-year in the first half of this year. Meanwhile, sales of heat-not-burn tobacco products fell 6.6 percent to 180 million in the first half. Sales of vaporizer-based liquid electronic cigarettes also plunged 80.3 percent to 1.2 million pods in the first half, as the government strongly advised people not to use liquid e-cigarettes, warning that such vaping products could cause serious lung illness or death.”

BILL TARLING — The Gov’t had been advising against users switching to vaping by using the deceptive misinformation which was being spewed out by the U.S. CDC who were aware almost immediately that the EVALI health issues were due to illegal products, yet they still deceived the public into believing E-liquid Vapor Product e-cigs were also to blame even though they weren’t the cause.

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Cigarette sales rise 3.8 pct in H1

“Dependence on e-cigarettes is much less than that found with cigarettes, according to a cross-sectional study of US adults. Mark Sembower and Saul Shiffman from PinneyAssociates and the University of Pittsburgh published their paper in the journal Addiction. The authors write: “Cigarette smoking often results in nicotine dependence. With use of electronic cigarettes as an alternative source of nicotine, it is important to assess dependence associated with e-cigarette use. This study assesses dependence among current and former adult e-cigarette users on cigarettes and e-cigarettes, compared with dependence on cigarettes.”

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Vaping is Less Addictive

“Juul Labs Inc. has filed an application with the Food and Drug Administration to continue selling its e-cigarettes in the U.S., the company announced Thursday, a highly anticipated milestone that will determine the fate of the once-highflying company. Juul said it is seeking authorization for its device as well as its Virginia tobacco and menthol-flavored pods with three per cent and five oer cent nicotine concentrations. Mango, mint and other flavors that the company stopped offering last year after facing regulatory scrutiny for allegedly attracting minors weren’t included. Juul said it included more than 110 studies in its application, including research on the public-health effects of its products and whether cigarette smokers transition to them. Smoking tobacco is the top cause of preventable death. Questions about underage vaping will be critical in the regulatory review, not only for Juul, but for all companies that plan to submit a so-called Premarket Tobacco Product Application. The deadline for companies to submit applications to remain on the market is now Sept. 9.”

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Juul files crucial FDA application to keep selling e-cigarettes

“The bill to ban flavored tobacco is still in play in the California Legislature despite the shortened legislative session due to COVID-19 shutdowns, and despite that the Food and Drug Association gave the Swedish Match General “Snus,” a “Modified Risk Tobacco Product designation.” Senate Bill 793, authored by Senator Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo), would make it illegal for any store that sells tobacco to sell flavored tobacco or tobacco flavor enhancer products. Current law already bans the sale of tobacco products to anyone under 21 years old. At the same time, the legislation does not 1) ban cigarettes, despite the fact that we’re in the midst of a respiratory illness pandemic and cigarettes are a huge problem for respiratory health, and 2) touch flavored cannabis vapes, e.g., mango cannabis vapes, despite a bunch of people having actually DIED from vaping cannabis in 2019.”

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Flavored Tobacco Ban Is Still in Play in Legislature Despite COVID

“A recent MyVoice study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics reveals the main driver for teens who use Juul or Juul-like e-cigarettes is the “cool” factor, not the products’ appetizing flavors. Authors of the study “Youth Perceptions of Juul in the United States,” found that a whopping two-thirds of the respondents said “looking cool” and the social aspect of vaping drove them to use Juuls while a paltry 5 percent said it was the different flavors of the e-cigarettes that brought them to the product. But that is not the story we were sold by “grassroots” anti-vaping activists when they crusaded against e-cigarettes and e-cigarette flavors in front of city councils, statehouses, and the U.S. Congress. The public was told that the seductively delicious flavors of Juuls and other e-cigarettes were luring youngsters to dangerous nicotine products. The real victims of the anti-flavor crusade are former smokers who use flavored e-cigarettes to stay away from combustible tobacco cigarettes along with current smokers who are looking for an effective way to quit smoking.”

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Study Shows Teens Vape for the ‘Cool’ Factor, not the Flavor

“An analysis of GlobalData’s Tobacco Alternatives Influencer Network Platform, which tracks more than 190 leading industry experts and their discussions pertaining to the emerging trends, pain areas, new fields of innovation and other popular areas on Twitter, has revealed Charles A. Gardner, Director at the Foundation for a Smoke Free World, as the top tobacco influencer during the second quarter (Q2) 2020. Gregory Conley, President at American Vaping Association, was ranked third with an influencer score 71. The conversations from Gregory were largely about the misinformation related to the association between COVID-19 patients and vaping. ‘Vaping’ emerged as the most discussed trend among tobacco related conversations, followed by ‘Tobacco’ and ‘COVID-19’. The conversations on Vaping were driven by World Vape Day which was celebrated on 30 May by millions of vapers across the globe to raise awareness on e-cigarettes or vapes and encourage smokers, who are unable to quit smoking to switch to safer nicotine products.”

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GlobalData reveals top 10 tobacco influencers on Twitter in Q2 2020

“Viscount Ridley has spoken up for vaping and a tobacco harm reduction approach many times in and outside the House of Lords. He is a prolific and successful author, writing on subjects as diverse as science, prosperity, and innovation. The Institute of Economic Affairs’ (IEA) Book Club hosted a webcast where Matt Ridley, discussed “How innovation works”. In 2016, Viscount Ridley launched a spirited attack on the sections of the Tobacco Products Directive where it proposed to regulate vaping [link], “this directive scores an own-goal by bringing in measures that would discourage the take-up of vaping, and thereby drive people back to cigarettes or to prevent them quitting.” At the 2018 Global Forum for Nicotine, Ridley told the audience, “We should treat vaping in the same way that we treat access to mobile phones. The best way to get people to give up smoking is to innovate with technology. Vaping is a motorway OUT of smoking!”“

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In Conversation with Matt Ridley