Author: Bill Tarling

“Several bills have stalled in the state legislature. One of those bills was introduced by Sen. Heather Carter, R-Cave Creek. Her bill, SB 1401, would classify vaping products as tobacco, which would subject vaping products to the same restrictions as tobacco products. That includes restricting their use indoors. SB 1401 did not get a committee hearing and the deadline for that to happen has passed. A bill introduced by Sen. Martin Quezada, D-Glendale, is also stalled. His bill, SB1063, would prohibit vaping companies from advertising their products near schools and parks. “Technically these bills are dead at this point unless we are able to amend them on to some other bill, but the chances of that are pretty slim,” he said. The bills could be revived through alternative procedures, including as strike-everything amendments.”

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Bills meant to curb teen vaping stalled in Arizona State Legislature

“The House gave preliminary approval Monday to a bill raising the smoking and vaping age to 21, acceding to the Senate’s proposed version and federal regulations. Sen. David Simmons‘ bill (SB 810) would prohibit the sale of most flavored nicotine liquids and distinguish vaping products from standard nicotine products. Licenses to sell standard tobacco products would still carry an annual $50 fee while licenses to sell vape products would carry no cost. Toledo had carried the House version (HB 7089) together with Miami Democratic Rep. Nicholas Duran and continued her effort with Simmons’ bill. The House will likely not take up an accompanying bill (SB 1394) by Simmons, a Longwood Republican, to tag licenses for vape products with the same $50 fee. Senators voted 34-4 Friday to send the primary bill to the House with Republican Sens. Aaron Bean and Jeff Brandes and Democratic Sens. Audrey Gibson — the Minority Leader — and Linda Stewart casting the dissenting votes. Bean, Brandes and Sen. Rob Bradley voted against the vaping license fee bill, which passed 35-3.”

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House ready to raise smoking, vaping age to 21

BILL SB 810  |  BILL HB 7089

“The Colorado House of Representatives passed a bill on Tuesday restricting the sale of tobacco and nicotine products to anyone younger than 21 years old. The bill would also close a loophole which allows people to buy vaping products online. The bill states that after July 1 of 2021, all businesses that sell the products must be licensed with the state. This means retailers would be subject to compliance checks and complaint investigations. The bill now heads to the state Senate.”

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Bill To Restrict Vaping For Young Coloradans Passes House

“Professor John Newton is the Chief Knowledge Officer for Public Health England (PHE). While PHE has been incredibly supportive of vaping and the use of ecig to reduce tobacco-related harm, public confusion persists. Professor Newton believes there are eight key facts that everybody needs to understand about vaping.”

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8 Things To Know About Vaping

“Last week, Planet of the Vapes reported how Chinese academics are lying by linking vaping to the COVID-19 outbreak. A number of ardent anti-vape crusaders have been quick to try to profit from fear and misery, yet again ignoring evidence and facts as they seek to pursue their ideological agenda in their war against tobacco harm reduction. Stanton Glantz, U.S. Mayor Bill de Blasio, and a World Health Organisation’s Dr Alexey Kulikov jumped on the bandwagon to spread disinformation and fear.”

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More COVID-19 Dishonesty

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued 22 warning letters to online and brick-and-mortar e-cigarette product retailers and manufacturers across the country who sell flavored, cartridge-based electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) products advising them that selling these products, which lack marketing authorization, is illegal. The warning letters were sent to some establishments with well-known names such as 7-Eleven and Shell and are the first of what will be a series of ongoing actions consistent with the FDA’s recently issued policy of enforcement priorities for e-cigarettes and other deemed products on the market. As announced earlier this year, the FDA is prioritizing enforcement against the following unauthorized ENDS products: 1) flavored, cartridge-based ENDS products (other than tobacco or menthol flavored); 2) all other ENDS products for which the manufacturer has failed to take adequate measures to prevent underage access; and 3) any ENDS product that is targeted to youth or likely to promote use by youth. Under this policy, companies that do not cease manufacture, distribution and sale of these unauthorized tobacco products risk FDA regulatory actions ranging from warning letters to injunction, seizure and/or civil money penalty actions.”

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FDA Warns Retailers, Manufacturers to Remove Unauthorized E-Cigarette Products from Market

“As legislation in Nova Scotia makes its way through Province House, government MLAs rejected opposition amendments aimed at adding more teeth to the bill. Debate topics at the legislature on Monday included bills that will add a new tax system to vape products and require anyone who sells them to be licensed. The government has already said it will ban flavoured products, as it has already done with tobacco, as of April 1. But opposition MLAs proposed a series of measures they said would be even stronger steps. The Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats both proposed amendments that would have, among other things, added caps to nicotine content in the legislation and restricted the sale of vape products to adult-only specialty shops, a step that would have removed them from gas stations and convenience stores. There were also calls for a different tax structure, one that would see products taxed based on nicotine content as opposed to the total volume of liquid in a given package. But government MLAs were not interested in any of the proposed amendments and the Liberals used their majority to defeat all of them.”

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Liberals reject opposition calls for stiffer N.S. vaping legislation

“A bill aimed at cracking down on teen vaping in Utah died in a committee hearing Monday. H.B. 118 would have banned flavored e-cigarettes from all stores except tobacco specialty stores, which are closed to people under 21. The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Rep. Jen Dailey-Provost, eased those restrictions on Monday and changed the bill to allow other stores to sell menthol flavored e-cigarettes. She said House leadership told her it would not pass without that change, but it still failed.”

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Bill Aimed At Curbing Teen Vaping Dies In Utah Senate Committee

“Senators approved tobacco regulations Thursday after finding acceptable bill language separating two controversial measures. With changes adopted to keep the effort rolling, the primary bill (SB 810) would raise the age for lawfully purchasing tobacco products from 18 to 21, prohibit the sale of most flavored nicotine liquids and distinguish vaping products from standard nicotine products. The second bill (SB 1394) would include e-cigarettes and other vaping products as tobacco products, tagging licenses to sell them with the $50 fee. A separate bill (SB 630) by Rockledge Republican Sen. Debbie Mayfield, which would let local governments pass smoking bans in parks, passed the Senate and now heads to the House.”

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Tobacco regulations set for Senate vote, but House fate looks unchanged

SENATE BILLS:

SB 810  |  SB 1394  |  SB 630

“The Nova Scotia Legislature’s law amendments committee heard Thursday that the government’s effort to reduce youth vaping rates won’t achieve its goal, but will unfairly affect small businesses and adult consumers. The government plans to amend the Smoke-free Places Act and the Tobacco Access Act so they include vape products and it also intends to tax those products. But vape shop owners and users said the proposed tax system, as well as a flavour ban, won’t get at what they believe is really driving youth vaping rates in the province.”

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Proposed ban on flavoured vape products raises concerns among users, industry