The ban on flavored vapor and tobacco products made in June by lawmakers in San Francisco raised concern by the supporters of the new law. They predicted that it will cause a prohibition trend in other cities and this has been evident recently. California has joined the bandwagon. In fact, two major municipalities have banned flavored tobacco products. This ban trend is rolling downhill fast and it may soon spread to all the major cities.
The retail sale of flavored e-liquid and other vaping products will soon be banned because six California state legislators are planning to introduce a bill towards this end next week. The bill will prohibit the sales of products like flavored cigars, chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco, snuff, dissolved tobacco, menthol cigarette, and “tobacco edibles”
Vape shops are already prohibited from selling to anyone under 21 but the law does not exempt them from operating. The FDA commissioner, Scott Gottlieb said that vape shop sales to minors is not a big deal but this saying will be dropped once the bill on vaping products is passed. In fact, the retail shops will surely be put out of business.
Even before an adult can make an online purchase, there will be strict rules and a signature from the adult at delivery. The package of the products will contain a conspicuous print with the statement “CONTAINS TOBACCO PRODUCT, HENCE SIGNATURES OF ADULT ABOVE 21 YEARS OF AGE REQUIRED FOR DELIVERY.”
The bill was jointly agreed upon by four Democratic senators after being introduced by the Democratic State Sen. Jerry Hill who is a former assembly member and a one-time mayor of San Mateo, represented the 13TH Senate District which includes San Francisco. Kelvin McCarty, a Democratic assembly member also supported the bill.
This bill was passed based on the preliminary data from the CDC National Youth Tobacco Survey which was cited by Commissioner Gottlieb. He warned against a teenage vaping “epidemic” as the survey showed a 77 percent increase in the use of e-cigarettes among high school students in the past 30-day use of this product this year. Gottlieb used that data as a pretense to place a ban on the sales of flavored vaping products in retail outlets without any form of age restriction for sales.
“We must stop the enticing flavored-products from reaching the youths. The use of candy and appealing flavors is causing an increase in the number of vapers among the high school and middle school students throughout the U.S. This has made age restriction policy on tobacco products highly ineffective.” – said Senator Hill on Thursday.
The state of California handles most of their state programs with cigarette taxes and Master Settlement Agreement payment (based on the number of cigarettes sold). They even increased their cigarette tax substantially without attempting to ban the deadly tobacco products.
It’s bandwagon time, and if it isn’t stopped now it’ll roll right across the country
The lawmakers are apparently not placing much concern on flavored cannabis edibles. .Although the CDC has stated earlier that the high school kids are using more of marijuana than vape nicotine. Tobacco edibles will be banned anyways whether they are flavored with candy or not.
One small cannabis dispensary in Los Angeles showed offered 89 edible cannabis products for sale. This comprises a dizzying selection of fruit- and chocolate-flavored gummies, brownies, cookies, oatmeal bars, popcorn, caramels, toffee, mints, etc. Candy products are surely targeted at kids if the use of flavored products is created for kids.
Many politicians are now scoring points with vape flavors; since they are not much of a political threat. The FDA is already working on its own rules on flavor. People still view vapers just like every smoker and it can only be different if there is a moral panic from this products. If the flavor ban is not enacted now, it will roll right across the country.