TOB Magazine

TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

NEWS & TRENDS

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015

At the same time that youth smoking

reached a new record low, youth use

of vapor products grew, according to

the National Institute on Drug Abuse

(NIDA)’s Monitoring the Future survey

concerning cigarette and vapor product

use by youth. From 2011 to 2014, past-

month smoking by high school seniors

dropped by 27 percent, according to

NIDA. The results of the survey call in

to question concerns by anti-smoking

advocates that vaping is a “gateway” to

traditional smoking.

Dr. Michael Siegel, a longtime anti-

smoking advocate and professor at

the Boston University School of Public

Health who has long argued against

the gateway theory, says that the sur-

vey results support his thinking on the

matter. “[T]hese national data suggest

that electronic cigarettes may actually

be serving as a deterrent to smoking by

diverting kids who might otherwise try

smoking over to a non-tobacco nicotine

product.”

Furthermore, Dr. Wilson Compton,

the deputy director of NIDA, has ex-

pressed reluctance to argue that e-cig-

arettes are acting as gateway products

to cigarettes due to a lack of research

to back up the claim. Clearly, as Ameri-

can Vaping Association’s Gregory Con-

ley asserted, the survey results suggest

that more research is needed to under-

stand youth e-cigarette use.

“No use of vapor products by youth is

obviously the ideal, but we do not live

in a perfect world. Importantly, there re-

mains no evidence that e-cigarettes are

acting as gateways to real cigarettes,”

said Conley. “In fact, this study and oth-

ers suggest that the availability of va-

por products may have stopped many

youth from becoming smokers over the

last three years.

“Our understanding of youth e-ciga-

rette use is constrained by the fact that

the survey only looked at past 30-day

use, which prevents researchers from

distinguishing between regular users

and experimenters. Additionally, sur-

veys should begin asking regular users

of e-cigarettes whether they are using

nicotine or nicotine-free devices, as this

distinction is critical to forecasting the

public health impact of youth choosing

vaping over smoking.”

Vaping May Be Reducing Youth Smoking

Survey data shows that youth smoking has reached a new low.

Nine states pre-filed a total of 19 bills

related to vaping for introduction in

2015, according to TMA. Since only 16

states permit pre-filing, the association

expects many more bills to be intro-

duced this year.

“Taking the ratios of 9:16 and apply-

ing this to all 50 states, minus those

that have already enacted similar legis-

lation on taxation (2), sales restrictions

to minors (37), vaping area restrictions

(9), among other issues (17), we would

expect 2015 to result in nearly 100 e-

vapor bills and end with all 50 states

banning such sales to minors,” states a

report released by TMA in December.

“Relative to combustible products, the

federally unregulated e-vapor market

has expectedly led the states to imple-

ment their own control policies, which

have thus far focused on including e-

vapor products in area smoking restric-

tions and in their availability (via mini-

mum age sales restrictions).”

Next on the horizon will be taxation,

the association predicts. Currently only

Minnesota and North Carolina have en-

acted excise taxes on e-vapor. The for-

mer did so with an OTP-style wholesale

price model that is particularly onerous

for disposables and rechargeables. The

latter chose a milliliter basis, which is a

good deal less favorable, on a puff-by-

puff basis, to e-liquids. “As one would

expect, the pre-file in Virginia is like the

one in North Carolina while states with

less influence by tobacco interests are

migrating towards the Minnesota mod-

el,” reports TMA.

The State Attorneys General are be-

ing pressured by Representatives Wax-

man (D-Calif.) and Pallone (D-N.J.) and

Senator Durbin (D-Ill.) to have e-vapor

products included in the voluntary Mas-

ter Settlement Agreement. However,

these efforts have been described as

“unconstitutional,” as a rewrite of the

MSA’s definition of a tobacco product,

and “illogical” given that neither this

market nor the independent companies

in it existed in 1998 when the MSA was

agreed upon. TMA, therefore, suspects

“that e-vapor products will be targeted

in state legislation for what appears un-

likely with regard to the MSA (e.g. mar-

keting and advertising restrictions es-

pecially) and separately with regard to

taxation as opposed to an MSA escrow

fee and more like the NPM equity fees.”

While the FDA’s Center for Tobacco

Products’ proposed draft “Deeming

Regulations,” released in April of 2014,

addressed the issue of selling to mi-

nors to some degree, noted the TMA’s

statement, many of the other “control

elements remain with state legislatures

and need not await federal policy-mak-

ing. Only 11 states have

not

enacted

any e-vapor laws at all: Alaska, Maine,

Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana,

Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Penn-

sylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.”

E-Vapor Legislation on the Way?

Nineteen state bills to regulate vapor products have been pre-filed for introduction.