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16

TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015

NEWS & TRENDS

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBEr 2015

Minneapolis Bans Flavored Cigars From C-Stores

City council votes in favor of a measure it says will help curb youth smoking

The Minneapolis City Council in Min-

nesota banned the sale of flavored to-

bacco products at convenience stores

in July, with members expressing hope

that the policy change will curb youth

smoking. Once in effect, the measure

will reportedly reduce the number of

retail shops able to sell flavored cigars

from 300 to less than two dozen adult-

only tobacco shops. The measure also

set minimum prices for both flavored

and unflavored cigars at $2.60.

The decision came after several

weeks of debate between anti-tobacco

advocates, who argued that flavored

products were designed to attract

young smokers, and retailers, who ar-

gued that preventing youth purchases

was a better option than banning sales.

The ban simply “shifts the products

out of the hands of responsible retail-

ers and exclusively to a small num-

ber of tobacco-only stores through-

out our city,” wrote Steve Williams,

owner of Bobby and Steve’s Auto

World, who penned an op-ed oppos-

ing the measure. “Rather than allow-

ing only a handful of stores to sell the

products, why not come up with a

solution that prevents underage pur-

chasing?”

Williams also cited a recent study

from the

Journal of School Health

as

evidence that retailers are not the pri-

mary or even the secondary source of

tobacco products for minors. He went

on to argue in favor of stricter age-ver-

ification policies and increased use of

technology that enables effective veri-

fication. “Retailers have the technol-

ogy to enforce tougher rules. Let’s use

it,” he noted.

State attorneys general (AGs) are in-

creasingly lobbying for restrictions on

the sale and advertising of electronic

cigarettes. AGs in states like New York,

California, Indiana and Ohio are us-

ing new state and local laws to take a

tougher line on vape products, arguing

that FDA’s proposal to ban their sale to

people under age 18 is insufficient.

Because FDA regulations are not yet

final, vaping currently remains legal for

youths in states that have not passed

laws banning it. The agency is likely to

finalize its new e-cigarette regulations

by the end of the summer, though it

could be several years before the fed-

eral rules go into effect.

In the meantime, 46 states have

passed laws banning their sale to

minors; 12 have also passed laws

requiring childproof packaging for

e-liquids and e-cigarettes, according

to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free

Kids. State AGs are also more strictly

enforcing these regulations. For ex-

ample, New York Attorney General

Eric Schneiderman announced set-

tlements with four companies that

were not complying with the state’s

rule about child-resistant packaging

for nicotine liquids. Others are pres-

suring certain e-cigarette manufac-

turers and vendors to limit ads that

they say appeal to teens, especially

on company websites and places like

YouTube.

In some cases, AGs are coordinat-

ing their efforts. Ohio Attorney Gen-

eral Mike DeWine teamed up with col-

leagues from several other states to

send a letter to privately held manufac-

turer NJOY, asking it to “immediately

instruct YouTube to restrict” access to

its advertisements to adults.

California has sent letters to more

than 150 e-cigarette and vaping com-

panies in recent years “to encourage

voluntary compliance with applicable

state and federal laws,” including a

ban on sales to youth, according to

the news agency Reuters. The state is

also pursuing companies that market

fruit-flavored vaping liquids and that

make “false or misleading” statements

in their advertisements. For example,

the state asked a manufacturer to quit

claiming that “electronic cigarettes

are one of the safest forms of nicotine

available” and that “when you exhale,

you are exhaling harmless water va-

por.”

AGs are paying particular attention

to sales on websites, a popular source

of vaping materials for teens, who

trade information about which sites re-

quire little proof of age.

State AGs Target E-Cigarette Sales to Minors

Forty-six states have banned underage sales, largely thanks to efforts by state attorneys general.