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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.